Review of The Grudge 2 (2006) by Droog — 16 Oct 2006

I agree with "A Movie Critic" that The Grudge 2 is best understood in context with its American and Japanese predecessors, although in my opinion it's simply not a very good film. The Grudge 2 is indeed more similar to the original Ju-On than to The Grudge 1 in that it constantly shifts between multiple storylines and multiple characters, which leads to more spectacular fright scenes.

The nature of J-horror is that it doesn't matter if one is an "innocent" or "evil" character -- anyone can end up dead. It is the utter randomness of awful deaths that make J-horror so compelling.

That said, I actually liked Grudge 1 better than Ju-On because its (more) linear plotline builds both tension and history with each scene. Ju-On, to me, seemed like a pastiche of fright scenes, which may be the point, but it still doesn't do it for me.

Grudge 2 is a return to Ju-On's jumpy storylines and inconsequential characters. The acting and the dialogue is worse than ever before. There is some promise of Kyako's back-story, similar to the Ring, but it fails to deliver any greater understanding because it's ridiculous and inconsequential.

Basically, nothing really matters in this movie except jumping out of your seat when ghosts appear out of the shadows. That in itself has some value ... but not much.