When The Grudge opens, a man is standing on the balcony of an
apartment building. It is early morning in downtown Tokyo, and the man gazes
over the cityscape with a dazed expression on his face. When his wife awakens,
she mentions to him that he is up early. His response is to silently fling
himself over the side of the balcony, splitting his head open on the pavement
several stories below. Sometime later, a young American student named Karen Davis
(Sara Michelle Gellar), who works as a daycare provider while her boyfriend goes
to architectural school, receives an assignment to care for an old American woman
named Emma (Twin Peaks' Grace Zabriskie) for the day. The regular caregiver, a
woman named Yoko, has mysteriously vanished, without leaving any message as to
her whereabouts.
When Karen arrives at the house, she finds that the place is a mess, with
garbage all over the floor. The old woman, who is catatonic, has been left
alone and is in a disheveled state. Karen finds her on the floor, scraping
desperately at the door of her bedroom. After cleaning Emma up and putting her to
bed, Karen goes upstairs with a vacuum cleaner. Yet all thoughts of cleaning the
place up evaporate from her mind once she hears strange creaking sounds.
Following the whimpering, she finds a room where the closet door has been taped
shut. Karen is about to leave well enough alone until she hears what sounds like
whimpering from behind the door. When Karen pulls off the tape and opens the
closet, she finds a young boy named Toshio huddled inside with a cat. She also
finds a book. When Karen later leafs through the book, she discovers a photo of
the man who committed suicide by diving off of his balcony at the beginning of
the film. Emma's grown daughter leaves a message on the answering machine, yet
Karen can't pick up because the cordless phone is gone. As Karen listens to the
message, her attention is diverted by the wild ramblings of Emma, who is having
an intense conversation with someone--or something--that is not there. When Karen
asks whom she is talking to, Emma replies, "I just want her to leave me alone."
And at that moment, Karen comes literally face to face with the real tenant of
the house in one of the scariest encounters with the supernatural ever put on
film.
Masterfully directed by Takashi Shimizu, The Grudge is an Americanized remake of
his earlier hit that deals with the Japanese superstition that if a person dies
of great rage or sorrow, then the place where they die becomes forever tainted
with that raw emotion. The memory of what occurred keeps happening over and over
again until death itself becomes a part of the place, killing anyone who comes
into contact with it. Violent emotions haunting a place is not an original
idea--Stephen King used the concept in his classic novel The Shining--but
Shimizu effectively takes what is basically a ghost story and turns it into a
gripping, riveting tale that avoids the clichés of most horror films by flashing
back and forth from the present to the past, a la Pulp Fiction. This eliminates
the need for any awkward exposition scenes as we are shown everything we need to
know in all its horrifying glory. Shimizu's directing style is so well mannered
and unassuming that when the supernatural elements burst forth, it literally
makes you jump out of your seat. The cast, both American and Japanese, are superb,
including Sara Michelle Gellar, who is better known as Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
In The Grudge she plays a more traditional horror movie heroine, and handles the
part very well.
The special features on the DVD include a cast & crew commentary including Sara
Michele Gellar, producer Sam Raimi, his brother, actor Ted Raimi and others. A five-part "making of"
documentary called "A Powerful Rage". And a fascinating documentary called
"Under The Skin", which examines why people are so drawn to watching horror
movies. I'm certainly drawn to watching The Grudge again, but next time I'm
leaving all the lights on when I do so. --SF