Review of Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) by Tim B — 18 Jun 2010

"Pulp Ficition" for the horror genre. It takes a bunch of mini-stories and tie them all together in a non-linear fashion. I must admit at times it was confusing, but the actors and stories, as short as they were, kept me interested enough.

Without a doubt, this one got to me because it was so ridiculously creepy. I'm not sure exactly what Asians do to make their ghost movies so creepy, but they do it with a big set of balls to back it up and have me whimpering like a baby while watching.

Granted, it's not very original (Ringu elements here) but it still works for me. It's kind of hard to judge the actors when I'm reading subtitles. As far as I know, since I was intrigued throughout, I think they all did a good job.

Takashi Shimizu knows how to build tension and then bring you home by scaring the crap out of you. Great use of sound and certain camera angles really impressed me. While I did appreciate the format in which this movie presented itself, I did find myself confused in parts a couple of times as to what exactly was going on, taking me out of the movie at times.

That may have been the point though. This is still an excellent effort from Japan and had this fanboy scared shitless many times. Looking for a very technically simple, but creepy as hell ghost story? Check out this grudge.