The Rage and Fury Omnibus, Part VII: "The Grudge 3" (2009)

While not a bad film by any stretch, "The Grudge 3" is definitely one of the more disappointing movie-going experiences of my life. I don't know how accurate it is to say "movie-going," since, well, this one came straight to DVD. More of a couch-going experience, huh?

The reasons for this are many, but the biggest is undoubtedly the box-office take of the previous film in the franchise. While the first American "Grudge" remake/reimagining/what-have-you was a ginormous success, grossing more than $100 million worldwide on a miniscule $10 million budget, the second was decidedly less popular. Some attribute it to the fact that the American public had begun to grow disenfranchised with the novelty of Japan-style horror thrillers here in the States, others simply say the movie wasn't as good, but for whatever the reason, "The Grudge 2" pulled in FAR less money on a larger budget than the first. Thus, writer/director Takashi Shimizu's original plan for the U.S. series was immediately shelved, resulting in not only Shimizu but Takako Fuji leaving the series.

Which leads us to this film. The first two movies had been building up toward an epic climax; "The Grudge" was the introduction to the madness of the Saeki clan, "The Grudge 2" was a dark escalation toward a global virus. Logic seemed to dictate that the third film in the trilogy focus on Kayako and Toshio declaring war on humanity across continents. With a much lower budget, this was impossible. Instead, "The Grudge 3" focuses on the small, and is almost a callback to the original "Ju-On: The Curse" film from Japan. Its characters are few but well-developed, while its scares are played out in extreme slow-burn fashion (as opposed to the occasionally frenetic and rapid-fire pace of "The Grudge 2").

In this regard, the movie works; the goal of a horror film (most of them, anyway) is to get us to care about what is happening on the screen, and to make us root for several of the fictitious people to live through the wave of death. Perhaps unfairly, I don't like this flick quite as much as I should, just because the knowledge of what could have been - a "Grudge 3" WITH Fuji in front of the camera and Shimizu behind it, perhaps a $50 million budget, and extensive shoots in both Tokyo and Chicago - lingers in the back of my head. Kind of like a bastard redheaded fungus.

Long enough introduction for a direct-to-DVD flick that likely no one but me gives two s**ts about?

THE MOVIE!

Well, we're back to a straightforward plot description this time, because "The Grudge 3" is a very straightforward film. There's no time jumps, chapter breaks, or any other assorted flim-flam associated the series up to this point. It goes from A to B with a definite three-act dramatic structure, and does it well. Simplicity is beauty, right?

The film opens with Jake (Matthew Knight), the lone surviving member of the cursed family from "The Grudge 2." Now, he's batcrap insane, spouting off the story that, of course, the authorities don't believe - that a creepy, long-haired croaking demon is coming after him at the most inopportune moments. Seems logical enough, right? Ten minutes into the movie, he's dead in a scene that does a good job building up a sense of dread for the remainder of the plot. These scenes also introduce Jake's disbelieving psychiatrist Dr. Sullivan, played by "Saw" goddess Shawnee Smith.

Indeed, this film focuses exclusively on that apartment complex contained in the Chicago segments of "Grudge 2" and the source of Jake's primal terror. Almost as if by magic, we are then taken inside the building, which is going through some very tough times. Tenants are leaving left and right. Our starring characters this time are three siblings living there - there's Max (Gil McKinney), the proverbial "fill-in father" and superintendent of the complex; teenage Lisa (Johanna Braddy), who wants nothing more than to bang her boyfriend in random apartments and leave Chicago for New York City; and little Rose (Jadie Hobson), whose story actually makes us give a damn about the outcome of this familial unit a great deal. It seems that Rose is a big burden on the older siblings, as she has asthma to a crippling degree. The central conflict of the film is that Max wants Lisa to stay in Chicago for Rose's benefit, while Lisa can't get away from her siblings fast enough.

That's your setup, but, of course, this wouldn't be a "Grudge" film without the deaths, now would it? This is where the film suffers a little bit; while the scenes themselves are nicely set up and well done, the characters who serve as "in-between deaths" on the path to the big climax are window-dressing at best. Marina Sirtis, Counselor Deanna Troi herself, is in this film as an artist in one of the surrounding apartments, and that's all there is to be said about her. There's also a couple nameless victims near the beginning of the flick - a teenage girl and her worried mother. Compared to all previous films in the franchise, which featured a wide array of characters that we held at least some emotional interest in the doomed characters. With the exception of Smith's sympathetic Dr. Sullivan, not so here.

What else is there to mention...oh right. No Takako Fuji this time around. When "Grudge 2" was released, an interview with Fuji cropped up on a lot of the horror websites. In it, she explicitly stated that she had grown tired of playing the role, but would gladly return to it as long as Takashi Shimizu kept directing the movies and wanted her back. Well, no Shimizu this time. Instead, "Grudge 3" was directed by a British gent named Toby Wilkins, who does a decent enough job with the budget he's given, which unfortunately wasn't large enough to bribe Fuji back with a massive payday. Instead, Aiko Horiuchi steps into the Kayako facepaint this time around; it would be easy to hate on her considering that Fuji had made this role her own just as much as Robert Englund did with the Freddy Krueger character, but other than sentimental reasons, it's difficult to say much bad about her. Horiuchi is definitely into the part, she's got the mannerisms down, and even has some ballet and contortion background, just like Ms. Fuji. So completely from an objective and non-fanboy looking glass, five gold stars for Ms. Horiuchi.

One thing that I can't award gold stars to, however, is the side plot involving - MAJOR SPOILER ALERT - Kayako's sister. Yup, Kayako had a sister as a child, and in a major plot convenience, knows the exact means to take the baddest bad girl in movie history down. Not only that, but as the movie closes, and Kayako is defeated in very underwhelming fashion, this is the character that we're left with if they ever decide to do a "Grudge 4," which is very likely, considering that this DVD made $38 million in gross sales on only a $5 million budget. END OF MAJOR SPOILER

"The Grudge 3" is a strange film at times, switching between family drama with the engaging central siblings to horror-thriller with random apartment mates in jarring manner. There are elements that work very well, especially the transformation that the Max character goes through during the course of the film, along with the tender story of Rose and her playful relationship with Toshio. Unfortunately, there are also elements that fail, such as the one contained in the SPOILER ALERT and the decidedly less-than-epic nature of the story's plot. Let's just put it this way - under normal circumstances, if this had been a stand-alone film, I would have given this flick a very positive review, but as the third and final movie in the U.S., bigger-budgeted version of "Ju-On," this is a let-down.