The Grudge

The Grudge is another holiday movie being released this weekend, if you can call Halloween a holiday. The work of Takashi Shimizu, who translates one of his Japanese horror films (from his Ju-on series) into the Hollywood idiom, the movie, most reviewers suggest, has not lost much in translation. Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post says, in fact, that you might argue that this version of the film is a little better than the original. He concludes that the movie will send you home with jiggly knees and a tummy ache. Gene Seymour in Newsday comments: There may be more art-house than slaughterhouse in [Grudge]. ... But there are enough of the Hollywood-style musical cues and broad nudges to remind American audiences they are, in fact, watching a scary movie. Robert K. Elder in the Chicago Tribune suggests the movie is not your typical horror film: Non-linear storytelling and a third-act shuffle of the narrative deck elevates The Grudge above most of its contemporaries, but for true test of how scary Shimizu's remake is, check your seat cushion, he writes. However, Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe & Mail, was obviously left unshaken by the movie, writing that it is less like a real movie than a long, chronically fractured movie preview. The story doesn't make sense, but you feel bombarded with highlights. And Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times came to a similar conclusion, commenting: The movie may have some subterranean level on which the story strands connect and make sense, but it eluded me.