Review of Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) by Christopher P — 12 Aug 2011

I really loved to watch horror movies. Having watched all three of the American remakes of Ju-On, I eventual got around to seeing the originals. Holy crap are these scary. I mean damn did these get under my skin. More than half the time, the scares just had my eyes open wide and just stare in awe. There's a lot of suspenseful moments in one movie. There are more legitimate scares than jump scares, and there's plenty of moments where you feel like something scare is just gonna pop up and scream at the top of its lungs. Its main reliance if just building up a lot of tension and then releasing it in a scary scene with the generic long-black haired, pale skinned woman. I think that ghost works really well here (Despite me getting tired of that kind of female ghost) because of how they use it's body movement. Mainly through the origin of the ghost. Well, let's not really waste anymore time and just jump into this movie.

Well, the story to pretty much all of these movies is that this house is haunted. Anyone who enters it is screwed. A man finds out his wife is cheating on him, kills her and his son, and eventually kills himself. Well, this ghost (The wife) will eventually kill you after some time (I honestly do not know how long, I don't think any of the movies explain it), and I guess you die because the ghost eats your soul or just turns you into a ghost yourself. Well, it's just "Go somewhere you ain't suppose to go, and die". But with a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Mostly revolving around how scary the movie is. Ju-On isn't like most horror movies... aside from being an Asian horror movie. Aside from its unique premise, it has a lot of genuine tension that's built up, and let loose as a big scare. Most of which is from the plots great writing. Honestly, you could simply look at this and think "Stupid idea", but not realize how well written it is. The pacing of the story is nice and smooth. It doesn't slow down when somethings about to occur nor does it speed up. Which is a lot like how the American remake was written (Aside from, well, stupid music that sorta spoiled the scare.. in the remake of course). To pretty much make what would be a long story short, the plots very well written, and it's filled with a lot of great scares.

Something Ju-On does extremely well is the acting. Each actor really nails their role very well, and I really found the acting of the ghosts scary. Well, they are suppose to be dead, but that's beside the point. The reactions are very well done, and feel more realistic than the remake. On the other hand, the acting starts to die down around the third act. I dunno why, but I guess it's just me. It's nothing severe (At least for me it wasn't . The ghosts, as I mentioned, are acted very well. Though I find the make-up to be scarier. The child who plays the child ghost is the scariest. I dunno what it is about him, but each time I see him, I begin to think they actually came across a real life ghost. That kid should be the next Amityville Horror movie. He really was the best actor, and he lacked any real dialogue. Look at the box art! That kid scared the crap outta me. Well, aside from that, the dialogue delivery was top notch. Or as top notch as a horror movie (Even if Foreign) can get. I'll admit, there are points where it feels like it hiccups and kinda feels sorta weak, but that's overshadowed by everything. It's hard to overlook flaws in a good movie like Ju-On, but whatever. The acting passes. Even if it wasn't that good, I'd still let it pass because of the ghosts. Especially the kid, who I swear still haunts me when I think about this movie.

A flaw is the movies dialogue... a little. Just like with Roadkill, it's half and half. But is more bad than good. In this case, it's pretty much a reverse Roadkill in terms of dialogue. The actual chatter isn't great, but it's far from bad. I found some parts to feel clunky, but for the most part, it's straightforward and interested me a bit. At times, it sorta annoyed me that it felt unoriginal. Though I'll let that sorta slide since there where some parts where there was genuine fear in the actors voices. Most of the flaws here just come in the form of the character development. Which feels very sloppy and very rushed. Look, this movie isn't a thirty minute special, you can take your time to develop these characters more. The ghosts are developed nicely, and I feel sorry for them... which trust me, is gonna come back and bite the movie in the ass. Well, the characters are developed only to a very vague two-dimensional, but not as well as Roadkill (Which is kinda lame, wouldn't you think?). I feel like these are from the remake of this movie, not the actual movie. They don't really make these characters interesting, and they just come off as normal, cliche, and stupid characters who do something stupid. Honestly, it shouldn't be this way. The bad outweighs the good sadly.

Well, now that I said that, the characters themselves are... just knuckleheads. Aside from all of them feeling like a very fragile two-dimensional vase, they really deserve what they get. You went into the house despite people dying after they went into that house and yet you go in. Ya know what, you deserve it. Get some Wah-Wah music ready, because when these characters die, I don't really have any emotion other than happiness. This is something really pathetic, but then again, the same can be said for ALL of the Ju-On/The Grudge movies. You go in despite people dying, and they all deserve it. The only characters I have sympathy for are the actual ghosts, because they themselves where innocent victims of jealousy. Well, that works, but I should have more sympathy for the innocent victims these vengeful ghosts are killing. Well, nobody said monsters could be nice and sympathetic. Now, aside from them, the characters do sorta have personalities, but others don't. The obvious one-dimensional dead meats do have personalities though! Which I kinda am happy about, but they die of course. All it boils down to though is that the characters are just bland, stupid, and poorly written. I lacked sympathy for them, and while they had some form of personalities, I still wanted the ghosts to win in the end.

Thankfully, that's where the negatives end. Those are the only two flaws I had with the movie. Onto the directing. It's sharp, it sets a very eerie tone, and it raises a lot of intensity and suspense until a big, well shot scare comes along. The atmosphere, throughout the movie, is very scary. Along with the tone of the movie, which is extremely eerie, makes it hard no to feel scared while watching this movie. Ju-On's tone never drops either, which also made it hard for me not to be scared. The intensity and suspense the directing builds up is strong, and fits extremely well with everything else. Personally, it's the strongest part of the directing. I give a lot of credit to how the plot's rising events within the movie. The focusing of the movie needs no real description. There are no large subplots, and if there where, I'd glare and just laugh at the movie. Ju-On is focused on one thing (Other than scaring you) and that's the haunted house and the curse. There's nothing more or less than that. Overall, the directing is sharp, it raises a lot of tension and suspense, and it sets a very eerie tone along with a scary atmosphere.

The scares themselves are hard to describe. All I can say is that it's like when something really scary appears and starts to scream and then you scream and feel like your heart is in your throat. It's just a rising scare and it eventually stops all together, without just calming down. It rises and shoots down. At least that's how I felt it, but whatever the case, the movies scares are just extremely well pulled off. Without spoiling any of them, there's a lot that are just geuine scares and not jump scares like in today's crap. Granted, there are jump scares, but most of them are effective and last without angering you. Veyr few of the scares can be predictable, and when they are, they're small ones. Though the strongest scares are the ones I mentioned before, and I wasn't able to catch one while on guard. Like I said, it's hard to describe them, but to be honest, it was at least worth mentioning them.... want an overall opinion on these? Then buy me a bigger nightlight and then I'll give you one.

For all it's worth, Ju-On is one scary movie. It isn't anywhere near the scariest movie of all time, but rest assured you will be scared at least once while watching it. It's a very effective, very eerie, and very spooky movie. It's dialogue and characters aren't up to par, and the sequel didn't really improve on that. But that's another day, and another diaper. If I haven't made myself clear yet, I was very scared of this movie, and would be willing to watch it again and again. I highly recommend the movie if you want to be scared. My overall score for Ju-On is an 8 out of 10. A very high 8 while I'm at it. If you ever get the chance, go rent it. This a horror movie where I can say that it's worth seeing as soon as you get the chance. If you love horror movies, then you mine as well just kick yourself out of the house with your car keys and rent it and buy yourself a new teddy bear.