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.

Blu-ray Review: The Grudge (2004)

Arriving on Blu-ray 5/12

Get Caught Up in The Grudge
& The Japanese Originals

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Why do they do it? In horror movies, why must every character abandon all sense of personal safety and logic and go investigate a strange noise in a dark place... all alone, sans baseball bat-- in one of those places like an attic, a crawl space, or a basement-- that looks as though nobody's ever approached it in twenty years?

Usually there's a lot of dust, a few spiderwebs for good measure, and one of those super freaky four-legged creatures we call "cats" that jump from the darkness and scare the life out of you. And elevating our blood pressure even more in horror films-- the person investigating the noise is often a tiny, attractive, petite, sweet-as-pie female who looks like she should be in a Neutrogena ad and not ----say someone who could easily throw down with any "big bad" that may be waiting off in the distance. Then to top it off, the poor young woman's movements are typically synchronized with pulse-pounding eerie scores that scream in our ears even before the women onscreen do... and they always scream (along with us some of the time).

Now, when it comes to The Grudge, which following The Ring, was the second smash success Asian horror work to be remade to phenomenal box office returns for American audiences-- our damsel in distress does have a leg up on the usual ones. She's none other than Sarah Michelle Gellar who took on the latest "big bad" to steal a phrase from Joss Whedon's universe every week on Buffy the Vampire Slayer but in this film, she's essentially the depressing season six Bummer Buffy who feels out of her element after being pulled from Heaven back to Earth by the Scooby Gang headed up by her Wicca pal Willow (Alyson Hannigan).

Equally lost in her surroundings in The Grudge-- Gellar plays an American in Tokyo-- Karen to be precise, who accompanied her long-time (basically boring) boyfriend while he pursues a degree in Japanese architecture. Studying nursing, Karen gets her first big break to be the "lead" in her first solo home care visit after-- wouldn't you know?-- the girl who usually works at the residence in question failed to show.

Where Yoko went is unclear to Karen and her supervisor (played by producer Sam Raimi's brother Ted) but-- as the audience fully knows-- it wasn't to go with a bloke from Liverpool and move to New York City but up the damn attic of the creepily haunted house to which Karen dutifully ventures.

Cobweb free and spotless-- it isn't too long after Karen arrives to take care of her invalid, almost catatonic elderly patient that she discovers all is not well in this household where a strange wide-eyed, seemingly not-of-this-world boy suddenly appears and later so does something else that's definitely not corporeal.

The movie, based on filmmaker Takashi Shimizu's Ju-On found an instant fan in Evil Dead, A Simple Plan, and Spiderman director Sam Raimi. And while it definitely benefits from its decision to forgo the traditional gore of the horror genre, nonetheless something is definitely out of sync in this unusual remake that was actually helmed by Shimizu himself (despite the fact that he doesn't speak English) with some of the returning cast members along with Americans including Bill Pullman in a wickedly powerful opener.

Inspired by the supernatural idea that if a person "dies in the grip of a powerful rage a curse is left behind" that "never forgives" and "never forgets" instead invading the bodies of those it comes into contact with and possessing their souls or literally scaring them to death (I was never precisely sure in some cases what the were "rules" in fact)-- the premise itself is a strong one and like that of Ringu (or in its American remake by Gore Verbinski-- The Ring), it's seemingly impossible to stop.

However, this one just never quite pulls you in with a wooden script, chilly approach, and constant shifts in time that puzzle rather than present an ominous mood. Essentially, it is a structurally uneven haunted house picture where the haunting goes beyond the front door and follows whoever was unlucky enough to walk inside. And then-- as those of us poor souls who sat through Grudge 2 realized-- it continues to spread its "grudge" or rage directly to Chicago-- somehow skipping over every other place in the process in the sequels.

While although I definitely applaud Shimizu's bravery in trusting the audience with his decision to abandon the rigors of a typically linear narrative--Stephen Susco's screenplay for the film never inspires all that much emotion from its cast who indeed utter the dialogue as if they were trying to speak Japanese.

Far less successful in the remake of the original work than The Ring which was bolstered by Naomi Watts screaming bloody murder like she (and the audience) really meant it-- this film is just more unsettlingly off-putting and goosebump inducing rather than downright scary despite a few requisite jolts here and there that help ensure you've stayed awake during its seemingly endless 91 minute running time?!

While a large part of the problem could have been fixed in the film's screenwriting stage-- another issue that I think The Grudge had working against it was the "show and tell" debate a.k.a the standard horror conundrum of when you pull the mask off the villain or let viewers in behind the curtain. Or in other words-- when the main villain is revealed early on, there's no topper to that and to keep up the same level of eerie suspense it built with that jaw-dropper of an opening that finds a title star dead within an instant (teasing us the way that Craven and Hitch did by axing a lead in Scream and Psycho), it may have been best to just have a vague sense of the "big bad" as characters begin to tumble rather than folding and showing the lackluster cards the filmmakers were bluffing with all along.

Guaranteed to freak you a bit if you watch it alone at night and in the dark as if you're a heroine out to investigate a troublesome noise-- unfortunately, this one just feels dead from the start until it tries to revive itself with a crackling finale and possible solution to the problem that most of us had been yelling at the screen since the first half hour mark hit.

Granted, it's much better than the second film-- surprisingly, the third straight-to-DVD release is the one that managed to involve me the most for the first time (and stay tuned for that review), even though it only had a fraction of the budget. However, it was the only one shot by an English speaking director as opposed to poor Shimizu who even had to wonder-- albeit via translator-- why on Earth he was getting lured into making the same film twice and sticking around for its abysmal sequel.

Much like the old joke that Walk the Line was Ray "with white people," unfortunately the same could be said about Ju-On and The Grudge although as far as this is concerned, accept no substitutes, put on your reading glasses, check out Ju-On and let Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Pullman move on to do something better with their time.

Finally debuting on Blu-ray five years after its theatrical debut to tie-in with its DVD third installment (although why Sony passed up the chance to go Blu-ray and make a trilogy bundle was beyond me money-wise)-- Shimizu's film is presented in its original PG-13 rating as well as adding in the extra crispy, blood and gore spattered unrated version that does nothing more than just gross you out by comparison.

While the depth perception of the film in its full 1080 pixel aspect ratio has improved, it still retains that original darkly lit and grainy look that had me toying with my brightness setting from the start to try and get a better contrast between the grays and black colors. And furthermore, while the balance may sound better with all speakers working on full blast-- the transfer was uneven with a booming soundtrack that necessitated me to crank the volume up super high on my accompanying Sony products to well past fifty just to make out the dialogue.

At PG-13 in its theatrical version, it still seems like that's a bit of a mild rating and reminds me once again that there should be something between a PG-13 and an R or better quantifiers since it's sure to startle tweens into nightmares but aside from that-- Sony makes the most of the Blu-ray format by loading up the film with two different commentary tracks with the Americans involved speaking on the theatrical version of the film and the subtitled Japanese track playing throughout the unrated work.

Incorporating endless featurettes that take you behind-the-scenes of nearly every aspect of the experience including a five part extensive documentary filled with interviews as well as bonus extras like video diaries, two short films (neither of which is compelling) and more-- the high point was when we were able to really catch a glimpse at the artistic value incorporated in the storyboard art, production design etc.

A Grudge super-fan's dream with so many extras, you'll be lost in the universe of ghosts for days-- while the Blu-ray is recommended solely to that particular audience alone as a great all-encompassing presentation of a film they admire-- the rest of those who have yet to check it out will do just fine going with an inexpensive rental, preferably from a location that's well-lit, sans cats, creepy kids, and weird noises.