Review: The Grudge 2

UK Release: 20th October 2006

Director Takashi Shimizu has made a career out of ghost stories. Or to be precise, he’s made a career out of retelling the same ghost story over and over. The Grudge 2 is the sixth reworking of his original Japanese outing — 2000’s direct-to-video Ju-on. It’s also a direct sequel to his recent Hollywood remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as an American in Tokyo terrorised by ghosts. Gellar returns briefly here, but is largely supplanted by Amber Tamblyn as her sister, who’s trying to stop the supernatural beings reaching the States.

Those familiar with the series will find little that’s original, as Shimizu shamelessly recycles set pieces from earlier incarnations of the story. Yet his masterful ability to inject even innocuous objects (telephones, wardrobes and shower cubicles) with a foreboding sense of dread delivers some occasional, hair-raising chills.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 102mins

Review by Jamie Russell

News: Sarah Michelle Gellar

Despite her top-notch turn in the modernised Dangerous Liaisons that was Cruel Intentions back in 1999, and money-making roles in the two live-action Scooby-Doo flicks, Gellar’s career has hardly boomed since her fame-making TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended three years ago. Nonetheless, she has been a bit of a workaholic, with four movies already completed or in post-production, and two more in the pipeline.

First up, due out in January, is yet another horror flick, The Return, where Gellar’s nightmares lead her on a quest to solve a 15-year-old murder. She is also set to challenge our gag reflexes in an entirely different way in The Girls’ Guide to Hunting & Fishing, where she’ll play a young woman enters a romance with an older man – played by Alec Baldwin, of all people.

More promising sounds The Air That I Breathe, an experimental drama based on an ancient Chinese proverb, where she will play “Sorrow” alongside Kevin Bacon’s “Love”, Brendan Fraser’s “Pleasure” and Forest Whitacker’s “Happiness”. The one that could really make it for her, however, is Alice. Due for release in America in July next year, Gellar plays a grown-up version of the Alice from Lewis Carrol’s beloved novels, who returns to Wonderland following an emotional breakdown.

News: Takashi Shimizu

It looks like the Japanese horror maestro still hasn’t tired of his Grudge series. Having already directed four Japanese versions and sequels and two English-language, Americanised takes in just six years, he has announced yet another Japanese sequel, to be released next year. Ju-on: The Grudge 3 will follow Ju-on: The Grudge 2, Ju-on: The Grudge, Ju-on 2 and the original, video only release Ju-on, and may yet be translated into English as yet another sequel to The Grudge and this week’s The Grudge 2. *Phew…*