Okay, I saw "The Grudge" this afternoon.

[agilebrit]

The good: I really liked the storytelling technique. Allowing the full scope of the tragedy that happened in the house to come out in dribs and drabs was effective and kept me interested. I didn't know Bill Pullman was in it until he took the dive off the balcony in the opening scene, and he's always a winner. Sarah was really good, and the kid that played her boyfriend was a hottie. It wasn't needlessly gory, which was a nice change from slasher flicks.

That being said...for some reason it just didn't grab me (pun certainly intended). It had it share of jumps and shrieks, but maybe not enough...and it seemed like, once you knew what the central conceit of the movie is (that anyone coming in contact with the house, no matter how briefly, is dead meat), it just wasn't surprising anymore. They left some questions unanswered, as well. And the character development was exactly nil. We didn't have any real reason to care about these people. There they were, and they were dying pretty horribly and scarily...but bleh.

Two and a half stars out of four, I think. Don't pay full price for it.