DVD Review: The Grudge 3 (2009)

Arriving on DVD 5/12

Get Caught Up in The Grudge
& The Japanese Originals

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As a rule, horror franchises seldom improve with sequels. The reason for this essentially because most-- if not all-- of the main characters have been killed off, the villain has been defeated (at least temporarily) so we know it can be done again, and usually the filmmakers go above and beyond in doubling the body count and gore to try and top the previous movie.

However, as a largely lifeless English remake of the superior supernatural Japanese film Ju-On-- despite bringing in the previous work’s original director to helm the 2004 Sarah Michelle Gellar hit and it’s absolutely dreadful follow-up—I knew going into The Grudge 3 that the bar had been set low enough that the franchise couldn't get any worse than Grudge 2. For, much like another remake’s sequel-- The Ring 2-- Grudge 2 that rolled out the same tired tricks from the first one that wore out their welcome in the 2004’s movie by the half hour mark damn near put me to sleep.

Yet surprisingly, by moving (almost) all of its action to Chicago and picking up right where the second movie ended, we get a strong sense-- following the eerie beginning that finds the young sole survivor of Grudge 2 murdered in a psychiatric hospital-- after the movie’s new cast of characters are introduced, that at last we have a halfway decent plot.



English speaking filmmaker Toby Wilkins steps in for the previous director and Ju-On/Grudge creator Takashi Shimizu who maintains the rank of executive producer (yet minus the involvement of former Grudge cheerleader and exec Sam Raimi).



And although Wilkins notes in a DVD extra that he wanted to stay true to the overall style of the franchise complete with slow camera movements to help build the suspense, he wanted to ratchet up the speed of the action accordingly with the evolution of the works which he acknowledged were getting faster and more aggressive from film to film.

Not only the first movie in the series to be slapped with a well-deserved “R” rating for its excessive finale of gore, The Grudge 3 is also the first film to go straight to DVD (coinciding with the Blu-ray release of the first movie).



While this was possibly a logical decision made by studio executives in taking a cue from the lackluster box office returns of recent Asian horror remakes in the states such as The Uninvited, One Missed Call, The Eye and others—why Sony wouldn’t have at least tried to make a bigger push for the newest installment of the whopping $258 million dollar franchise by either risking a small theatrical run or trying to package the trilogy as a bundled set on DVD and Blu-ray is beyond me.

And this is doubly head-scratching because honestly and despite some of the clichéd horror movie characterizations like a lusty bimbo sister and a traditional slasher movie styled showdown for the conclusion, it’s the first Grudge film that held my attention all the way through.



Admittedly, Wilkins did employ the same sense of fated doom and gloom that pervaded the previous movies. And true to the genre, he uses a last shot “cheat” ending that unfortunately makes you think there could be even more installments down the line for a franchise that needs to—much like Kayako and Toshio—just give up already. However, he and his screenwriter Brad Keene must be commended for successfully building a good source of dramatic conflict with the revelation that the “curse” of Kayako could have a solution once and for all.

Granted, as the director concedes—it’s an American storytelling convention that every work must offer a set conclusion or provide closure --and while we’re never fooled into believing that it’s going to seriously damage the franchise’s ability to make money down the line if someone comes up with a new twist, it’s still an entirely welcome new plot device.



The possible solution arrives in the form of Naoko (Emi Ikehata), a Japanese woman with a link to Kayako who feels guilt for the senseless murders taking place in the windy city and decides to face the problem head on, building off of the slight arc of the tale introduced in the previous film which explained a bit more about Kayako and Toshio.

Moving into the quickly emptying apartment building which was the site of the previous film’s gruesome showdown of carnage, Naoko meets the soon-to-be-fired landlord Max (the handsome Gil McKinney) whose futile attempts to keep residents from leaving are making the building’s owner decide it’s time to bring in a management firm.



As if dealing with the aftermath of the previous violence and trying to spin the building into a nice place to live weren’t problem enough--Max also serves as the caretaker of his two sisters comprised of the adult but hopelessly immature and self-involved Lisa (Johanna E. Braddy) who spends most of her time screwing her boyfriend (Beau Mirchoff) in various vacant apartments and his youngest sister Rose (Jadie Hobson).

Asthmatic, weak, and increasingly ill—the sweet Rose is the first one to spot Toshio for whom she leaves out a Mr. Potato Head toy in the hall as a friendly act of charity while the—par for the course—Lisa neglects babysitting duty to think about herself.

While Max continues to struggle to try and rent out apartments, keep his job, and pay for the escalating medical costs encountered when dealing with a chronically ill child in America (making this Grudge somehow more grounded and relatable than the others), Naoko works hard convincing Lisa that something is definitely rotten in not in Shakespeare's Hamlet setting of Denmark but rather Chicago.

Several deaths later-- or more precisely in the third act-- Lisa finally manages to get what must be the fiftieth ticket to the clue bus, come around and turn into a fierce protector of Rose after Kayoko (Aiko Horiuchi) and Toshio (Shimba Tsuchiya) start picking off various residents with even the faintest involvement to the locale. The deaths move from mysterious to grisly in increasingly horrific fashion until everything comes to a head in a truly pulse-pounding yet far too blood-and-guts spattered ending.

Although it’s not a perfect film by any means—it’s the first one to fully reboot the franchise for American audiences by still retaining but reshaping the great origin story of the Japanese supernatural idea of a Ju-on or curse that remains after someone dies in a rage. Likewise, it makes me think that’s perhaps what should have been done all along to make better quality American versions that stand alone as worthwhile rather than simply ripping off Shimizu’s stylistically inventive original.



Likewise, aside from the obligatory bimbo who must strip down to her bra in her introductory scene, the filmmakers have to pat themselves on the back for managing—for the most part—to create characters we actually empathize with right down to the supporting cast-mates such as Saw actress Shawnee Smith (shown above) as a compassionate psychiatrist who treats Jake (Matthew Knight) at the beginning and Max’s kind neighbor Gretchen (Marina Sirtis) who looks after Rose, despite a painful case of arthritis that prevents her from painting as often as she’d like.

It’s little individual touches like these and a few others that help differentiate those who populate the film that invite us into the story rather than keep us at an arm’s length as was the problem with the second work in which we felt completely helpless to just watch the same old wrath of Kayoko unfold.



And additionally, writers can’t help but admire the way that Keene manages to repeat some thematic and tonal issues that were introduced earlier on as in the second film, the idea of sisterhood proved strong as the instigator to send one relative of Gellar's Karen to Japan and in this one, we have the same theme of sisters and powerful family bonds that work again in far more effective ways.

While again, it’s the first film that’s made from a director who speaks the same language as a majority of the actors—translators are still never far away from this franchise as—due to its humble budget, it was filmed in Bulgaria which fills in for both Japan and Chicago.

Although the director jokes that it’s halfway between the two locations and in one of the DVD extras it’s interesting to discover the various challenges in making everything work and match closely enough, for those like me, who’d just witnessed the second film (in preparation for this review). In fact, it’s so impressive, I wouldn’t have guessed that the set had been changed.

However, on the other hand-- maybe there was a "grudge" on the other one that caused the sequel to be so unspeakably bad that it was only right to change countries completely... just in case Kayoko and Toshio aren't big fans of Bulgaria.

DVD Review: Sam's Lake (2005)

The Producers of Twilight,
Madonna's Maverick Films,
Lionsgate & Barnholtz Entertainment
Offer You a Trip to Sam's Lake
On DVD 4/21/09

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Based on Canadian writer/director Andrew C. Erin’s 2002 released 25 minute live-action short film that shares the same name--this feature-length work completed in 2005 that screened in 2006’s prestigious Tribeca Film Festival initially offers viewers a sense of déjà vu in its homage to horror franchise classics Halloween and Friday the 13th for the post-Blair Witch Project generation.

However, just when we've written off Sam’s Lake, it takes an alarmingly suspenseful and clever twist that makes the last act the film's best, thereby leaving me wishing I could take a look at that original 25 minute version. This is especially the case since for roughly the first 40 minutes of Erin’s 2005’s old-fashioned supernatural campfire creep-fest will test the patience of typical genre viewers as we encounter a group of outsider city-folk who journey out into the eerily wooded country or more precisely a cabin situated on Sam's Lake.

Although, much like the opening of the original Friday the 13th (following the obligatory slice and dice) our characters are warned by stereotypical backwoods hicks at a gas station (instead of Friday’s diner) that "these parts ain't safe"—true to genre form, they continue on to offer moral support for their good friend Sam (Fay Masterson) as she deals with the anniversary of her father’s death.



Why the character of Sam (named after the lake) would want to go to the lake to spend a weekend in the same type of atmosphere that killed her father in a hunting accident doesn't seem quite clear from the start but Masterson's eccentric and new age character gleefully shares with them the old legends of the locale including the story that opened the film forty years earlier as a young man escapes a mental institution (can you say Halloween’s Michael Meyers?) and murders his entire family.

In fact, it was this horrific incident—itself based on fact-- that inspired Erin to make the film in the first place. Shot in just 18 days in British Columbia as reported by Jay Weissberg of Variety online—the uninvolving motley crew of characters—all with TV-Movie-of-the-Week ready back stories including drug addiction, homosexuality, and domestic abuse don't generate a whole lot of interest from viewers who only vaguely get to learn their names and one or two character traits before the screams begin which is the film’s major structural error. Simply, when lives will eventually be jeopardized, you want to care a little more or have a stronger interest than, "oh, that's the boyfriend of that girl."

Since we’re stuck tagging along with the overly politically correct (but very welcome for the predominantly white/straight genre) group consisting of Sam, her pretty but troubled friend Kate (Sandrine Holt), their obligatory gay sidekick Dominik (Salvatore Antonio, used mostly for laughs), and the recovering addict interracial couple Franklin and Melanie (Stephen Bishop and Megan Fahlenbock) and thrown right into the mix from the start, it's a bit hard to become involved given the screenplay's over-reliance on horror movie building blocks.



To this end, writer/or actor Erin throws a wild card into the mix in the form of Sam’s childhood pal Jesse (William Gregory Lee) who conveniently has grown up James Dean like handsome with a serious twinkle in his eye and penchant for mischief that we’re never sure we can trust.

Of course and a bit unbelievably, the likable Kate—having just broken up with a man in an abusive relationship she extricated herself from by way of a baseball bat-- becomes quickly intrigued by his beauty, having mistaken him for a local creep at the gas station earlier in the day.

While logically this makes no sense except for perhaps chalking the attraction up to Twlight’s Bella and Edward—the film and its sequel New Moon which was produced by those bringing you Sam’s Lake in its DVD release—we buy their chemistry at least temporarily until it’s overtaken along with all other subplots by the old familiar horror standby of running away from deranged killers in the woods at night.

Following a visit to—you guessed it—the home where the 40-year-old slayings occurred, a journal belonging to the killer is uncovered and although Melanie has the good sense to beg that they all ignore it, the film’s version of Pandora’s Box is quickly opened and out spills a few major plot twist that sends both you and several of the characters’ minds reeling.

Granted, the twist itself comes on a bit too hurriedly to fully revel in its dynamite impact but once the journal's truths are revealed, it sets into action the movie’s compelling, genuinely frightening, yet still confusing final act that makes all of the ho-hum events that occurred before it seem well-worth the ride.



Again, I'm wondering if the effect of the twist and its execution worked to a more visceral, solid, and immediate overall product in the film’s short and despite the fact that I’m unable to judge the original as my screener (generously sent my way via Lionsgate) only contained the feature film itself.

While there's one last gasp that leaves the possibility of a sequel open in Erin’s supernatural thriller that runs wild with the ghost story premise in a genuinely surprising way (although I’m still not quite sure I follow all of it)-- I must confess that I would rather watch Sam’s Lake again than Twilight.

But ultimately, I still couldn’t help wishing that the director had been given the opportunity to fine-tune the script down to its essence, perhaps drop a few characters (however to horror fans that translates to less carnage), and rewrite acts one and two to completely endear us to his ensemble characters.

Still, there’s a genuine talent in the filmmaking and storytelling skills of the movie’s Canadian craftsman and one that was also identified by countless others in high places as Sam's Lake was given the support of Lionsgate, Barnholtz Entertainment, and Madonna’s Maverick Films that are delivering the work to viewers on DVD this week following its NY and LA limited run from BEI in January.

Needless to say, given his potential, I’m anxious to see what’s next for Andrew C. Erin and know that word-of-mouth will help get fright fans to test the waters of Sam’s Lake even if at first the water takes a little to get used to before waves can be made.

DVD Review: House (2007)

DVD & Video-on-Demand
Check-In Begins
Promptly At Sundown
On 4/7/09

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Welcome to Horror Movie Writing 101. In addition to the audience favorite “freaky little kids” paradigm, one of the most tried-and-true set-ups for the “scream and flee” genre involves gathering a group of strangers who having taken a wrong turn off the main road, gotten lost, and make the less than intelligent decision to ask the creepiest dude they can find for directions.

Usually, the faux kindly stranger is personified by a trucker, a cop, or a gas station attendant who stares a tad too long at the female counterpart of the bickering couple (or woman in a group) before the filmmakers decide to throw them—along with some other annoying folks-- in a house or similar structure from which they cannot escape.



Of course, it helps if you stack the deck with as many wild cards as possible by giving us an obligatory Carrie-like sermon spouting, screw-loose Sunday school teacher-style caretaker run amok who shares the place with her disturbed son who seems as though he could be the President of the Norman Bates fan club.



In addition, the characters who find themselves in this predicament are often dealt a hand that adds in the requisite past trauma usually involving the death of a child or relative. So inevitably, it’s this “elephant in the room” that our protagonists—only identifiable as the ones who scream and run from those out to get them rather than based on any real sympathy—must somehow overcome while fending off evil. Needless to say, you put all these together and wham, you’ve got yourself a horror movie.

Adapted from best-selling supernatural authors Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti‘s novel by screenwriter Rob Green for director Robby Henson-- the run-of-the-mill and easily forgettable House makes its way to DVD on Tuesday, April 7 from Lionsgate.



Incidentally the same studio that traditionally specializes in first-rate modern-day horror, the arrival of the Christianity tinged, trippy House (which may only be of interest for its bookended turns by Michael Madsen) follows the same studio’s other thinly disguised Christian ghost tale The Haunting in Connecticut starring Michael’s sister, the Oscar nominated Sideways star Virginia Madsen.

While The Haunting in Connecticut left much to be desired (although it seemed to tap right in to the same New Age escapist creepy fare Knowing which American audiences made the top box office champ during its opening weekend) -- at least in the case of Haunting it takes a while to realize just how bad it is but even then, it remains watchable.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for House which seems to borrow from the same playbook as 1408, The Shining, Carrie, Vacancy, From Dusk ‘til Dawn, Psycho, The Haunting, and Identity. But instead of managing to tap into what made each of those films work, whether it was John Cusack’s one man show in 1408, the twist in Identity, or the Panic Room-style “what would you do?” questions you asked yourself in Vacancy, House decides the only way to separate it from its overly familiar structure is to layer on as much Christianity as possible in ways that treat the audience like they were captive Sunday School students.

Instead of weaving in the layers of repentance or atonement more subtly, screenwriter Green and director Henson use the thickest paintbrush they can find in their Left Behind infused version of Psycho by making the main couple (Reynaldo Rosales and Heidi Dippold) have to fight the devil and sins of their past in order to make it to the light where they can become born again.



The one “saving grace” (if you will) of the film is in its stellar special effects production values which seems to be where the filmmakers focused all of their attention in lieu of perhaps sending the script back for yet another much-needed rewrite.

Admittedly-- having not read the book by Dekker and Peretti-- I can't say that this interpretation was precisely what they had in mind or in their novel if they were far better at trusting the intelligence of their audience to refrain from beating us over the head with what at least in filmmaking form seems to be an overt and condescending (even to the devout) Christian agenda.



However, the fact that the writers serve as co-producers does indeed send some warning bells and if this storytelling approach was exactly what they had in mind, I can only hope that next time around they’ll give us characters with whom we can actually identify instead of Horror Movie 101 types, therefore helping to ensure the audience will keep the faith in what they’re trying to say.

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Movie Review: The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)

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Now Available on DVD & Blu-ray

After the film producer Andrew Trapani caught a 2003 televised account of what has become known as “The Haunting in Connecticut” that chronicled the horrifying experience dealing with “paranormal attacks [which] occurred in a span of months to different members of [the] family,” of Carmen Reed he knew he had the makings of not just a movie but the type PG-13 chilling fare Lionsgate has excelled at in recent years.

While Roger Ebert notes that In a Dark Place author Ray Garton-- who chronicled the case within his book-length work-- realized that the family in question “couldn't get their stories straight,” as Wikipedia explained, investigators nonetheless “instructed [him] to make it up and make it scary."

However, this bit of questioning aside-- the film version of The Haunting in Connecticut is going to great lengths in trying to work the fact that it's based on a historically documented case of the forefront of that advertising campaign. And in doing so, Connecticut's cinematic structure follows suit as director Peter Cornwell begins the movie as though it were a docudrama which keeps us hooked for awhile until about midway through we gets the sense that we're not quite buying into the experience as though it was gospel.

Pairing together screenwriters Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe (self-proclaimed “students of Victorian horror and the Spiritualist movement”) along with award-winning short film maker Peter Cornwell (who directed the animated work Ward 13)-- the film which holds audiences at a distance in the dark, ominous, foreboding color scheme, cinematography, and “make you jump” musical cues is given instant credibility with the appearance of Oscar nominated actress Virginia Madsen (Sideways).

The versatile and talented Ms. Madsen-- who admits likewise in the press release to not just a love of movies but especially scary movies (having gained “cult status among the horror fans” after appearing in Candyman)-- portrays the devoted, religious, and selfless mother Sara Campbell in a uniformly terrific characterization.

When her cancer stricken son Matt (Kyle Gallner) is accepted into an experimental, highly risky, exceedingly expensive, and physically draining radical treatment program, Madsen's Sara makes the decision to move her family temporarily to a Victorian rental home closer to the hospital during the duration.

Of course, the house gives viewers the creeps right off the bat as the owner catches sight of Sara as she drives by and tells her hill give her the first month's rent free if he doesn't have to finish pounding the sign in the yard before warning her that the place has “a bit of a history." And within seconds of their arrival we start realizing that the history is one involving death, dismemberment, and gore.

As Matt begins to have visions of ghosts in the house, sealed rooms reveal that it was previously a funeral parlor, photos of corpses are found, and a box of eyelids are discovered—he tries to hide some of the bizarre goings-on and paranormal phenomena from his worried mother, siblings, cousin, along with his overworked recovering alcoholic father (Martin Donovan). His reasoning for doing so is logical and sound since his doctor had warned that if he’d started “seeing things” or experienced behavioral changes, they must stop the treatment immediately.

Unfortunately, it’s this issue precisely that pervades a great majority of the film as for a good bulk of the work, the suffering, incessantly ill, overly medicated, and emaciated Matt is the only one who witnesses the creepy goings-on firsthand and we're unsure if he's the most reliable of witnesses.

When he befriends an equally sick reverend (Elias Koteas) who argues that because they’re walking between life and the shadow of death, they’re able to pick up on ghostly activity that’s trapped between worlds (although they should “fear no evil” he says with a straight face, twenty minutes before he’s doing an exorcism), the movie ventures from ghost story into spiritual, supernatural thriller to mixed effect.

Admittedly, the back-story of the home itself is incredibly squirm-inducing and there were a few audible screams during the press screening-- most notably as we discover its involvement in séances, corpse-tampering, black magic and more in a few horrifyingly intense sequences including the poster’s disgusting “ectoplasm” sequence and one involving the aforementioned eyelids that make the PG-13 rating seem a tad weak.

Despite this, later the movie becomes increasingly dubious as a work of fact as it spirals to a conclusion that one could only call silly wherein characters act in ways that don’t seem to fit their personalities in the slightest as Cornwell’s Connecticut leaves the occult for cheap scares befitting of the genre with the obligatory and laugh-inducing, “heroine in the shower” moment complete with a potentially life-saving phone call bearing an all-important message that’s left on an answering machine.

Likewise, it’s hard not to acknowledge that quite a few scenes would be extremely hard to verify as scientific fact which makes the filmmakers’ decision to bookend it again with Madsen’s voice-over and a wrap-up of post-paranormal events seem like a strange fit. Moreover, the eerie Victorian séance stuff would’ve made one hell of a creepy Lionsgate “seat jumper” if the filmmakers had been given the freedom to move away from the trappings of what they describe as a fiercely “true story” and just focus specifically on the back-story which is more effective ultimately than the one being played out during the film’s setting of the summer of 1987.