The Grudge 2 is yet another offering by Hollywood of a lousy American remake of a Japanese horror film, and filmgoers who do not know better cannot seem to get enough.
The first Ring movie was inspired by the Japanese film Ringu, directed by Hideo Nakata. I saw it and was unimpressed; it was a classic example of style over substance. The second Ring movie was not only directed by Nakata, a was a complete remake of the Japanese original.
I did not see the first Grudge movie, which was based on the Japanese film Ju-on, but I have seen the sequel, and I can now offer this dire warning - if you enjoyed the Ring films or the first Grudge movie, do yourself a favor and quit while you're still ahead.
All three movies have a ghost that is the corpse of a girl with Godiva-black, long hair who communicates by telephone. One could make the argument that these films not only rip off the Japanese film but each other, as well. The three films also have that most dependable of horror film clichés - the creepy little boy with the Moe Howard haircut who can foresee disaster before anyone else can. Call it the Haley Joel Osment syndrome. It did not even start with The Sixth Sense, but rather The Shining, with Danny Lloyd scribbling "REDRUM" on the walls with a red marker. My point is clear - the well of ideas for American horror films has officially run dry.
The Grudge 2 is a long, rambling, schizophrenic mess of movie, a film made without any regards to plot, narrative, or coherency. It takes three separate storylines in three separate locations (none, of course, with any characters we could care at all about) and plugs them all into the same scenario, which is repeated over and over again.
The aforementioned ghost-girl appears out of nowhere, emits a sound that is a cross between a croaking frog and a very loud belch and then pulls them into thin air. This sound is (sort of) creepy when we hear it the first time, but we hear the same sound so many times in the movie that the film practically invites the audience to mock it, which several members of the showing I went to did.
The rule of the first Ring film was that if you saw a certain tape, you would die in seven days. The rule in this film is that if you enter a certain house, you are terrorized by a spirit that can get to you anywhere. This sets up an inconsistency in the film - at least three of the many characters killed off by the spirit never set foot in the house or anywhere near it. I am sure I could explore the IMDB messenger board for an explanation, but then I'd be trying to apply logic to a film that does not invite any, so I won't bother.
The Grudge 2 does not even make an attempt to pull itself together with any kind of clarity. It only creates excuses for characters to be dispatched by this frog-croaking spirit. (At least the ghost in the Ring films could speak.) From where, for example, does this spirit make her phone calls? Does she use collect or does she have a calling card? The film at least makes a feeble attempt to explain where this spirit came from, but it does not attempt to answer other more practical questions.
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