The Grudge 2

[Remo D]

What? Nobody else has started in on this?

Yeah, I was considering skipping it (hair ghost, pale boys, J-Horror remake trauma/overload), but the film my wife and I saw for our anniversary (MAN OF THE YEAR) didn't do the trick, either. So I reverted to type.

After all, I liked the prequel to the CHAINSAW remake quite a bit, so maybe I had another surprise in store?

I wish I could tell you that THE GRUDGE 2 was a knockout from beginning to end. Seeing JU-ON: THE GRUDGE on the big screen before the American remake came out remains one of my favorite "scary movie" experiences ever. Also liked the sequel on DVD. The remake was... well... a remake. Hardly deserving of "worst of the year" honors, but as I'd already essentially seen it?

It's just like HALLOWEEN. The original scared the holy hell out of me on the big screen way back when. But Michael Myers will never scare me again. It's been done to death. Ditto Freddy, and Jason never scared me to begin with. But I digress.

The J-Horror business has now been given the SCARY MOVIE business in 3 and 4. Hair ghosts and meowing boys are now punchlines. And that's why THE GRUDGE 2 just can't hit the ceiling. Takashi Shimizu gives us a knockout opening scene and any number of terrific "buildup" passages... but whenever the spectre actually shows up? Anticlimax. AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH..... RRREEEOOOOOOWWWWRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

And PLEASE--no more backstories. I didn't need to know that Kaoko's mother was an exorcist any more than I needed to know that Michael was Laurie's brother. It doesn't help--and the whole business about tracking down the granny was nothing but a goose egg that could have been cut in its entirety.

And that's a bloody shame, because THE GRUDGE 2 really does have it all over the original (remake) everywhere else. The theme of the contagious nature of domestic violence, the way in which the separate elements come together, and the most surprising and refreshing "no compromise" attitude (guess you can thank Sam Raimi for getting this a PG-13) lead to some of the year's most disturbing "horror" material. Oh, and plenty of nice schoolgirl and cheerleader outfits, too.

If only it weren't the umpteenth such film, this could have been dynamite. As it is, it's still worth a look.

[Angelica]

I pretty much agree with all you said.....

The first half was great, I jumped a lot and was on the edge of my seat... but when they tried to have the one "sentimental" scene, I nodded off a bit and from that point forward my attention was gone. It was creepy enough in the beginning that I was actually thinking that a PG13 was pretty tame but then they lost it....

[Born in a Casket]

i just think it was the most comedic horror movie i've ever seen. i mean... seriously... it was only vaguely funny for the first 1/2 but once it got to the prime scene in the councilors office... that was just too funny for words... and the guy on the bus... wow... what a gay movie.... hahaha... it didn't help that it seemed everyone else in the theater was a prissy girl who insisted on screaming at EVERYTHING. It's like... uh... whatever... but seriously... if i had gone into this movie expecting it to be a comedy, i might have enjoyed it more.

[Jakeuglyface]

Please don't tell me I am the only one who noticed that the boom microphone came in to frame in almost every scene in the movie starting with the first scene where they show the house. I also noticed some lighting rigs coming in to frame during the scenes in the school couselors office.

I was in denial at first because the microphone was long and black and could have been a shadow cast from the projection booth or something but then they started using a microphone that a blueish greenish stripe on it towards the scene where the main character visits the mother's house.

Please tell me someone else saw this.

[Remo D]

Please don't tell me I am the only one who noticed that the boom microphone came in to frame in almost every scene in the movie starting with the first scene where they show the house. I also noticed some lighting rigs coming in to frame during the scenes in the school couselors office.

I was in denial at first because the microphone was long and black and could have been a shadow cast from the projection booth or something but then they started using a microphone that a blueish greenish stripe on it towards the scene where the main character visits the mother's house.

Please tell me someone else saw this.

Nope--didn't see it, but that doesn't mean that YOU didn't. You have been the victim of bad projection, nothing more--had the theatre framed the image correctly on your screen, you would have seen what I saw. Virtually every movie print contains more on the top and bottom than is meant to be visible. Someone oughta let the theatre know...

[Jakeuglyface]

After I posted that message here I did a serach for The Grudge 2 Boom Microphone and and found a bunch of other forums where people had posted things about the boom microphones. It probably is projectionist error but it is weird that it would be happening all over the place.