Our heroin Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is an American exchange student who came to Japan with her boyfriend Doug (Jason Behr) so that he could study architecture. She apparently is taking some courses too (although any insight into the lead character’s life is purely optional and the movie didn’t feel like burdening us with that knowledge). Whatever she’s studying, she needs some health credits so she volunteers to take care of sick people in their homes, (including a riveting scene where she does some vacuuming, will the vacuum suck up the wad of paper; Will the cord reach all the way across the room?)

The Grudge, as it isn’t called anywhere in the film, is held by a young Japanese lady and her son (and apparently the cat) who were all killed by the lady’s husband after he found out that she had a secret crush on an American professor named Peter (Bill Pullman). The husband then hangs himself and the curse is set, who ever enters the house will be hunted down and killed by the dead wife or the creepy cat-son creature. Of course, that’s about all we know about them, if you were looking for some deeper meaning or some true form of evil, well, maybe you’ll have to do those readings I mentioned, or wait for a sequel.

This movie leaves you with many questions. Motivation is one, why did the husband kill the boy and the cat? Why did he kill anyone? Is that normal in Japan? (Man, those poor guys are repressed!) Also, why with so many horrors in the world, would such an evil (and otherwise cool) curse be set just because of a double murder suicide? Can you imagine that in any major US city? “Don’t go down that block, a crack head ghost will hunt you down and kill you.” Also - why is the dead son part cat?

The really tragic part of this movie is that the acting was fine. Sarah Michelle Gellar, whom I’ve never particularly cared for, actually did a great job. I empathized with her even though they movie didn’t bother to give me a reason. Also, Yuya Ozeki – Toshio the young boycat (who also plays Toshio in Japanese version of this film: Ju-on: The Grudge and Ju-on: The Grudge 2: Electric Boogaloo), is very creepy, I think the movie would have went much farther if they had just had Yuya play the role and leave off all of the CGI animation. (and maybe spent some of that money on an interesting plot). I think the editing hurt this movie more than it helped. The editors tried to get clever and interspersed the back story in with the real story, the result of this was that the viewer was off balance, which in horror films is good, but the viewer is also confused and angry and that’s not so good. All of the sudden people who we know are dead are walking around – there’s no transition, and the key, there’s no particular rhyme or reason for it. It’s as if someone decided “Well, we need some back story now, let’s slap scene seven in.”

On a positive note, I must say, I have a certain respect for a movie that kills off big stars; and I LOVE it when the bad guys win.

The movie certainly doesn’t stand alone, I think that’s probably why Ju-on I and II both came out in 2003. If I were to see a poster for The Grudge II coming next week, or some indication that they were going to release these back to back, I might be a little more lenient. But as it stands, I think maybe I’ll go read 400 volumes of ancient Japanese mythology and try again, or at least try to prep myself for the next one.

Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bull Pullman
Directed By: Takashi Shimizu
Rating: PG-13

The Grudge opens nationwide on Friday Oct 22

David can be contacted at dkerr@detroitbuzz.com