The Grudge sucked

[JoeGKushner]

So I saw the Grudge the other day and man, I thought, this movie sucks.

Spoilers....















spoilers end...

Woman has a fascination with man. Woman's love is found out by husband. Woman and child are killed and man kills himself. House is now haunted.

Maybe there are too many terrible things going on for me to think that a ghost and ghostly entities would be created by this and make me laugh at the poor ghost whose unknown love never had a chance, but throw in some crappy timing (like how the guy's wife dies, but his second wife who he married when? sees the guy die) and other elements, make me sell this film for the $4 that the used DVD store pays out.

I am alone here or ?

 

[KaosDevice]

I liked the Japanese version much better then the Americanized one. (I felt the same way about The Ring as well) Much creepier and atmospheric IMO.

 

[trancejeremy]

Some spoilers:



Eh - that plot didn't bother me (though I agree, the nature of the "tragedy" that started the grudge ghosts seems awful commonplace), but the seemingly viral nature of the grudge ghosts did. I mean, if everyone who sees or interacts with the grudge ghost ends up becoming one. Then it's really going to spread.

It's like vampire movies where vampires turn people into vampires with just one bite. Maybe it makes good drama in a movie, but it doesn't work, mathmatically.

Also, it probably didn't help that the cat was probably the best actor in the movie. I'm sure the Japanese version was better simply because it presumably didn't have that Buffy lady in it, and the goofy Raimi brother. (Who was okay in comedic roles like Joxer from Hercules/Xena, but doesn't work in a horror movie, IMHO)

 

[Mark Chance]

Eh - that plot didn't bother me (though I agree, the nature of the "tragedy" that started the grudge ghosts seems awful commonplace)....

I question the idea that murder-suicides that ends the lives an entire family, while certainly awful, qualify as "commonplace." Regardless, even if such a murder-suicide took place in your neighborhood every single day, it would still qualify as a genuine tragedy rather than a mere "tragedy."

The Grudge isn't that good of a movie precisely because it stuck too close to Ju-on, which also isn't that good of a movie. The narrative is too choppy, too full of holes incapable of being plugged by the shallow characters that inhabit both films. Sure, characters get killed in both of them, but who cares? The characters aren't sympathetic. They're not on screen long enough for the audience build enough empathy with them to overlook the fact that they're just characters in a movie.

The American version should have taken the time and effort to recraft the fine details of the narrative into something more fully-fleshed and coherent, much in the same way as the American versions of the divorced parents and daughter in Dark Water come across as more human - and thus more believable - than they do the Japanese original.

 

[Phaedrus]

SPOILER QUESTION: So, in the very end, does Buffy die or what?!

 

[smootrk]

SPOILER QUESTION: So, in the very end, does Buffy die or what?!

The part you missed was when Buffy did a massive jumping-side-kick to the ghost, killing it outright. The End. Credits.

 

[KaosDevice]

The Grudge isn't that good of a movie precisely because it stuck too close to Ju-on, which also isn't that good of a movie. The narrative is too choppy, too full of holes incapable of being plugged by the shallow characters that inhabit both films. Sure, characters get killed in both of them, but who cares? The characters aren't sympathetic. They're not on screen long enough for the audience build enough empathy with them to overlook the fact that they're just characters in a movie.

Dunno if I agree with you here. I think the point of Ju-On (and a whole lot of Japanese horror, Spiral springs quickly to mind) is more of creating tense atmospheres and feelings of impeding menace and dread. Characters and plot lines seem really only to exist to further these creations of menacing environments. Taken in that light I've really enjoyed the most recent products of Japanese horror cinema. I haven't seen the American version of Dark Water but the asian version definately seemed to exist in the mold described above.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Yeah the grudge sucked, so did the ring.

 

[Alhazred]

Eh - that plot didn't bother me (though I agree, the nature of the "tragedy" that started the grudge ghosts seems awful commonplace), but the seemingly viral nature of the grudge ghosts did. I mean, if everyone who sees or interacts with the grudge ghost ends up becoming one. Then it's really going to spread.

It's like vampire movies where vampires turn people into vampires with just one bite. Maybe it makes good drama in a movie, but it doesn't work, mathmatically.

In the original version, the last shot of the movie is of a deserted Tokyo. I felt that scene was the best part of the movie, otherwise I was disappointed. The only redeeming part of the American adaptation was the cat.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

The Grudge was simply awful. The Japanese version was simply crap. I think the only reason it had success at the box office was the presence of 'Buffy'. I hated that show too.

I did like the Ring though.