Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Grudge

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Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 10-21-2004, 09:25 PM:

Where are the bullets?

Enough said.

Posted by Robert L. Fischer (Member # 2424) on 10-23-2004, 12:25 AM:

I'm failing to see what makes this movie so scary or creepy. Maybe it's just me since movies don't really freak me out (maybe not enough suspension of disbelief?), but nothing in the movie made me jump or cringe. The plot makes no sense and the audience isn't given much to make of the characters, so how much you enjoy this movie solely depends on if it scares the piss out of you or not. So I guess I'd give it an F, but the girls sitting next to me might give it an A.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 10-23-2004, 10:31 AM:

Critics across america are describing this as a thinkers horror movie, as it doesnt assume the audience is inherently stupid and must piece it together themselves.

Maybe thats why you didnt like it? [evil]

I actually loved the movie, at least for the initial viewing. I don't know about a second one. It isn't about suspension of disbelief, which I see discussed far too often these days, as if you need to be an idiot of some kind to be able to suspend disbielief. The movie itself doesn't spend time trying to spell things out for you in advance, like many movies these days. It takes most of the length of the movie to spell out the charachters and the plot of the show. Far too few movies take this line anymore, mostly because people assume that because it doesnt give you the ending in the first three minutes or the trailer that it therfore is stupid.

My opinion is that it's less about suspending disbelief and more about just letting someone tell you a story and have a good time while you sit there. My girlfriend spent the whole movie trying to figure out the possible resolutions to the problem the movie presented and when it didn't end in one of the possible scenarios she provided herself, she declared the movie not that good.

Kind of like reading a book. How often does any book or movie need to be proofably plausable to be enjoyable? I remember as a child I would listen to my mother read me stories I had never heard, and I would be so into it and so happy with the outcome.

Maybe that's what is needed anymore to enjoy some of these movies, a kind of childlike innocence that can allow us to just sit back, enjoy the story, and be happy with the outcome.

Oh yeah, I remember why we can't do that anymore....

ATTACK OF THE CLONES.....

Stupid George Lucas.... ruining movies for all time you bastard!

Anyway, I give the movie a pretty high rating, recommended viewing if you like movies in general and aren't looking for something based in reality. Because lets face it, evil houses and curses? Yeah you kind of have to suspend disbelief..

Ciao

dave

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 10-23-2004, 01:01 PM:

The "scares" were very predictable. The fades or cuts to black after something " scary " happened was getting really annoying. Although I haven't seen the original Japanese version, this appears to be your typical Hollywood remake.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-23-2004, 02:32 PM:

Nothing to see here. Move along. It's all pathetically predictable anyway.

1 out of 5

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 10-23-2004, 11:45 PM:

I saw it at the Regal Perimeter Pointe whose management once again spectacularly gambles wrong by scheduling the more popular movie in the second biggest theater and putting in the week old Shall We Dance in the biggest theater. And not surprisingly, The Grudge was sold out a half hour early for a Friday evening show.
This theater seems to do this on a regular basis.

I wsa not bored by the movie, but it is pretty derivative. If you have seen The Ring and The Eye, then you have seen this. The final scene is a shameless ripoff of The Ring in terms of the visual shot that I am not really spoiling anything here. I mean, seriously, is that the only way they could have shown us that final shot?

I was amused by the screaming ladies behind me. You would think they never saw a horror movie before. They were screaming and jumping at even minor scares.

Sarah Michelle Gellar does not have a face meant to be used in many movie closeups on the big screen. If you see this movie, you will know what I mean.

I will admit it had semi decent scares for a freaking PG 13 movie. When I found out the rating, I was wondering if I should skip it.

Posted by Kyle Spillane (Member # 2152) on 10-24-2004, 11:21 PM:

I haven't seen the American version of the film, but I did get to see the Japanese version about a month ago. I loved it, it's a lot like the ring except with more scariness and less plot. It is a thinking movie (the jap version of the film does not go in chronological order). In the versaion I saw when you weren't being scared you were tying to figure out what the heck was going on.

That being said, this film is a remake of the Japanese film: Ju-on: The Grudge, which has happens to be a film remake of the (apparently better) Japanese TV mini-series, Ju-on. If you didn't like this you probably wont like to know that this film has a sequel that is a remake of the original sequel.

[Smile]

Posted by Barrett Jarabek (Member # 2727) on 11-11-2004, 10:13 PM:

holy cow...was the plot weak, i think they should have told everyone in the trailers to read the book before they see the movie, because this is like the last chapter of it or something. yeah thngs jumping out and screaming make people jump. but man, wheres the suspense at??