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List Price: $19.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 17260
Released: May 17, 2005 |
| Our Price: $2.49 |
| Used Price: $0.90 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From filmmaker Sam Raimi (Spider-Man® Army of Darkness) and acclaimed Japanese director Takashi Shimizu comes a terrifying tale of horror in the tradition of The Ring and 28 Days Later. Sarah Michelle Gellar (TV s Buffy The Vampire Slayer ) stars as an American nurse who has come to work in Tokyo. Following a series of horrifying and mysterious deaths she encounters the vengeful supernatural spirit that possesses its victims claims their souls then passes its curse to another person in a spreading chain of horror. Now she must find a way to break this supernatural spell or become the next victim of an ancient evil that never dies but forever lives to kill.System Requirements:Running Time: 98 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: UNRATED UPC: 043396110120 Manufacturer No: 11012
Description of The Grudge (Unrated Director's Cut):
It's not the scary hit that The Ring was in 2002, but The Grudge makes a similarly convincing case for American remakes of popular Japanese horror films. Barely a year passed between the release of Takashi Shimizu's creepy ghost story Ju-On: The Grudge and the production of this American remake, set in Tokyo and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in her first post-Buffy horror film. About the only significant difference between the two films is the importing of a mostly-American cast (including Bill Pullman, Clea DuVall and Grace Zabriskie), but The Grudge was reconfigured (by screenwriter Stephen Susco) to allow Shimizu to refine and improve the spookiest highlights of his earlier version, which enjoyed previous incarnations as a short film and two made-for-Japanese-video features. Surprising box-office analysts with a $40 million opening weekend, The Grudge may disappoint hard-core horror fans because it lacks gore and graphic violence, but as a creepy tale about a very haunted house, it's guaranteed to send a few chills up your spine. --Jeff Shannon
The Grudge (Unrated Director's Cut) Reviews:
Ignore the critics. 
2008-06-23 - I wish I had seen this in the theater.
I waited till it came out on video, and I wasn't expecting to like this movie.
The Ring started the wave of "J" horror and The Grudge continues the excellence.
Mega freaky parts make this movie a must see.
A great, twisty, turny script, good acting, and a great ending.
I like Sarah Michelle Geller but she isn't the most convincing actress on the planet.
That minor complaint aside, I recommend The Grudge for being so different from American horror.
Hardly any gore, no nudity, still not appropriate for young children.
Go rent it.
great movie 
2008-05-10 - This was a good movie but not creepy or scary well i don't get scared of horror movies anyway but this was a good movie. This was way better then the second part that one was not good, but this was.
Effectively Creepy
2008-05-09 - Horror movies are effective when they're not so. . .horrifying. Show me a Hamburger Helper gore-fest and I'll get downright bored; there's only so many ways to skin a cat (pardon the pun), plus the viewer, after awhile, becomes completely desensitized to all the blood 'n guts. There's something to be said about things that go bump in the night; if a scary flick is to be effective, there needs to be suspense, a little campy creepiness, and a fleeting glimpse of a monster screaming, "Boo!"
Enter THE GRUDGE, director Takashi Shimizu's American remake of his Japanese thriller, "Ju-on." I thoroughly enjoyed this yarn precisely because Shimizu didn't try to gross his audience out; instead, we catch glimpses and haunting images of three demons who terrorize a house. . .and anyone who dares to enter it. Accordingly, actual violence is kept to a minimum; shots of ghosts only last long enough to tweak the "ick" nerve, and the viewer never, ever, witnesses a victim endure a long, agonizing death.
And that, folks, makes for effective horror.
The mostly American cast is adequate, yet not memorable. Sarah Michelle Gellar as an American nurse-in-training abroad in Tokyo--and subsequently tormented by messy ghouls--is okay, although she often seems aloof and disinterested. Other American actors include Bill Pullman, who gets this movie rolling right along. The ending, like most horror flicks, is pretty lame, yet THE GRUDGE works effectively via creepiness--not chainsaws.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Well done! Scary, from a tasty Japanese perspective
2008-04-25 - There are great moments in this flick! The story is not so completely original, but the Japanese perspective on horror movies makes this an irresistable film! It doesn't set a straight-forward chronology, but rather, it jumps back and forth in its time frames. So you have to pay attention. And you pick up new things each time you watch it again. It scares you when you are supposed to get scared. There are moments when you are sitting at the edge of your seat, there are things that will send a chill up your spine, and the interesting mixtures and conflicts between American and Japanese cultures add to the enticing flavor of this film. It was intentionally arranged by American producers that this movie be directed by the same Japanese director who did the original flick on which this American remake was based. It was an experiment that worked quite well. And of course, I absolutely love Sarah Michelle Gellar in anything she does! Let's face it, Sarah can even make Buffy the Vampire Slayer almost worth watching. But Sarah Michelle brightens every screen appearance she touches. And this movie is no exception! I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants a good scare that is given from a fresh, new viewpoint. But, it's a movie that you have to pay attention to, and watch more than once. It's a good thing that you will WANT to watch it more than once!
DON'T HOLD IT AGAINST ME
2008-03-14 - Let me begin by saying up front that I am a horror fan. Yes I know that this genre is not considered cerebral enough for most reviewers. But it is one that I love and have loved since childhood. Every thing from low budget movies like SQUIRM to high profile items like THE EXORCIST. That being said, it should come as no surprise that after numerous viewings of all things horrific, there is little to see that I would consider actually scary. Until tonight.
The story is based around a Japanese legend that when someone dies under brutal or highly emotional circumstances, a curse is placed on that location that carries on to those who visit the site. After witnessing such an occurrence, we are introduced to Karen (Sarah Michelle Geller), a young woman living in Japan with her student boyfriend, who works as a care giver/nurse. Sent to the house where the first young nurse was killed (we know this but no one else does just yet), Karen is exposed to the ghosts that haunt the house, including a small boy and a terrifying lady with long black hair.
Her charge found dead along with the couple who own the house, Karen is taken to a hospital. The movie plays fast and loose with moving in time and space to tell its story and it works well this way. We see these victims before they were killed, find out how they came to the house, find out the connection (only slightly at first) between a man who killed himself at the very beginning of the movie and this family and we find out more about the little boy. We are also treated to the grisly deaths of all, including the sister of the couple.
It is through the use of storytelling, information that Karen finds online and later a discussion with the police detective assigned to the case, that we garner the whole story. And we learn why this apparition is haunting Karen as well as the rest.
No I won't spoil it for you by giving you the ending. Nor will I offer you the times and places in the film where you are likely to jump out of your seat. Instead, just let me say that there are some truly creepy sequences and sights that will make you skin crawl not to mention make you consider the fact that crawling under the covers may never be the safest thing to do ever again.
The movie's pace drags momentarily at times, but picks up again enough to make those spots not even noticeable (I wouldn't have mentioned them here but my wife felt that they were too long). What makes this movie work is that along with the scares that it offers, we have a fountain of story that draws us in as well. The acting is solid and the direction by Takashi Shimizu, who directed the original and its sequel, makes him a talent to watch in the future.
