#thegrudge2

This sequel to 2004’s The Grudge utter lack of confidence squanders all of its potential - assuming it had any. When it isn't answering questions no one asked, The Grudge 2 simply repeats what we’ve seen before, either in the original Ju-on or in the remake.

The film follows three separate stories. The first concerns Aubrey (Amber Tambly), whose sister Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is recovering from the ordeal she went through in the first picture. The second has school girls Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misako Uno) tricking another schoolgirl, Allison (Arielle Kebbel) into entering the home where Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji) was murdered years ago. Finally, a young boy named Jake (Matthew Knight) sees strange figures around a distraught woman who has just returned home to her parents.

Once again directed by Takashi Shimizu, this movie has nothing to do. We briefly explore a couple of new concepts, like “what would happen if you were being followed by an onryō and you traveled to America?” But the answer's not worth 108 minutes, which is why we follow three stories whose links are not immediately apparent - though I bet astute viewers will figure it out easily. It’s a shock to see Sarah Michelle Gellar again but her role is basically a cameo. When her sister and a Chinese journalist (Edison Chen) start digging into Kayako's past, you perk up a little. We know the rules but maybe writer Stephen Susco (whose only worthwhile work came 12 years later in Unfriended: Dark Web) has something clever at the tip of his pen. He does not.

Nearly every unsettling or spooky image is ruined by the film’s score, which reminds you constantly that you're watching a horror movie by playing loud noises. There’s nothing inherently wrong with jump scares if used correctly but The Grudge 2 has no other tools in its arsenal. It gets real old, real fast.

While some might find the various plot lines confusing, anyone who's seen Ju-on will “get” what the film’s up to immediately. In the original, the various crisscrossing storylines and mixed up chronology added to the experience and made everything feel otherworldly. Here it feels like a gimmick.

If you saw the theatrical version and hoped the unrated cut would be better, it isn’t. The cheap titilation as various characters walk around in changing rooms or showers are not altered to show any nudity, the gore is virtually unchanged. The only differences are a couple of extra seconds or alternate shots here and there.

There’s little - if anything - that allows The Grudge 2 to validate its existence. It’s nothing but a cash-grab that was green-lit solely because the first made money. There was no vision here and little ambition to expand the lore. It’s yet another reason to stop watching after 2002's Ju-on: The Grudge. (Unrated Director’s Cut on DVD, January 6, 2020)