Horror Nerd Cinema Bonus: "The Last Exorcism"

For whatever reason, the "exorcism" sub-genre of horror movie has always failed to leave a lasting mark on me. It's strange, considering that I'm probably just the target demographic to be moved and terrified of just such a story. I live in middle America, I'm a practicing Catholic, and in general the very concept of demons scares the ever-loving bejeebus out of me. For this reason, I walked into "The Last Exorcism" with high expectations, both for the implications that it might have on me personally, but for the advance reviews and buzz (which have been quite good).

And...*sigh.* Just *sigh.* This is one of the most frustrating movies I've seen in recent memory, but not because it's bad or terrible. In fact, quite the opposite. For a long time, "The Last Exorcism" is a damn good movie, well-acted by its principal lead actors and shot with energy and gusto by director Daniel Stamm. Nope, the problem with this flick is perhaps the most maddening problem that a movie can have - namely, the final act that implodes. Walking out of the theater, I was reminded of the 2007 Hilary Swank film "The Reaping," which had essentially the exact diagnosis that this film suffers from. For the better part of an hour and a half, we were taken in and moved by the story of the small town suffering from biblical plagues and Swank's potential redemption, only for the story to turn gimmicky in the finale. Unfortunately, the same goes here.

Our main character for this go-round is Reverend Cotton Marcus, who is played with plenty of energy and heart by Patrick Fabian. The opening ten minutes of the film give us a shockingly deep character background for Cotton, beginning with his upbringing as a minister's son called to preach at his father's Evangelical church to his adult days and his family life. The film sets up its potential A-B character arc with the story of Cotton's own son, who almost died in childbirth and wound up with severe hearing problems, causing Marcus to have a crisis of faith and eventually make it his life's work to disprove exorcisms. Well, in one of those almighty movie coincidences, he gets a hand-written letter (complete with plenty of capitalized PLEASE HELP invocations to prove its level of SRS) from a farmer who claims that his daughter is possessed by the devil. With two camera operators in tow, Marcus heads out to the farm to catch his act of "false exorcism" on tape as a way of proving that exorcism is really just a substitute form of therapy.

It goes without saying what happens here. Cotton meets the family - father Louis (Louis Herthrum) and Nell (Ashley Bell, who is excellent in the role), the cursed daughter. Believing her problems to be nothing more than teen angst and issues dealing with the death of the family mother years prior to the events in the film, he performs his exorcism, utilizing strings attached to the bed and paintings in the room to achieve theatrical William Friedkin-style effects. Of course, this winds up pissing off the very REAL demon that inhabits the body of Nell, and the real meat of the movie begins.

Despite its formula, the opening and middle chapters of "The Last Exorcism" are very effective stuff. The original "Exorcist" showed us a Priest who had his doubts about exorcisms; this flick gives us a snarky new-age preacher who flat-out admits to the cameras that he doesn't believe in demons. As the creepy incidents in the movie begin piling up (and make no mistake, there are some VERY creeptacular moments contained in this film, with the silence enveloping my packed theater and tightening it into a knot), the story draws us in. While Cotton doesn't really show much sign of conversion, I found myself really rooting for the character to pull through and achieve redemption, which is the absolute BEST thing that any feature film can do. The movie hits you with its wallop of a second exorcism scene, with the best scares in the entire movie getting thrown together with fantastic acting by Fabian, who runs the gamut from disbelief to quiet resolve as he attempts to piece together what he is witnessing.

Then the film's third act begins, and it all falls apart.

I won't get into the specifics of what "The Last Exorcism" becomes in its final trimester, but the gist of it is this - as a whole experience, the film feels like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, later years. Its promising build-up and likable characters get tossed aside for twists, and not twists of the good, unexpected variety. The film is shot in the cinema verite style throughout its duration, which does an excellent job giving it a realistic, earthy quality throughout the first and second acts. As the final twenty minutes tick by, it makes the many red herrings, loose ends, and *SHOCKING REVELATIONS* seem all the more ridiculous. The movie feels like it fails on its intended level, robbing us of the chance to root for a character to pull through and replacing closure with Vince Russo-style swerves.

"The Last Exorcism" is definitely not a total failure. It is definitely scarier than any Eli Roth movie, whose name appears prominently on the theatrical poster (he produced it). It contains what is hopefully a star-making turn for Ashley Bell, who actually TOPS the creepy, eerie presence that Linda Blair had in "The Exorcist." In this movie's harrowing middle section, Bell shows remarkable ability, unnerving the audience by doing little more than just staring into the looking-glass camera and ever-so-subtly smiling. Great potential that hopefully Hollywood doesn't miss the boat on just because she doesn't have the poster-girl figure that the industry looks for. In the end, however, the movie is a mixed bag at best and cringe-worthy at worst. To make it more apparent at how far off the rails the ending flies, my entire theater audience left the building in laughter.

** 1/2 out of ****.

The Rage and Fury Omnibus, Part VIII: This is the end, my only friend, the end...

OK, first things first...there are, in fact, two more movies in the "Ju-On/Grudge" franchise. I will, however, not be covering these films in this he-ah omnibus. Why, you ask? Well, laziness, for the most part. These films just came into my possession a few months ago, at which point I posted them as Horror Nerd Cinema Bonuses. My short, short review - these flicks, while not directed by Shimizu and not featuring Takako Fuji, are pretty friggin' good, and definitely worth your time if you've got some spare change and a region-free DVD player. If you just can't go on living without some of my patented hard-hitting analysis, here you go:

http://ihrregistry.blogspot.com/2010/05/horror-nerd-dvd-bonus-ju-on-white-ghost.html

OK, now that all the movies are out of the way, I figured I'd end this little self-indulgent manifesto by posting a few thoughts on just what I find so appealing about this series. There's evidence to the contrary on a few message boards that the Horror Nerd may or may not frequent, but "Ju-On/Grudge" enjoys a very deep grassroots fandom. Just like the people who can quote every word that Bruce Campbell utters in Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" trilogy, there are a number of diehard Saeki clan fanboys/girls who can likely name every chapter in the Japanese series in chronological order. And if you have no idea what that last sentence is all about, you either (a) haven't been reading my blog, dammit! (b) aren't a fan of "Ju-On."

The first complaint I hear from people who dislike this series is that it's the same as every other J-horror film. Nothing could be further from the truth. "Ju-On" is so utterly unique within the confines of not only J-horror, but the horror genre itself. I could probably be proven wrong by some absolutely godly horror fan with encyclopedic knowledge, but the Japanese movies in the "Ju-On" franchise are the only horror films I can think of that use the "Chapter jump" structure, linking between not only different events in the same films, but within the larger framework of the series. Whoa, what was that all about?

Screw all the intellectualism, if you want badass villains, this is the place to be. Nowadays, we're used to seeing horror movies with emo bad guys, usually with some unnecessarily tragic back story that's meant to make us blur the lines between good and evil. This plot dynamic has even snuck into the holy trilogy of horror movie villains, as Rob Zombie haphazardly gave Michael Myers an incredibly dumb and cliched troubled childhood. This year's "Nightmare on Elm Street" remake devoted a lot of time to the notion that Freddy may have, in fact, been FRAMED for the molestation that got him lynched by the angry mob. And Platinum Dunes' "TCM" reboots? Ugh, just ugh.

Not so here. The characters of Kayako and Toshio most assuredly met a violent end, sure, and are sympathetic on some level. The films, however, show us none of this; their pasts exist only as legend. What we see of them are their actions; how they genuinely enjoy not only killing their victims, but scaring the ever-loving s**t out of them beforehand. Most importantly, they're also played by supremely talented people in each and every film, with Takako Fuji and Yuya Ozeki serving as the embodiment of evil.

If these pictures from Deviantart aren't evidence enough, people tend to make a strange connection with pure evil played extremely well. In much the same manner that Robert Englund became a household name in the '80s playing a child-molesting, burn-scarred supervillain, Takako Fuji enjoys similar levels of superstardom in her native Japan for playing the perfect J-horror killing machine. Sociologists fail to explain this phenomenon, but it's there, and nobody can deny it. Give us an unrepentant monster, the absolute biggest, baddest force that nobody in a series of films can even hope to contend with, and we will get behind them. The "Ju-On" and "Grudge" series did this extremely well. Hell, it wasn't until the American "Grudge 3" that there was even a HINT that Kayako was beatable, let alone killable. And yeah, I know that ain't a real word, spellcheck, but suck it.

The end-all, be-all of this manifesto, however, is that this entire series was the result of the conviction of one Mr. Takashi Shimizu, a guy that I hold the utmost level of respect for. "Ju-On" was his baby that he nursed from a small segment on a Japanese horror anthology show, and saw blossom into a horror juggernaut on two continents throughout the first decade of the 21st century. It survived re-castings, remakes, retreads and that truly strange third U.S. film to post two new entries just one summer ago. And while Shimizu hasn't been involved in the series since 2006's "The Grudge 2," he has stated in the past that after he has accomplished other goals in his native Japan, he is interested in filming "Ju-On 3" for Japanese audiences - WITH Fuji back in tow. Of course, this reporter is still hoping for the ultimate dream project that would send not only myself but the many dedicated "Ju-On/Grudge" fans into a collective nerdgasm...

...Wait for it...

"Grudge 3D."

Just imagine that for a moment, will you? The movie series that had the jump scare perfected like no other, with the ability to leap its villains out at the crowd in ways that succeeded in making the audience gasp and let out a breath of fresh air like no other, in live, vivid 3D. A Kayako crawling right off the screen at the viewer, Toshio popping up in the most inopportune places, and any other number of ways for the group of cursed characters to meet their doom - all in living, breathing three-dimensions of glory.

Of course, I know that this is nothing more than a pipe dream at this point. It hasn't even been rumored, let alone talked about. However...there is a "Ring 3D" coming out sooner or later. If that does well, life could possibly be injected into this project, as "Ring" was the series that duked it out with "Ju-On" for supreme J-horror rulership throughout much of the late '90s and early '00s. Thus, what we as horror fans all need to do is attend "Ring 3D," preferably multiple times, to ensure that this happens and ensure that the Horror Nerd can die a very happy man.

This is the end...my friend. The end of the Rage and Fury Omnibus, and the end of me waxing rhapsodically about Kayako, doomed families, guys named Takashi and Taka, and meandering chapter structure. I'd say more about how much I love "Ju-On/Grudge," but after eight posts exclusively about this subject, I don't want to think about it for a good long while.

Happy Friday the 13th!!

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.

The Rage and Fury Omnibus, Part VI: "The Grudge 2" (2006)

Some sort of drama occurred between the release of the original "Grudge" here in the States and the production of this movie. Of course, the first movie was a huge hit by budgetary standards ($110 million domestic gross on a $10 million budget, which effectively makes it a huge winner), and the sequel was already in the works literally three days after the flick's release. Nobody could have foreseen just what would occur after that, as Takashi Shimizu spent more time than originally envisioned attempting to come up with an original story, and Sony Pictures attempted to get the funds and the cast together for the motion picture to come to fruition. Lo and behold, in October of 2006, we got "The Grudge 2." But is it any good?

Yes, it is. Not QUITE as strong as "The Grudge," or "Ju-On: The Grudge," but definitely a worthy addition to the series and a continuation of the incredible roll that the "Ju-On/Grudge" series found itself on in the early-to-mid portions of the ought decade. Takako Fuji is back, the cast is top notch (and everybody in this one really gives it their all), and more than anything else, it's just got that trademark "Ju-On" atmosphere.

If you read a lot of the external reviews (and why would you? You've got me, for Christ's sakes), a common theme to be found is that the storyline of this movie sucks, and that it's confusing to follow. Um, not really. If you give the film more than 10% of your active attention, it's pretty easy to place the converging pieces of the puzzle. More than anything else, unlike the recent blockbuster "Inception," this movie boasts one very complete moment during the film's climax that serves as a very clearly-defined "Ah, right!" moment for the audience when the timeline and the sequence of events becomes clear. It's always been my belief that when a film leaves the viewer going "huh?" when walking out of the theater, either the director or writer did something wrong. Not so here.

One guy that I didn't give enough credit (in fact, I didn't even mention his name) in the last review was Stephen Susco. Currently, he's attached to a reboot of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," and I for one am very excited about the prospects that brings, because this man did wonderful things to the "Ju-On" mythos in the first two American "Grudge" films. He kept the mythology almost identical, paid homage to the series' best moments without seeming like a downright ripoff, and added just enough of his own flair for story to make the films seem distinct. So five gold stars for Mr. Susco.

Also on display here is the AFOREMENTIONED awesome cast of legitimately good actors. Amber Tamblyn (TV's "Joan of Arcadia"), Arielle Kebbel ("American Pie Presents Band Camp") and Sarah Roemer ("Disturbia") are favorites of mine, and all play slightly more than two-dimensional characters. Tamblyn, in particular, is electric in this movie. Of course, I'm biased, because as someone who has gone through a sibling death it wasn't hard for me to relate to her character. Regardless of the context, I was mightily impressed with her here, and am mightily disdained that she's now dating my most hated comedian David Cross. Ugh. Well, anyway...Edison Chen is an actor who is unknown to me in roles other than this film, but all of his scenes in "The Grudge 2" are show-stealers as his nice-guy reporter character develops a rapport with Tamblyn, and makes the "get to the bottom of the mystery" portions of this film (the SIXTH TIME that loyal fans of this series have witnessed it) not boring. And, of course, it's got Takako Fuji back for another round of mayhem and maliciousness, so what more do you need?

Well, I know...you need some story.

In the same fashion as "The Grudge," the previous American film, "The Grudge 2" bobs and weaves between three different storylines, all taking place in entirely different time frames. The theme of this film is escalation; held in sequel context, this would be your dark "Empire Strikes Back" chapter of the "Grudge" saga (one that "The Grudge 3" wouldn't live up to, but more on that later). By the end of this movie, the curse has morphed in Sadako-like fashion from one continent to another, with the implication being that the K & T double-trouble combo are about to conquer the great, grand ol' USA...

Storyline #1: Aubrey's search for the truth
Aubrey Daniels (Tamblyn) is sent to Japan by her distressed mother to find her sister and bring her back home. Her sister, of course, is Sarah Michelle Gellar, a.k.a. Karen Daniels if you're interested in character names. It doesn't take long for Kayako to return, get tired of toying with Karen, and claim her as a victim in a very creepy hospital sequence and an iconic "maybe suicide" death. During the death (which Aubrey witnesses), she meets up with Eason (Chen), a reporter hot on the trail of the Saeki murders and their trail of murder and mayhem. In one of the most heartbreaking moments of the series, Aubrey (whose mother, by the way, blatantly favors Karen and makes no bones about her dislike for free-spirited Aubrey) follows Eason to the infamous Saeki house and watches him enter. Standing outside the front door, she suddenly finds herself "pulled in" to the house, almost as if by magic. It's one of the ways that this movie implies that the curse is getting stronger, and it succeeds in getting an "oh s**t" from the audience.

One BIG risk that both Shimizu (who returned ONCE AGAIN to direct this movie, as he had with all previous films) and Susco took with this film was to tackle the childhood of Kayako Saeki. The character had been the perfect image of pure evil thus far, and all we knew about her were the things that had either been shown to us explicitly or told to us by authority figures, and almost all of them related exclusively to the murders that launched the curse. This movie takes us all the way back to her very early days, and her time spent with her mother. I won't spoil these scenes, but the risk paid off. It adds an interesting dimension to the character of Kayako without killing the mystique, and also gives us a very cool and appropriate moment where Kayako gets sweet vengeance on Mama Saeki.

Storyline #2: The practical joke that doomed the world
Kebbel plays Allison Flemming, unpopular girl at an English-speaking Japanese high school. I don't know if Kebbel did it the old-school way and gained weight for this role or wore some padding, but she definitely looks the part, and plays it well. After all, this chick sported a smoking hot men's magazine body in her films both prior and after this, and it comes across realistic, so mucho points there. At any rate, two bitchy classmates take her to THE HOUSE (cue drumroll), which is now a derelict, and, of course, all three enter it, setting in motion the chain of events that would bring Kayako and Toshio to the United States. From the appearance of the house, it's clear that these segments take place well after the Aubrey segments, and in fact, they do - about two years afterward, to be exact.

This storyline gives us some excellent jump scares, and serve as the "creepy up" moments to pepper in between Aubrey's story and the slightly confusing Chicago segments. That guidance counselor scene? Masterpiece. In addition, we get a rarity for the "Ju-On/Grudge" franchise here - genuine "act as the villain" malice interest for the audience. We want to see the two popular c**ts who drug innocent Allison into the house bite the dust, and when Kayako gets them, it's poetic justice.

Storyline #3: Chicago, Illinois
Not as strong as the other two segments, mainly due to the fact that we have absolutely no clue as to what exactly is going on here until the very end of the film. At that moment of epiphany, however, these scenes begin to carry a lot of weight upon repeat viewings. Jennifer Beals (in yet another of this movie's great performances) plays a businesswoman newly married to the father of two children - hot girl Lacey (Roemer) and troubled Jake (Matthew Knight) - and has just moved in with her new family.

Weird things start piling up around the non-traditional family unit. Jake is awakened at night by loud knocking noises, presumably from the neighbor who just moved in next door (you know, the insane one). One very disquieting scene shows us Lacey's friend Sally (Jenna Dewan), suffering the effects of the curse, who begins downing milk, vomiting it up, and then drinking the liquid again. Ech. All of this builds toward the startling finale that shows us how these events are connected to the Saeki curse. What's even better, the ending scene is awesome.

As is this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azu4oFXpUvw

To this day, that may be my favorite movie opening ever. It's amazing that Shimizu had the balls to do this with the legendary Columbia torch lady, but I for one am glad he took the risk. It's little touches like that which set the "Ju-On" and "Grudge" movies apart from other films; their sense of fun, their knowing campfire ghost-story feel and their propensity for clueing the audience in on the illusion while then proceeding to wrap each individual viewer up in it is second-to-none.

As for my favorite horror actress and villain, some of Kayako's best moments are from this film. The image of Kayako rising from the developer fluid toward Eason is something that will burn itself into your brain's permanent space, as are Karen's final moments and the death of both of Allison's tormentors. To date, this was the last time that Fuji would play Kayako, and the last that Shimizu would be behind the director's chair; she has stated that she would be willing to return to the role if Shimizu comes back to helm the series. Nonetheless, we need to pray for this to happen, because a final "Grudge" film would not be complete without Ms. Fuji behind the white face paint.

Overall, I couldn't have been happier with "The Grudge 2." It does what as sequel is supposed to do; it raises the stakes, and it isn't merely a repeat of the first film. At the conclusion of the movie, we even legitimately WANT to see a third movie, which seems to promise an epic, Stephen King-"Stand" style showdown of global proportions, with Kayako and Toshio as the new Grim Reapers of the world, and variable groups of survivors desperately attempting to save the world from its death sentence. This movie makes you conjure up that scenario, and as such, it can be nothing other than a major success. While the third film wouldn't deliver on that promise, this is nonetheless quite the awesome movie that holds up amazingly well with repeat viewings, and remains one of the best American horror movies of the '00s.

The Rage and Fury Omnibus, Part V: "The Grudge" (2004)

When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born. The curse gathers in that place of death. Those who encounter it will be consumed by its fury.

It took 3.5 films, but writer-director Takashi Shimizu believed that he had accomplished everything he had set out to do with the Japanese “Ju-On” films. Thus, the only logical next step was to come to the U.S., remake his own series, and repeat the task in a bold new market. Either that or Sony Pictures offered him a ton of money, one of those two.

Well, however it happened (Brian Doyle-Murray in “Caddyshack,” thank you), in the year 2004, God himself manifested his holy powers in Columbia studios, and in human form with producer Sam Raimi, and the denizens of believers and non-believers began to see TV ads and trailers for this new nifty horror flick from those horror masters in Japan called “The Grudge.” Of course, since this was 2004, America hadn’t quite yet been bombarded with Japanified horror films quite yet; this was actually the FIRST in the wave of remakes of J-horror modern classics in the wake of the success of “The Ring,” and it’s still the best out of all the slightly dumbed-down long-haired ghost girl movies that the majority of the U.S. film fandom got sick of. Shimizu was brought back as director by Raimi, along with Taka Ichise (the producer of the “Ju-On” films). The movie itself is definitely one of the more faithful remakes you’ll ever see; a lot of the most memorable moments that I’ve described in the previous reviews are here, and in this regard, “The Grudge” won’t give you anything new.

That DOESN’T, however, lessen its impact or effectiveness. If anything, “The Grudge” is a kind of “best of” reel, incorporating tons of elements from “Ju-On: The Curse” and “Ju-On: The Grudge.” All of the back story stuff is redone pretty much scene-by-scene, as we get a pensive-looking Bill Pullman wandering around in place of teacher Kobayashi, and the horror-tastic elements are repeated from both films. All you really need to know, however, is that this is “Ju-On” in English, with a slightly higher budget (a modest $10 million; the film would gross more than $100 million, making it a huge success in ROI regards) and with Takako Fuji decidedly NOT going anywhere when her good friend Shimizu scored this cozy remake deal. That’s really the deal breaker, right there – take Fuji out of the equation, and this is just another ghost-girl film. With her, it’s electric stuff.

THE MOVIE!!

While not quite as Tarantino-esque as the “Ju-On” series, this is one of the rare remakes that doesn’t dumb itself down too much for U.S. audiences. It still tells its long story of woe (but not of Juliet and Romeo – God, I hate myself for writing that) in nonlinear fashion, shifting between three very distinct plots and somehow making it all come together in a non-confusing fashion (unlike this review).

Peter Kirk and the Saeki murders: Well, this is the one that introduces the film, so we might as well get on with it. Peter (Bill Pullman, aces in this role) is quintessential nice guy teacher that Kobayashi filled the role of in “Ju-On: The Curse.” Of course, if you’ve seen that film or read my review, you know that this is the character that Kayako falls in love with, leading to her untimely death at the hands of Takeo. The “Toshio” and “Kayako” chapters from that film are repeated pretty much verbatim here, but for the uninitiated, here’s a loose summary.

Peter becomes worried when he finds out that Toshio Saeki hasn’t been in class for several days. He makes a trip to Toshio’s house, finding the boy a shocked wreck and unresponsive. Eventually, he makes his way upstairs and finds the journal of Kayako, revealing that Toshio’s mother stalked – and was in love – with the married teacher. After finding the murdered body of Kayako, he attempts to carry Toshio out of the house, but is summarily consumed by the angry ghost of Kayako, beginning the grudge – the powerful curse of those who die with revenge and anger in their hearts.

One interesting thing to note is that in this version, it is explicitly spelled out that Takeo drowned Toshio in the bathtub, whereas in the Japanese films it is said – more than once – that the body of Toshio was never found, the implication being that Kayako actually claimed Toshio as her first victim. Another difference in regards to the original murder is that Takeo commits suicide after killing his wife and son; this is actually a change I don’t like, as it robs us of the emotional revenge on Takeo by Kayako that we get in “Ju-On: The Curse.”


The Williams Family: After the original murders and the Bill Pullman Incident, as it shall come to be known, a new family moves in to the Saeki abode – your American equivalents of Katsuya’s family from “Ju-On: The Grudge.” There’s husband Matthew (William Mapother), wife Jennifer (Clea DuVall) and mother Emma (Grace Zabriskie). The mother is immediately mortified of the house and clams up faster than *insert punchline here*, so it’s up to the rest of the family to carry this plot thread.

This is where a good deal of this movie’s jump scares take place, and in short, they’re excellent. The calling card of the “Ju-On” series was that these were movies that were master classes in how to executive jump scares without relying on cymbal crash-style sound effects; they drew out their “danger scenes” to the point of delirium before FINALLY giving us release. Of course, this whole familial unit is doomed; we know that from the start, but we’re given no less than three classic scenes in this segment of the plot. First is the wife’s death by Toshio. Second is the husband’s meeting with the ghosts. And the third is a FANTASTIC recreation of the “Hitomi” sequence in “Ju-On: The Grudge,” with KaDee Strickland doing an amazing job as Matthew’s incredibly bad luck-cursed sister who wanders into the house and spends the better part of five minutes of screen time attempting to escape from the onslaught of Saekis.

The social workers: I suppose one could say that this is your “main” story arc of the film. After all, it’s from here that we get the name above the marquee. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Karen Daniels, your Rika Nishina character for “The Grudge.” She’s very likable, very kind, and a very good social worker who just so happens to get sent to the devil demon house from hell in the first fifteen minutes of this movie. After witnessing the final moments of Mama Williams, it’s up to Karen to get to the bottom of just what the frig is going on in abode Saeki. Much of it has been spelled out already – jealous husband murders wife and son in a rage and kills himself, causing a “curse” or “grudge” to develop and, in effect, damning everyone who crosses the threshold into the house. Including Karen.

This segment includes another instance of actually IMPROVING on a sequence from the original films. This movie recreates the infamous “torn-off Jaw” jump scare of doom from “Ju-On: The Curse”; now that scene is difficult to top, but nonetheless, they took it on. Due to a bunch of make-up and a higher budget, the scene is still laid out incredibly well, and still gets under your skin just as much as the original moment that made its way into your permanent memory.

What the movie leads to, of course, is a final showdown in the house between Karen (hoping to burn down the cursed house with gasoline) and Kayako. We’re given a slightly different ending than the one we got in “Ju-On: The Grudge,” and for what it’s worth, I think it really worked. Doing the exact same thing that we got in that monumental classic would have been a tall order to accomplish, and while I usually HATE the tactic, this is definitely a movie (and a series of movies, mind you) where doom-and-gloom “the villain is still out there” endings seem very appropriate.

Overall, this is definitely a remake that works. It takes the best parts of the previous movies in the series, and while some tweaks are slightly different (mostly in regards to the original murders), almost nothing is changed for the worse. It also creates enough of an identity for itself so as to allow for maximum impact (and sequels), and the acting…this might be one of the best-acted horror films of all time, bar none. Everyone in this cast was on top of their game, from Buffy to Captain Lone Star, and, of course, Fuji and Yuya Ozeki, who makes his third appearance as Toshio in this film. I don’t believe I’ve mentioned Ozeki yet in this series of reviews, but suffice to say, he does as amazing of a job as a cat-loving demon boy that could have possibly been done. Very impressive. This isn’t my favorite movie in the series, but it probably ranks a very respectable second, and in this series that’s a HUGE compliment.

The Rage and Fury Omnibus, Part IV: "Ju-On: The Grudge 2" (2003)

"Ju-On: The Grudge 2" (once again, just like the V-cinema films, known simply as "Ju-On 2" in many circles - but this indeed the FOURTH film in the series if you're keeping score, ladies and gents) is a pretty damn beloved movie. Many fans of the series consider it the absolute best film in the entire franchise, and for good reason. It's also the perfect capper to follow up the original "Ju-On: The Grudge" with. That film will leave you so hungry for more bob-and-weave Kayako action that another 92 minutes with the same main star and the same apocalyptic feel of the previous movie is the perfect way to sate your thirst.

I can definitely say it worked on me; hell, I watched this movie exactly 24 hours after my first viewing of "Ju-On: The Grudge." It didn't disappoint in the slightest; while not QUITE as strong as that incendiary classic, this movie has tons going for it. In the absolute simplest way I know how to put it, this HAS to be the best horror franchise of the 21st century, because I can think of no other series that featured a FOURTH film as good as this one. And we're talking GOOD good, not cheesy good ("Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter," I love you, but lord knows you ain't a Shakespearian epic). Yes, folks, this is a great movie. Perhaps not in the way that it should have walked away with a bagful of Oscars, but as both a continuation and a stand-alone story that's meant to creep the holy f**k out of you, there's few better than "Ju-On: The Grudge 2."

The story and slight effort to unconfuse you: The first two direct-to-video films focused on the first two families to call the cursed Saeki home, well, home. The third had another poor bunch of blood- and not-blood kin getting systematically butchered, along with a few ill-fated social workers meeting their ends at the hand of Superonryo and her son. By the time the events of this movie have rolled around, the house has been abandoned for many years, which is right where this story picks up.

The bookend story this time revolves around a pregnant actress named Kyoko Harase (Noriko Sakai, in an excellent performance). Kyoko makes an appearance on a Japanese variety show that specialized in haunted houses and other horror-tastic tales, and what better way to spike the ratings than visit a house where everyone who has ever entered dies a horrific death? Seems like a good idea to me. Hey, nobody ever said characters in horror films were Mensa members, and if they'd turned back at the front door to start the movie...there wouldn't be a movie, schmucks.

Anyway, if you've been following these things, the rest you know. Cast and crew of said show goes into house, only to be systematically slaughtered by Kayako and Toshio. The "Ju-On" experience has always been much more style than substance, however; its joys lie not in its minty freshness, but its creativity in springing its money scenes. In this regard, this is indeed the best movie in the series. The kill scenes in "Ju-On" films contain virtually no blood (well, with the exception of that "ripped-off jaw" scene in the original "Ju-On: The Curse," later cribbed for "The Grudge 1" in the States), but a lot of them have the genuine power to scare the crap out of anyone watching them for the first time sometime in the wee morning hours. The first time I watched this particular flick, I was amazed at Takashi Shimizu's ability to top himself with every one of the murder scenes. They're elaborately planned, well-paced and built-to, and paid off with perfection.

One thing, however, that stands in stark contrast to the previous film is the amount of screen time given to Takako Fuji and her amazing portrayal of everyone's favorite black-haired demon. In the previous film, her appearances (and it might not even need to be pluralized) were brief and scarce; this time, she's all over the place. Of all seven "Ju-On/Grudge" films with Fuji as Kayako, this is the one where she has the most face time, and she definitely makes the most of the opportunity. If you want to see Takako Fuji eating the souls of many, many unfortunate victims, and see it on the glorious big-screen, this is your bag, baby.

THE SEGMENTS

The movie begins with a pre-credits sequence showing Kyoko and her fiance Masashi driving down a lonely stretch of road. All appears innocent until Toshio makes a surprise appearance, forcing them off the road in an accident that effectively makes Masashi an invalid and seemingly kills Kyoko's unborn child. Or does it? Dun dun dun.

Kyoko: More of Kyoko's story, and unfortunately this segment kind of drags. The main gist of the thing is that Kyoko (known as the "Horror Queen" in her native Japan due to her propensity of starring in various horror flicks - I'd dig her if she was real) finds out that her previously-thought terminated pregnancy is in fact NOT terminated. So who or what is growing inside of her? There's a couple nice trademark "Ju-On" jump scares here, as well.

Tomoka: Now we're talking. Chihari Niiyama plays the title character, a sexy young TV show host who serves as our first lamb being led to slaughter in this go-round. And this...segment...is...awesome. Perfectly plotted, well-paced, containing a foreboding sense of dread and amazing payoff with one of the BEST, most imprinted images in all of the "Ju-On/Grudge" franchise. You don't mess with Kayako hanging two people with her demonic hair and Toshio playing around with the dead bodies like rag dolls.

Megumi: Another classic segment with a wonderful payoff. Megumi (Emi Yamamoto) is the hairstylist for the doomed TV show crew, and it's in this sketch where we see the actual taping of the show. There's one creeptacular scene where Kayako and Toshio - in human form - appear in the background behind Megumi and Kyoko, and the ending - the wig from hell - is once again an ingenious death scene.

Keisuke: Unfortunately, this is another segment that drags, and it's one with a character we don't really care about (even by the end of this part). More than anything, it's more exposition on Kyoko's pregnancy. Yup - creepy stuff is going on, we get it. Moving along...

Chiharu: Probably my second favorite segment in the entire "Ju-On" saga. It begins with an eerie tracking shot that seemingly follows the consciousness of Kayako roaming throughout Tokyo, and the rest of the segment is no less foreboding. Remember Izumi, the daughter of Detective Toyama from "Ju-On: The Grudge?" Well, now Kayako's after her friends. Chiharu is played by Japanese pinup idol Yui Ichikawa; she's fun to look at, but she's also really great at screaming. This part of the film is a mindf**k of Biblical proportions; Chiharu is shuttled in and out of realities with seemingly no pattern. The end result, of course, is that she's screwed.

Kayako: The third "Ju-On" film to have a "Kayako" chapter, and it's just as epic as the others. The entire movie has been building to the birth scene seen in so many romantic comedy and drama films...THIS, however, is a birth unlike any you've ever seen before, I'll tella you that much (Italian mode). What a rocking ending, and it even ends with the premeditated death of boring Keisuke. LOVE the ending, as well; it's tragic, it's sad, and it's ultimately VERY fitting, just as the ending of "Ju-On: The Grudge" was.

In a way, "Ju-On: Grudge 2" was the end of an era. It was, thus far, the final Japanese film to feature Kayako and Toshio before Shimizu would take this grand concept to the United States for even greater fame and fortune. It's also the highest-budgeted film in the Japanese series. Watching the movie in this regard, it's kind of sad; nobody had ever made J-horror movies of this nature before, with a singular sense of focus coupled perfectly with a nonlinear story. It's not quite as strong as "Ju-On: The Grudge," but as an opus for one of the most creative, incendiary chapters in the history of horror films, it's dynamite. As you can probably guess by now, a little over a year after the release of this film, "The Grudge" was released in the U.S. - in and of itself a glorified TRIBUTE to the four films that preceded it in the land of the rising sun. To me, truly a befitting honor for 3.5 classic films.

The Rage and Fury Omnibus, Part III: "Ju-On: The Grudge" (2002)

JU-ON: The curse of one who dies while in the grip of a powerful rage. It gathers and takes effect in the places where that person was alive. Those who encounter it die, and a new curse is born.

Well, if you're a devoted fan of all the crap that I post (all three of you), you know that I've already reviewed this movie - several times. I've harped about it on various message boards, I inducted into the International Horror Registry, and it's all for a reason. "Ju-On: The Grudge" (or simply "Ju-On" to many, and even "Ju-On 3" to Japanese audiences) is probably my second favorite horror movie of all time, one of my ten favorite FILMS in any genre, and still a flick that I can pop in any ol' time and either drift off to sleep or pay my full attention to, picking out various camera tricks and subtleties in character shifts that I had never noticed before. As an example, I just watched this film a few days ago, and I had never picked up on the fact that Katsuya (we'll be getting to him later) is acting like Takeo, and may in fact be possesed by him.

Information that you already know - this is the first "Ju-On" movie I ever saw. I don't count the first American "Grudge" film, since I was surfing the internet and playing "Castlevania" in the background at the time. It blew me away, and continues to blow me away. It's without question my favorite horror movie of the previous decade (which is called what, exactly? The Ohs? The oughts?), a horror film where all of the elements - acting, writing, direction - are firing on all cylinders. As with the previous movies, it's done in "short" form, with a series of six segments making up the flick's 90-some minute running time, but MUCH moreso than the direct-to-video "Curse" films, this is a movie where all of those parts add up to one unbelievable, cohesive WHOLE, better than any other movie in the nine-film franchise.

Another thing that leapt out at me a few days ago (as it has before) is just how LITTLE Takako Fuji is onscreen in this one. It's funny; Japanese audiences had to be expecting something pretty epic when the announcement came that these two cult favorite V-cinema films were being given the big bucks to make a fully-loaded theatrical movie, complete with all the production values and CGI you could ask for. No doubt they expected Kayako transforming special effects-driven monstrosities, bringing victims into some sort of web with her tentacles of doom, and whatever other crap I cam come up with running off three hours of sleep. Instead...she's shown INCREDIBLY sparingly, usually only for the money shots. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the scariest cat in all of horrordom Toshio actually has MORE screen time than the all-time J-horror queen in this one. Most unexpected, and most effective.

Nope, what we get with "Ju-On: The Grudge" is a STORY, and that story is told in separate parts all adding up to one hell of an emotional wallop finale. The plot threads are separate but equal: Rika Nishina (Megumi Okina) is your Sarah Michelle Gellar character, the poor doomed caregiver who pays the visit to the house of death; we get the husband-wife-mother familial unit also cribbed for the first American remake, along with a sister who gets the movie's single best sequence; and there's the tragic case of the original Saeki murders' investigator, which picks up several years down the line.

Let's take a look at the segments that make up "Ju-On: The Grudge"...

Rika: As mentioned, this is your star character, and the inspiration for SMG's Karen Davis character. As played by Okina, she's sweet and charming, completely innocent and undeserving of the death sentence she walks into. The segment is classic "Ju-On" slow burn, all building up to the first reveal of Kayako - but not in the form we're used to.

Katsuya: This part is a double whammy; the main DEATH in this segment is Kazumi, the wife of Katsuya (a businessman). The Tokunaga family - complete with a mute mother-in-law who stays up till all hours of the night - make up the current residents of the ol' Saeki abode, meaning that their lease on life isn't very long. There's two great jump scares in this segment, along with yet more slow burn leading to the next chapter.

Hitomi: Oh yeah - my favorite chapter in the entire "Ju-On" saga, right here. ALSO cribbed for "The Grudge," Hitomi (Misaki Ito) is Katsuya's sister who had just arrived at their household at the end of the previous segment. No developments here - just one long execution, as both Kayako and Toshio pursue, torment, and eventually get this scared-to-death (and again, wholly innocent) victim. Awesome stuff.

Toyama: While it's a sort of sigh of relief after Hitomi's story, this one really kicks you in the nuts emotionally. Years after the original incident, Detective Toyama (Yoji Tanaka) is still haunted by the case of the Saeki murders. He has read the reports of the deaths cropping up, all with the house as the impetus, and resolves to burn the damn thing to the ground - of course, with disastrous results...

Izumi: At this point, the movie flashes forward several years. Toyama's daughter - a little girl in the last segment - is now in her teenage years. It was shown in the "Toyama" chapter that Izumi and her friends entered the Saeki house on a dare. This segment is similar to the "Hitomi" chapter, although it might be even scarier, because the extent that the curse has effected Izumi's life is shown in detail. Hell, this girl plasters newspapers on her walls - not to avoid looking out, but to stop things from looking IN.

Kayako: And this is where it all comes together. In the same time frame as the "Izumi" segment, we are shown Rika, several years after the incident at the Saeki house. She appears carefree and enjoying life, and then the things that haunted her several years ago come back. Tender, tragic, and emotional, this ending is pure perfection, and also gives us a very cool big-budget recreation of the "Kayako crawls down the stairs" sequence in the ONLY scene in this movie with a clear camera shot of Takako Fuji in the role!

Finally, there's that CLASSIC ending montage, showing one "MISSING" poster, and then another, and then another...and then the empty streets of Tokyo...

Overall, I can't say enough good about this film. It continues to amaze me every time I watch it, not only for its scare scenes, but its sense of FOCUS that is truly rare among J-horror films, and MOVIES in general. Writer-director Shimizu, given a large budget and stellar cast, could have settled for a cooler-looking version of "Ju-On: The Curse." Instead, we get a story that builds to a true heart-breaker of an ending, and the conviction - the feelilng that Shimizu KNEW what he was trying to accomplish with every scene and shot - shines through in vivid color. As such, this movie is absolutely essential for horror fans, and I wouldn't NOT recommend it to movie fans at large either!