Starring: Megumi Okina, Misaki Ito, Misa Uehara, Yui Ichikawa Script: Takashi Shimizu Original Title: Ju-on Running Time: 1:32 Country: Japan Year: 2004 Official Site: Ju-on: The Grudge

Ju-on: The Grudge, the latest horror import from Japan, is an adaptation of a straight-to-video series, whose cult status has contributed to generate a couple of on-screen adaptations as well as an American remake.

While newcomer Takashi Shimizu has worked with Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Bright Future, Cure), it's without a doubt the work of Hideo Nakata that comes to mind as soon as Ju-on opens. The film is fueled by the same brand of psychological nightmare that slowly builds to an ending which must culminate in terms of horror level. While the approach might be interesting at first—see Ringu—it wears out pretty quickly as soon as it gets conjugated ad infinitum; the "novelty" factor somewhat fadiing away into some rampant boredom (Ringu 2, Ringu 0, Dark Water).

The main issue here isn't however in the narrative process but in the heart of film itself, its script, as its uninspired ghost story recycles Nakata's emblematic ingredients, for a result that might be considered either as a variation or as plagiarism of the latter overrated director whose own work has already turned to unconscious self-parody.

Specters with long dark hair, scary little girls & boys with pale faces, menacing TV screens, long corridors and deserted buildings populate Ju-on, somewhat looking like a spin-off of both Ringu & Dark Water. Unless you haven't seen Nakata's films, there is not much to hold on to, the spectator being cursed to follow the repetitive and slow torment of each victim, the film being even edited in chapters named after the victims, thus emphasizing the lack of narrative originality.

My other issue with Nakata's films, which can also be found here, is that there is a fine line between scariness and creepiness, and by choosing to go for a slow and almost ethereal approach each director fails to really scare its audience until the long-awaited climax. The Grudge is certainly creepy—and both directors certainly master this art particularly thanks to their work on atmosphere and the use of disturbing soundtracks—but the real scares are scarce.

I'm not sure there is a real need for another Ringu-like picture like Ju-on and the arrival of a Hollywood-produced remake in a market already saturated with various remakes of Ringu & Dark Water, bares even less cinematographic legitimacy.

  Fred Thom