NEWS: Win a Chance to See "The Grudge"

CULTURE: Win a Chance to See "The Grudge"

For those who hold a grudge against Sarah Michelle Gellar because "Buffy" ended, now you can see horrible things happen to her in the first remake of a Japanese horror film actually directed by a Japanese person.

I just saw the preview for that yesterday, and it looks like a blatant ripoff of "The Ring" (or Ringu, if you prefer).
Particularly the girl coming down the stairs.

Heh. I thought the same exact thing when I saw a preview for it last night.

I'm gonna skip The Grudge. Mostly because I can't stand Sarah Michelle Gellar. She just annoys the bejesus out of me for some reason.

The kid with the wide mouth screaming scared the crap out or me. But you're right, looks like a rip off... effects wise anyway.

hideo nakata (ringu dir.) didn't invent the concept of the spooky, pale, raven haired ghost child. it as is commonplace and fundamental in japanese as mask wearing, knife wielding maniacs is in american horror

however

from what i have been reading on AICN, the remake of 'the grudge' isn't very good. but then if you ask me, 'ju on' wasn't that great to begin with

I guess it was more the pose and jerky motion that caught my attention.

its odd that were getting the grudge remade in english.....the japanese movie is called ju-on: the grudge and its a sequal to ju-on: the curse......wonder why they didnt make the first one. also the special effects are so close to ringu because it was from the same effects team....i liked the ju-on so i think im going to see this incarnation of it to despite my mild dislike of SMG

The American sequal to The Ring is due out in March, I believe.

There are certain visual similarities between Ju-On and Ringu, most of them to do with the fact that they're both Japanese and draw on that cultural pool of fears and the like. Having seen both, I can very much assure you that they are nothing alike in content. Ju-On, is, for one thing, much creepier. (Than, I must point out, the Japanese original. The American remake of Ringu is creepy as hell, but for whatever reason the original didn't do anything for me. Lot more faithful to the excellent novel, though.)
For another, there's not really a coherent story as such and it's mostly a collection of loosely connected episodes ending in the death of the central character in each one. I found it thoroughly confusing. But creepy. Must emphasize the creepy. I'm hoping the American version clears up the story some and keeps the creepy.
Ju-On: The Grudge is *not* a sequel to Ju-On: The Curse, as best I can understand it. The latter was a pair of low-budget direct-to-video films that succeeded enough that the director was able to do a cinematic remake thereof and a sequel, The Grudge 2.
And yeah, Ring 2 will be coming fairly soon. I'm dubious about it. It's certainly possible that it will succeed in capturing the appeal of the original..but it's rare for horror sequels to do so. And it's got the added strike against it of completely veering away from the original Japanese source material, not even being based on either of the movie sequels, let alone the book sequel. Which is a pity, although not really surprising. There are key details about Sadako that propel the plot and don't translate at all into Samara.

There are certain visual similarities between Ju-On and Ringu, most of them to do with the fact that they're both Japanese and draw on that cultural pool of fears and the like. Having seen both, I can very much assure you that they are nothing alike in content. Ju-On, is, for one thing, much creepier. (Than, I must point out, the Japanese original. The American remake of Ringu is creepy as hell, but for whatever reason the original didn't do anything for me. Lot more faithful to the excellent novel, though.)
For another, there's not really a coherent story as such and it's mostly a collection of loosely connected episodes ending in the death of the central character in each one. I found it thoroughly confusing. But creepy. Must emphasize the creepy. I'm hoping the American version clears up the story some and keeps the creepy.
Ju-On: The Grudge is *not* a sequel to Ju-On: The Curse, as best I can understand it. The latter was a pair of low-budget direct-to-video films that succeeded enough that the director was able to do a cinematic remake thereof and a sequel, The Grudge 2.
And yeah, Ring 2 will be coming fairly soon. I'm dubious about it. It's certainly possible that it will succeed in capturing the appeal of the original..but it's rare for horror sequels to do so. And it's got the added strike against it of completely veering away from the original Japanese source material, not even being based on either of the movie sequels, let alone the book sequel. Which is a pity, although not really surprising. There are key details about Sadako that propel the plot and don't translate at all into Samara.

What blew me away about the trailer for The Grudge was this- a few weeks ago, null and I saw Ju-On in a limited run in Seattle. Good movie, although not as scary as I'd hoped. Anyway, when I saw a trailer for The Grudge, it was directed by the same guy who made the original, and the house and all the sets (aside from the elevator) look exactly alike. The house exterior especially.

I'll probably still go see it, though. I'm interested as to what they do with it.

The website for The Grudge is pretty creepy.
Grudge Website
It's like a Flash choose-your-own-adventure kind of thing.

I can't imagine that the sequel to the Ring would be very good, just because of how much less scary the Ring was the second time I saw it.
Prove me wrong, Hollywood. Prove me wrong!

Edited to say: I also think it's really funny that on the Sony website The Grudge is listed between Duece Bigalow: European Gigolo and Hitch, which is apparently a movie where Will Smith teaches white guys how to be cool.

[Edited on Oct 01, 2004 by Drago]

Words. Words. Words. I think it'll be fun to go see...I can't wait.

The girl coming down the stairs is a ripoff of The Exorcist