THE GRUDGE 2
US, 2006, 12 minutes, Colour.
Amber Tamblyn, Jennifer Beals, Edison Chen, Arielle Kebbel, Teresa Palmer, Sarah Michelle Geller.
Directed by Takashi Shimizu.
When you’re on a good thing, stick to it… This must be the philosophy driving Japanese director Takashi Shimizu. Grudge 2 is the sixth reworking of his basic story. He did a short version and a video version in Japan, then a screen version at home and a remake in the US, then a sequel in Japan and now the US version of the sequel. And there are plenty of openings for more!
Actually, this is not really a remake of Ju-on 2 but a newly written screenplay by Stephen Susco who adapted the first film as well. There are some elements from the Japanese film, especially with a group of schoolgirls who visit the haunted house but the rest is quite different, especially as the vengeful ghosts (their story is always the same) migrate to Chicago and go to work haunting, terrifying and killing there.
This film takes up where The Grudge finished, with Sarah Michelle Geller in hospital after she tried to burn down the ill-fated house. Her sister, Amber Tamblyn, is sent by their mother to Japan to find out what happened. In the meantime, a student at the international school, has been spooked and returns home to the US, ghosts following.
So, there is the double plot of what is happening in Japan, including an interesting visit to the ghost’s mother which fills in some background of why all is so evil, and of what is happening in Chicago involving a young boy, his older sister, his father and stepmother (Jennifer Beals).
A difficulty is that the material is so familiar to fans that it runs the risk of not being particularly scaring. However, it is strong on mood and atmosphere.
1. The popularity of Japanese horror films? Possession, menace, destruction? Spirits?
2. The transferring of these stories to the US? Characters, action between Japan and the US? Japanese ghosts, American victims? The director and his making an American version of this film?
3. Audience presuppositions about the plot of the original? Karen, in Japan, the experience of the house, the ghosts, her trying to burn the house down?
4. Karen’s story continued, in hospital, pursued by the ghosts, to the rooftop, her death?
5. Mrs Davis, concerned about her daughter, sending Aubrey? Aubrey, as a sister, young American woman, going to Japan? Karen’s death? Going to the house, experiencing the same hauntings? The death?
6. The explanation of the ghost, the wife, the murder of the husband, the son? Vindictive? Appearances? The mother of the wife, her warnings, her death?
7. Allison’s story, studying in Japan, with her three friends? Mrs Dale and studies? The episode happening some years later, going to the house, experiencing the ghosts, the death of her friends, consulting Mrs Dale? Mrs Dale herself being a ghost? A return to the United States?
8. Chicago, Trish, the family, Jake, a new husband? The new house, mysterious happenings next door? The presence of the ghosts, Trish being possessed, bludgeoning her husband? Allison and her appearance?
9. The way of storytelling, not linear, the three different stories and the interconnection?
