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.

Comments

[whirligigged.livejournal.com]

Ha, I'm so seeing this movie. I have a tendency to like bad movies. It's a curse I hide from all my friends. Me and Kaylene agreed to go together, even though I swore off horror movies after The Ring. She laughed when she watched it. Gee, I wonder who'll be more scared at this one?

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

I still haven't seen "The Ring." Want to, very badly. Maybe I'll rent it for Halloween viewing.

[hieispike.livejournal.com]

There seem to be two opposite extreme reactions to "The Ring." It's not scary right off the bat, but if you get the images stuck in your head for a long time, it'll bother your sleep at night. (Which happened to me for, like, a week.) On the other side of the spectrum, my friends laughed it off and thought it was ridiculous.

Also, this depends on if you watch the American version or the Japanese version. I've heard that the American version had more blood and gore, but the Japanese version (which is the one I've seen) is a little bit more true to life. (And which is why I swore off horror movies. *shudder*)

The Japanese version of "The Grudge", called "Ju-On" might be scarier. I haven't seen it, though. Japanese movies tend to make things look so much like what you see in everyday life (and I'm in Tokyo right now) so I'm avoiding the movie lest I want to be scared witless. =P