Talk about a quick turnaround: the Japanese horror movie “Ju-On” hit American theaters in August, and here’s the Hollywood remake already. It’s called “The Grudge.”
Of course, it took a couple of years for the Japanese film to get over here. But “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi had seen the original much earlier and decreed it ripe for a remake.
The smart thing Raimi did was hire “Ju-On” director Takashi Shimizu to stay on the project. The result is a companion piece to the original film, kind of an alternate version in a similar spirit.
And speaking of spirits, they are still haunting a Tokyo house, where a dreadful crime has placed a curse upon the property. “The Grudge” unfolds in an admirably elliptical style, but for the most part we are following an American student named Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), in Tokyo with her boyfriend (Jason Behr).
Karen is volunteering in social work, and goes out to that cursed house one day to look in on an elderly American woman, who has moved into the place with her family. We’ve already seen what happened to the first social worker that visited. It wasn’t pretty.
Like the original “Ju-On,” the remake comes at its story from non-chronological angles. At one point, we watch the American family as they buy the house and settle in. The wife (Clea DuVall) immediately gets the creeps, but her husband (William Mapother) is unaware of ghosts until it’s too late.
We also pick up a strand about an American professor (Bill Pullman), who is somehow connected to the reason the house became cursed in the first place.
The screenwriter, Stephen Susco, has cleverly provided more story for this version, without cheesing up the premise. It helps that director Shimizu brings the same eerie feeling for empty rooms and busy streets he brought to “Ju-On.” This guy points a camera at something, and it already seems haunted.
He also kept the horrible clicking sound that accompanies the ghosts. Yipes.
In Sarah Michelle Gellar, the movie has an actress who is accustomed to looking worried, which she does throughout the picture. Meanwhile, some of the Japanese actors are held over from Shimizu’s previous versions of “Ju-On,” including a young actress who’s made a specialty of playing the ghost girl.
Shimizu has now made five films on the “Ju-On” theme, and he still gets his share of scares. The poor guy will probably have to return to the franchise if this one calls for a sequel, which it likely will. You wonder if he’s constructed his own haunted house, and now he’s trapped in it.
“The Grudge” HH
Boo!: A Hollywood remake of “Ju-On,” a Japanese horror franchise about a haunted house. This one provides more explanations than the original, but maintains a sense of spookiness.
Rated: R for violence.
Now showing: Alderwood 7, Everett 9, Galaxy 12, Marysville 14, Mountlake 9, Stanwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Woodinville 12, Cascade, Oak Harbor Plaza 3
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