The Grudge (2004)★★★☆☆

I don’t know why I signed myself up to watch this AND its two sequels. I forgot that this movie is just a less compelling version of the Japanese original, and I can’t imagine the two sequels are notably better? But I’ve never seen them, so maybe I’m wrong.

It’s such a shame, too. There are SO MANY really great familiar faces in this. Bill Pullman! Clea DuVall! Sarah Michelle Gellar! And yet…

I think this is a cinematic case of “less is more”, or at least less should be more. The extra “Hollywood” special effects, dark makeup, and jump scares really don’t add anything to the film. In fact, they just kind of make it more campy.

This movie is just a few minutes longer than the original, but it feels far longer. In part I’d guess it’s because they removed some of the stories from the original like the former policeman and the schoolgirls, and yet left the rest of the movie the same length.

This movie was kind of a slog to get through and too silly to be scary. The sound will forever haunt my nightmares, but this movie probably won’t.