A young woman goes to Tokyo to find her sister, a woman who apparently went mad, killed her boyfriend and tried to burn down a house she thought evil. What she doesn’t know is the evil that lives there is spreading and looking for new victims.

I really loved The Grudge and fully expected to love the sequel, because more of the same would have been fine with me, or so I thought. The truth is, there were some hitches. I still think it’s a good movie and by no means did I not enjoy it, but I was still disappointed. I don’t know if I can really blame that on the filmmakers, though. There were some shortcomings, but maybe the biggest was that it’s hard to scare someone with the same thing you scared them with before. A good story is a good story, but scary is far more of a challenge, that's why horror is the epitome of entertainment.

The thing about The Grudge 2 is that it’s got three distinct and nearly unrelated storylines running through it, tied together only by the curse itself. This worked great for Pulp Fiction, because the characters were filled with depth and realism, and it was a long movie that left plenty of time for the dialog and action to endear the audience to every character in the film so that when there was a conflict, we were torn as to who to root for. We cared about them all.

Not so in The Grudge 2. Most the characters are merely victims, introduced just so we can see them terrorized and exterminated. To say it was hard to care would be an understatement. Maybe someone really compassionate and empathic would care some, but not because of anything in the movie, just a general love for all life. A Buddhist might, I guess. Several times the movie dragged, not because it was so long between scary stuff, it really wasn’t, the scary was paced well. The dragging had to do with me not giving a tinker’s damn about the humans onscreen.

With the exception of Amber Tamblyn, who plays the sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character, it would be a struggle for me to even name more than a couple others, and there were several. Even she could be completely summed up in a couple sentences. Just flat, that’s where this flick went wrong.

The entire film relied on the scary-as-hell images that made the original so damn creepy. The ghosts, while not that unique in Asian horror, were alien to most of us. Dripping with malice and impossible to really identify with, just a crawling, mindless evil that jarred us left and right. It was damn good stuff.

The truth is, so was the first. The characters in it weren’t exactly magnificent, the entire movie hinged on weirdness and creepiness, and the complex story just came along to justify it all. I loved it, too. It worked and I had nary a complaint, it’s really one of my favorite horror flicks of recent years.

But since then, having seen The Grudge several times, I’m not as sensitive. It’s still creepy as hell, this movie is chock-fucking-full of image after image of truly terrible action. I won’t even insinuate they weren’t beautifully evil, the milk jug and the darkroom come to mind, both truly great. I really don‘t know if it would even be possible for a sequel to have even half the effect that the original had on me. In fact, I’d guess it’s not. So anyone reading this and getting the impression I’m bashing it, I’m really not.

However, I did feel a weird unease as I stepped into my darkened house after watching, and it’s hard for me to point a finger or blame anyone involved in making this movie, it’s not that they let me down, I’m just not as sensitive. It really would have to have been turned up a couple more notches to get to me.

Still a good flick, it will be easy for people to say that this is as much of a disappointment as The Ring 2 was, and while I won’t argue with them, I won’t agree either. I think the causes of the disappointment were too different to sum it up that conveniently. The truth is, when following up a movie as good as The Grudge or The Ring, it would be hard to even come close. Movies like these aren’t like slashers where you can just do the same story again and again and have people eat it up. We all walk in expecting something horrific and magnificent and unique, and you can’t be unique in a sequel. If you try, you end up with Season of the Witch, and nobody wants that.

My point is, while I can’t honestly say this comparable to the original, I also can’t give many suggestions on how it really could have been. It’s basically more of the same and turned up a notch, just not a big enough notch to really get to most of us.

6 out of 10 peekaboo-playing dipshits who needed smacked

The idea of bringing The Grudge to America was a good one, and the execution was inspired: Take the four movies that preceded it, take all the best parts, and craft a new film. It worked. Audiences and critics alike enjoyed the film, and its predecessors (including Ju-on: The Grudge) were released on video at the same time the new version entered home DVD systems.

Many people who were curious about the film's origin saw Ju-on and therein lies the first major problem with The Grudge 2: It uses the leftover bits from the first Grudge. Moreover, it takes the last half-hour of Ju-on, stretches it out over three times that length, and turns it into a mystery. Meaning, if you've seen that one, this film will be a yawnfest and you'll know the ending as soon as you see the three schoolgirls pop onto the screen. The rest of the film is basically filler from Ju-on: The Grudge and Ju-on: The Curse.

But it's not just the self-plagiarism that irks me; after all, it worked for the first film. No, there's more. In the previous films, Kayako was a dark, mysterious, sad creature who appeared when we least expected it. Here, we get Kayako the slasher. Seriously, she's everywhere, and often in broad daylight.

Check out the chase scene in the hospital where, not only can't Kayako catch the intended victim, but neither can pursuing cops, who completely disappear twice so that the camera can show a several second closeup of said victim. It's as if the director got on an American horror film kick since the last Grudge but, instead of watching slower, subtler films such as Jaws and Aliens he watched as many Friday the 13th films as he could and decided to ape them.

But wait, there's more! We also get some of the worst acting since the first American made Jackie Chan films! Witness such classic lines as "Stop it, Michael, it tickles!" and "Briiiiing her back!"

And, in a series of films that already defied logic with their frequent jumping of time and space, we have some of the laziest logic I've ever seen. Example: a guy, being watched by his girlfriend (who is in bed), is taking a shower. He shuts off the water, and leaves. She then feels hands on her legs under the covers ("Stop it, Michael, it tickles!"), and then the guy gets back in the shower. Why? Because they needed the girl to realize it wasn't him under the covers. The audience already knows of course, but she's apparently never seen The Grudge or Ju-On.

And that's not all! Witness full character back stories in only three lines! Laugh out loud as Kayako plays peek-a-boo in a darkroom! Enjoy the cool Blue Man Group makeup in the silly "Guidance Counselor" scene! Waste time with an entire Ring Two scene that leads absolutely nowhere! Waste time with an extraneous trip to the dreaded house that also leads absolutely nowhere! Shiver at randomly inserted puking and bus trip scenes!

Grudge 2 isn't a complete waste, of course; there are about 5 to 8 good minutes here. The first scene with three school girls is effectively creepy. For those who haven't seen the "Grudge" extended cut, the final scene in the house is pretty good, too. Other than that, this film pisses me off more than "The Village."

Pros: Bah. Watch "Ju-on: The Grudge" and "Ju-on: The Curse." That's what this is anyway, and they're both better films.
Cons: Just about everything. This is actually the first film I've ever walked out of (but did go back a few days later because my son wanted to see it, so I have watched it in its entirety. Won't happen again, though.).
Review Rating: 2 out of 10 original ideas were apparently rejected.