The Grudge 2 - Thoughts

Hi again all. Apologies for the lack of material of late but I have been coping with some personal issues which have kept me somewhat out of the emotional state for horror. Proving that good friends and the genre are always there for you though it was during this time that Mr B came round, bought me petrol station snacks and we decided to (finally) watch this, since I picked it up at the store where I work for a steal at just £2. To warn you I may be cutting it some slack due to my mood (which may skew things unfairly against the film).
I started off being quite harsh towards the movie, and to be fair there are a lot of cliches, hallmarked shock and scare moments (none of which are scary and only a couple of which are spooky, be warned early), some abysmal dialogue and some truly awful special effects and plot contrivances. Lets try and deal with the movie in a linear sense (in terms of what we see, the film is mind-messingly non-linear, even more so than the first).
The opening scene is like a more brutal and violent rehash of the seeming suicide moment from the first movie, immediately leaving you with questions and not allowing you to ease back into this world, perhaps a bit more work, a link to the previous characters (Sarah Michelle Gellar is utilised later), or at least an appearance by the ghostly protagonists (of which there are plenty later, mostly lacking in effective atmosphere but some genius).
We next flash to our new lead girl (or what passes for one). In this case it is Amber Tamblyn, the sister of Karen (S.M.G) from the first movie and, for seemingly NO reason, it is set up that she has a torrid relationship with their mother and her sister. It's possibly supposed to add depth, and we do learn later some guff about them wanting her to go to a certain college, it's really not in any way effective. This is probably a scripting issue if I had to place blame.
At this point my memory is hazy, I recall being ambivalent towards the messed up time structure, loving seeing some of the kills (though the cleverest moments are rehashes of those seen in the original US or Japanese Grudge (ghost under the covers, chasing you as the lights go out etc). There were some great ones though which Mr B can attest I loved, or at least admired, and I shan't spoil them.
The direction is fantastic, but I expected nothing less from the man responsible for single handedly overseeing two countries' versions of this story, one Shimizu Takashi (who created the story, writing the vastly superior, excellent and original Ju-On)
I hated the unnecessary (and disregarded) added exposition about why Kayako became how she was (her mother implanted her with evil spirits, no seriously), it is ridiculous, takes away some of the cool, supernatural mystique and is thrown away out of hand as untrue even within the film.
Likewise the film's ending, whilst maybe seeming arty merely leaves you thinking that the whole event was a bit pointless. I don't normally feel this way but here it jars that nothing has moved on, more people you could not really form a connection with have died and the curse has spread to another country, with the implication that it will continue to. Our lead "final girl" makes no attempt to solve this quandary as it has been so well set up as an unstoppable force so it feels like just rehashing and treading water. I fear for where the 3rd movie could take this as I don't see any logical progression.
However as I say I love how the whole thing looked, the narative and its unusual form did keep you hooked as you tried to work out connections etc, half of the cast do well and the moments are enjoyable enough. It's hard to give specific reasons why but I know I enjoyed this more than the last Friday the 13th, the last thing I reviewed. Maybe Im just not as protective a fan, or being generous. Or perhaps its just that Mr B and I agreed when setting up the site that we wouldnt allow half marks. In any case a solid, non-offensive example of the J-horror spook, done USA style, not bad but not especially good...

*** (3/5)

MM