Movie Review: The Grudge 2

I have long ago made peace with the fact that I will always be susceptible to the jump scare. Even when I know it is coming and I try to prepapre myself, steeling against the inevitable screech of music and quick cut of film, I always find my body shuddering under the shock.

Often, I have criticised films for their reliance on the jump scare, An American Haunting for example. There are other movies that are just a roller coaster of jumps that I have enjoyed, such as Boogeyman and the original The Grudge. Unfortunately, this sequel pales in comparison to the original.

The Grudge 2 fails to sustain the mood, doesn't deliver the scares, and just has too much plot with too little story. There are three theads that wind through the movie, but they don't come together until the final minutes of the movie, and even then the point of juncture is sketchy at best.

On top of that, the trailers give away something that would have had a lot more impact had it been first seen in the movie itself. I will spare the spoil for those who have been lucky enough not to see the ads, and are still interested in seeing it, but I will say that it is very reminiscent of the opening to Halloween: Resurrection.

The story picks up shortly after the events in the original. A housewife in Chicago has a violent reaction to some aggressive behavior from her husband, while half a world away in Japan, a couple of schoolgirls take a new student to visit the burned out husk of the haunted house from the earlier film, then swings back to the States where Karen's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) estranged sister, Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn), learns of her "accident" and is sent by her sick mother to bring her home. Those three early scenes set the stage for the three story threads.

The script is very sloppily pieced together. It's like they weren't sure what to focus on, so they made the three stories, cut them up and just put them together in some random fashion. The wild focus shifts did not allow me to get drawn into any of them. The problem is that the three stories are never given the time they need to develop, and the tapestry is never formed linking them together in any meaningful pattern.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

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