'The Grudge' review

weak and vulnerable state, and doesn’t seem to be caring for herself or her house, which is left almost deserted. Inside this house, there has been a long, rampaging chain of terror left on the people that have entered it. This has led innocent Karen into the house, as former worker Yoko was brutally killed by this unknown creature in the house. This forms the basis of the film, as everyone that is unlucky enough to encounter this murderous curse die and it’s then passed on like a ruthless virus from victim to victim, in a chain of supernatural and homicidal murders. As more people die, Karen is dragged into this and learns the secret that this house has leaves a vengeful curse to anyone who enters it. In my eyes, Sarah Michelle Gellar produces a good performance as she was able to fit in to the role of Karen, and at points, I genuinely believed her performance, as she managed to combine facial expressions to her dialogue at incredibly frightening moments, and me as a viewer of the film, felt very involved. However, there were points where Gellar’s acting can be described as very ‘static’ as sometimes when she is was in a typical scary situation, it reminded me of acting that you would see in a low-budget teenage horror film, where her facial expressed looked so forced and not very natural to make me believe it. With all due respect to Gellar, I felt that anyone could play that role of Karen, and would have been able to perform it to the par that Gellar did. Nevertheless, I do believe for the majority of the film she managed to produce a decent performance of the film, but nothing that will win an Oscar though. Alongside Gellar, Jason Behr plays Karen’s boyfriend Doug, who is in Tokyo with her when the events of the film happen. Doug is a very selfless character, and cares for Karen a lot, as he took his own life for Karen, and faced the risk and curse of turning into Kayako. Jason Behr does well to play the boyfriend of Karen, who innocently gets involved in Karen’s business with The Grudge and pays the ultimate price. His performance was decent as it was in a supporting role, but once again the acting at some points was static. Only at the end of the movie, where Doug was on the verge of dying, I felt like he was very believable. The stand-out performances must go to Takako Fuji and Yuya Ozeki who played the ghostly Kayako and Toshio (the grudges) respectively. Their acting is of an excellent quality throughout, Takako Fuji, in particular, turns in a wonderful, edgy performance as Kayako, whose story throughout the entire movie was very deep and tragic which tied in with all the deaths that followed, as the curse had consumed her. The character of Toshio was very engaging and fit his actor fit the role perfectly, he didn’t just look like a kid smothered in makeup, and he genuinely carried an unnatural aura which meant that all the scenes featuring Toshio brutally murdering someone looked almost genuine. As a whole, the wooden American acting, really was a let down in my eyes, and may have discredited the very popular Ju-On series. On the contrary, the acting by the two Japanese, really brought the film to life, and without these two edgy actors playing two very fitting characters, this film would have been abysmal. The mood and imagery of The Grudge is at a very high standard. There are some genuinely chilling moments and the appearance of the eerie, brutal Kayako and the shock that came with the character of Toshio, who you would not expect to be a killer, brought the film to life. Their gestures and movements combined with the way the scene was set could make the skin crawl. This effective mood is mostly down to the way Takashi Shimizu used lighting, as he used very low-key lighting which reflected the ambience at the time, this then created a very ominous mood which the characters could not shake off, as there was a high sense of foreboding, causing the characters to be very anxious. He also creates a lot of tension by implementing very wide camera angles, with the character on one side of the screen and the room she is in on the other. This then creates a lot of foreboding as the audience are always expecting something frightening to happen around the corner. The film was scored to great effect, there wasn’t at any point where the music was very slow or boring. The music was always reflecting the mood, which at most points was very bloodcurdling; I especially liked the way the character of Kayako made the very eerie croaking noise which just heightened the suspense and tension. Shimizu regularly used a crescendo to get the audience ready for something bad to happen, usually a death. It’s a very traditional method to make a scene tense in horror films and Takashi Shimizu used it to great effect. The only downside to the sound, was that it was very predictable towards the middle of the film and the end, which meant it got very repetitive; this technique in my opinion can only be used to the greatest effect the first few times it is used. I feel that The Grudge would definitely appeal towards the teenage audience, as there is a fair sense of horror and death, however it is combined to great effect with the complex plot line which all culminates in a frantic ending. In my opinion, the best aspects of the film were the two characters of Kayako and Toshio as they both were very edgy and unpredictable, with a sense of the unnatural about them, which meant for spine-chilling scenes featuring very prolonged eeriness and terrifying deaths. I would give this film a 6/10, as this film had its frightening moments, but the static American characters, in a way put this illustrious series to shame.