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I have to say, “The Grudge” has a strange and fascinating opening scene. Bill Pullman wakes up alongside his wife, looking out over the city from the balcony of their bedroom. Then he makes his way to the city. At this point, I was left looking utterly baffled. While I’m not entirely sure what this scene is supposed to contribute to the overall movie, I am not clear how many of the scenes actually connect to the rest of the movie. Like many others, I comprehend the core idea: There is a haunted house, and everyone who decides to enter is bound to endure the most unimaginable experiences.
These are more than just ordinary unrealistic events. These ghastly occurrences tend to follow the stereotypical pattern of spine-chilling horror stories. The astounding sound that sometimes is heard from the warmth of your bed, while you feel safe in bed, forces many to jump out of bed and explore. Ultimately, there is only one outcome only limbs and body fragments are left behind, Soon enough, they end up becoming evidence for forensics. In this quickened state, something or rather someone snatches them with the speed and foggy substance of a ghostly beast. Of course, it can always be said, “It was only a cat.”
Originally released in Japan, this film is directed by Takashi Shimizu and features American actors. The film misses many key chances to portray the Eastern and American cultures as it opts for English as the main language, which drastically shifts the story’s portrayal. I personally wanted to see its locations being fully utilized which would make the film a little more provocative and be named, “Lost, Eviscerated and Devoured in Translation.”
We are shown an opening title that states whenever someone is overwhelmed by rage, the curse is born and spreads to the people visiting that location. We do later on receive a flashback in black and white to the moment of violence and rage where we see some of the manifestations who haunt the house. A clawed screaming child and some other spirits can be seen slowly coming into focus.
This house serves as a residence for the mothers of a few of the characters who, during the day, remain bedridden or vacant; a young couple who recently moved in, and a realtor who notices everything seems fine, puts his hand in the water’s full bathtub to pull the plug. He is then pulled in by a woman with long hair that floats out of the water. This mystical and sometimes seaweed-like hair can be noticed in many sequences dangling into the frame as if it wishes to blossom into a boom microphone.
There are various police officers and social workers who enter this house, some of whom are lost in there forever, but none of them seem to get the news of the evil forest. You would expect after a house is known for the most chilling torments day in and day out, the locals, at the very least, sit an elderly person outside to say some really weird stuff is going on in there.
I ended up losing my patience. It’s possible that the movie has an underlying structure where the plot threads come together but I could not find it. This disjointed temporality is an irritation, not a technique. As for the house, it is not particularly ghastly from an architectural viewpoint, and if it did not have a crawl space under the eaves, the ghosts would have to leap out from behind the sofas.
The nominal star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, has been in her share of horror movies, and all by herself could have written and directed a better one than this. The more I consider Bill Pullman’s opening scene, the more I suspect it embodies his frame of mind after he agreed to the movie, boarded a plane to Japan and discovered the screenplay.
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