Sarah Michelle Gellar

’The Grudge’ will give you the creeps, and then some

The Grudge (Japan title: The Juon)

Three and a half stars (out of five)

Dir: Takashi Shimizu

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Grace Zabriske, Bill Pullman, Ryo Ishibashi, Yuya Ozeki, Takako Fuji

Ever have the eerie feeling that something is following you up a dark set of stairs, or get a chill up and down your spine when you enter a basement? If you haven’t, watch The Grudge and you will the next time you’re alone.

The Grudge is the faithful U.S. remake of director Takashi Shimizu’s creepy horror film Juon. What sets this movie apart from many other modern-day U.S. horror flicks is that it attempts to scare you not with gore, but with what you don’t see and with some of the creepiest ghosts in recent memory.

The specters in this film (Yuya Ozeki, Takako Fuji), also directed by Shimizu, are truly horrific visions of the soulless dead. Pale tortured faces with hollowed-out eyes and gaping mouths that unleash some of the most bizarre and unnerving sounds imaginable. Contorted bodies that crawl across the floor in jerky movements as they lurch closer to their intended victims, who all, not surprisingly, die of pure fear.

It is a very real and terrifying ghost story in the classic sense.

Ghosts don’t dominate the screen time, though, and they aren’t the only creepy thing about this film. Shimizu manages to create an atmosphere of dread and dozens of unnerving moments with what isn’t seen: scratching noises in the attic and behind closed doors; the sound of footsteps and knocked-over glasses; rooms that have been furiously ransacked; shadows and movements that are caught out of the corner of the characters’ eyes.

But, perhaps, the most unnerving thing of all is that Shimizu has been able to create the illusion that, at times, these tortured, vengeful souls are not looking at their intended victims on the screen but are starring directly out at you in the theater.

It is a feeling that will stick with you long after you have left your popcorn behind.

None of this will be new to those who have seen the original, but Shimizu, with the help of American screenwriter Stephen Susco, has gotten rid of some of the fat in the updated version. The new film moves along at a slightly brisker pace—although it still drags a little in the middle.

Like the original, the remake, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, takes place in Tokyo, but this time around the characters are mostly American. The film centers on a social worker named Karen (Gellar) and a house where something terrible happened several years in the past.

Karen, who is living in Tokyo with her American boyfriend, gets her first assignment at this house. Her job is to help look after the catatonic mother (Grace Zabriske) of an American businessman because the person who usually does so hasn’t shown up for work and no one can reach her—I wonder why?

When Karen arrives at the house, it is in a shambles, looking as if no one even lives there. There is food and garbage strewn everywhere and the mother is sprawled out beside her futon in what appears to be a state of pure terror.

"Just tell it to leave me alone," the terrified woman says to Karen, who of course thinks she is just senile.

But it doesn’t take long before Karen realizes there is something terribly wrong in the house.

The film doesn’t follow any chronological order, more a psychological framework. It’s a layered story, and Shimizu has us slip back and forth in time. While we are doing so, we learn what has happened in the house. As in many horror films, there isn’t much of a plot, but what there is involves Karen connecting the dots to prevent future murders, including her own and that of a police officer (Ryo Ishibashi) who is investigating the case.

Karen discovers that all the terrible things happening in the house have something to do with an American college professor (Bill Pullman in a cameo role) and a Japanese woman (Fuji, who has revised her role for this film).

Not much is asked of the actors—the most Gellar has to do is be scared, which she does very well—and everyone seems a little one-dimensional. No doubt this was a technique Shimizu used to help create a feeling of surreality and alienation.

Unfortunately, The Grudge is haunted by the same kinds of flaws as other horror movies. For example, in real life people don’t go into dark houses or rooms by themselves when they already know that something very unnatural has taken place. And the story doesn’t follow some of its own rules—i.e., the ghosts are capable of doing things that just don’t fit.

But this movie is more about its parts than its whole. And its parts are very frightening.

The movie is currently playing.