THE GRUDGE 2...She's Just Not Getting Over It.....

The Grudge 2 (2006) Directed by Shimizu Takishi

"It will never stop.  It will grow.  It will destroy anyone it touches."  Kayako's mother.

From the moment Columbia comes on the screen, you know this movie is going to let it's hair down, and it will be long, black, and evil.  Picking up where the first movie left off, there is no coy return to innocence; you saw the first movie (it presumes) and know the score; there is a haunted house in Tokyo.  A woman had an affair of the heart, and her husband, discovering it, killed her, and their son.  And from that act of rage and despair, a curse was born.  Karen Davis came to care for the elderly mother of the last resident, and from that contact was doomed.  Her employers, coworkers and boyfriend have all met their grisly ends at the hands of the vengeful Sakei Kayako's spirit.  She tried to burn down the house, but only succeeded in landing herself in protective observation at the local hospital.

Meanwhile, in America (one presumes from the architecture and people) a man comes grousing into the kitchen, spoiling for a fight.  Jealous rage boils beneath the surface.   His wife, detached, disassociated, cooks him breakfast, silently accepting his verbal abuse, and hints that she is cheating, until at last she dumps the bacon grease on his head, then smacks him in the head with the skillet.  Then she sits down to have a cup of coffee while his dying convulsions subside.

Karen's sister Aubrey is dispatched by their chronically ill mother to bring Karen back home.  We learn the girls are estranged.  Karen is obviously the favored child, and Aubrey seems to fear the task of helping her sister.  She is either precognitive, or a huge wuss.

In Japan, Karen seems quite around the bend, saying she has to get back to the house if she is going to stop "her".  Aubrey is hustled out, not resisting, as they seek to calm Karen.

Aubrey is caught up in dealing with Eason, a local reporter.  She does not trust his motivations; then again he seems to be the only bilingual person she has met.  While they talk, Karen is attacked by Kayako, frees herself, and ends up suiciding right in front of her sister.

Now Aubrey is drawn into the web.

Meanwhile three schoolgirls, the blond Queen bee Vanessa, follower Miyuki, and wannabee Allison decide to explore the haunted house.  Vanessa and Miyuki consider it a chance to frighten, humiliate and torment Allison, just good clean fun, but they bite off more than they can chew.

Meanwhile, in America, a mysterious figure in a hoodie moves into the apartment where we saw the murder by skillet.  The family, father Bill, mother Trish, older daughter Lacey, and young son Jake, are stalked by the vengeful Kayako, and haunted by the forlorn Toshio.

It seems Kayako has become stronger, and is now infectious, selecting a new victim associated with the last one, in a sort of supernatural Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.  One by one, she kills more and more people in each of the three storylines while Aubrey desperately searches for a way to stop her.  Will she succeed? Do we care?

The Analysis.

As in the first, the piece is extremely atmospheric; soft, muted colours, tight focus on the faces, then a move that reveals the supernatural in stark black and white, reflected behind or beside the unsuspecting victim.  The theme of the hair, spreading like ink in water, and the odd rasping sound are still Kayako's trademarks, along with her seemingly non human kinesiology.  Toshio still clasps his knees and screams like a drowning cat.  We have seen these tricks before, and dang it, they still spook us.

Still, there is far too much of a spooky thing here, and it is unrelenting.  In the first, we had the build up to the creepiness, here, we are thrown into the deep end of the creepy pool, and the hair covers us like seaweed, first splash out of the bucket.  Creepy is like a spice, and this is like chewing cloves.

Worse, the story alternates between three storylines, and shifts in time and space without rhyme, reason, or warning.  We see Trish kill Bill, then it's off to Japan with Aubrey to fetch Karen, then it's the schoolgirls, and then we are back in America, and Bill is alive, and we see the flash back to what happened to Karen, and then.... You see what I am driving at here.  No consistent thread.  The transitions are abrupt, unlabeled, and seemingly arbitrary.  They do not seem to serve the plot.  It makes it confusing.

As creepy as it is, I find the flaws far outweigh the good in this feature.  The first one made $22 Million, so a sequel was inevitable, but you would think a sequel made by the original director would come close to the first movie in quality.  Sadly, this is not the case.  We can only hope that Shimizu has learned his lesson, and that the upcoming The Grudge 3, a straight to DVD release, (release date May 12, 2009) will correct the mistakes of this film.  But I won't hold my breath.

The Cast:
Amber Tamblyn ...  Aubrey Davis
Arielle Kebbel ...  Allison
Jennifer Beals ...  Trish
Edison Chen ...  Eason
Sarah Michelle Gellar ...  Karen Davis
Sarah Roemer ...  Lacey 
Teresa Palmer ...  Vanessa
Matthew Knight ...  Jake
Misako Uno ...  Miyuki
Takako Fuji ...  Kayako Saeki
Yuya Ozeki ...  Toshio
Joanna Cassidy ...  Mrs. Davis
Christopher Cousins ...  Bill

Japanese Horror, two of my favorite things.
The Grudge
The Grudge 2 
The Grudge 3