Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)

I remember myself watching Ju-on: The Grudge for the first time exactly ten years ago and feeling like "o...k...". I think it is the one that introduced me to the J-horror genre. And I really do think that if Japanese take advantage of their urban legends and traditional beliefs can easily be the masters of horror.Ju-on is actually the definition of what we call "a proper horror movie". Disturbing and terrifying, Ju-on is waiting for us viewers to lower our guards and strike unexpectedly. Although the movie is a ghost/haunting story, it is not a cliché type of ghost story (we actually have to deal with what Japanese people call "onryō", a vengeful spirit). It is gory to the core, depressing and unpleasant. The plot is successful and not disappointing at all.The sound is something that we should definitely praise, 'cause it does not let you down from the very first minute and really adds up to the movie (thank you Kayako...).On the other hand, now that I watched it for the second time after all these years, I have to say that sometimes I felt like the movie all in all was sometimes a little slow and repetitive. Although the plot was quite original, you may find yourself thinking that the director could have done better at some points.All things considered, I think that every horror lover should watch Ju-on: The Grudge.

At some of my kid's birthday parties there have been twenty or thirty children running around in poorly applied body/face paint and I've not once been driven hysterical with fear. And there have got to be at least thirty phones at the office where I work—twice that amount if you include mobiles—but I've never filled my pants when they've rung (thank heavens!).If, like me, you are not in the least bit perturbed by small, pale boys with black paint around their eyes or a telephone's ring-tone, then don't be surprised if you find Ju-on: The Grudge more than just a little disappointing. Frights are limited to the aforementioned phone-calls and the little lad popping up unexpectedly, plus the occasional appearance of his equally un-scary mother who croaks like a frog whilst crawling very slowly downstairs on her belly.Perhaps, to a Japanese person well versed in the Ju-on legend, all this might seem like seriously scary stuff, but I was bored rigid, with matters made even more irksome by the film's excruciatingly slow pace and a pointless fractured time-line that ensured maximum confusion. Quite what Sam Raimi saw in this to make him want to fund a remake I'll never know...

In Japan, when the volunteer social assistant Rika Nishina is assigned to visit a family, she is cursed and chased by two revengeful fiends: Kayako, a woman brutally murdered by her husband and her son Toshio. Each person that lives or visits the haunted house is murdered or disappears.Creepy moments, but I wasn't surprised due to watching the remake first. The weird yelching, the noises, the atmosphere didn't feel the same to me. Not to mention the storyline gets confusing, going off course in the second half.Bottom line. People who have not the remake first will undoubtedly get more out of this, than me. If you want some scares though, pick it up6/10

Yeah. True horror is an overrated/over-hyped Japanese flick in which a naked little boy covered in talcum powder runs around a house and his true moment of terror is when he bulges his eyes and makes a very loud "Mroooooooooooowwww!!!!!!" sound effect. Oh my god, it was so scary, I had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital for a heart transplant.OK let's be serious now. I, like many and their dog, saw this before its American counterpart was released. I was hoping I was going to be in for a good ghost story, when instead I was in for a movie about people being scared by the aforementioned naked talcum powder drenched kid and some girl with bad hair who makes some belching noise to threaten her victims. Who'd have known people were so easily scared?There isn't much of a plot to speak of, except people go in a house and die by these two "ghosts". There was one scary part, and that was when the woman got pulled under the sheets, but that was done way better (and not so cheaply) in its American remake. The film's atmosphere sucks too- why is everything so light??? The American remake is an improvement as you can see they achieved the scares the original didn't. Way better creepy/brooding atmosphere, more convincing ghost story, etc. Save your money on this dreck.