Karen Davis, an American medical student, moves to Japan as part of a school exchange program. Once in Tokyo, she is called to replace a nurse who provides home care for an elderly woman, gravely ill and in a deep catatonic state. The young woman visits the house of the elderly lady, Emma, where chaos reigns everywhere. The nightmare begins when Karen hears eerie noises coming from the upper floor and notices strange footprints left by someone who is no longer there...
This film is not just a remake of a Japanese horror movie but is the fourth installment of a long series (centered on the concept of "grudge"), always directed by the same filmmaker, Takashi Shimizu. It is the American version of "Ju-On" (Japanese TV movie) produced by Shimizu in 2002 along with its sequel, "Ju-On 2," before being "remade" for the big screen in 2003, obviously only for the Western market and with more resources.
The film particularly captured the attention of the American audience, so much so that its box office earnings were absolutely unpredictable: during the first week of screening, more than 40 million dollars were recorded, and by December, the sum had significantly increased to approximately 108 million dollars.
The discoverer of the original film is none other than Sam Raimi, a talented filmmaker who began his career with an unforgettable horror movie, "The Evil Dead," which shares some similarities with "Ju-On" due to its setting: a haunted house.
The protagonists of "The Grudge" are as American as they come, led by Sarah Michelle Gellar, the famous star of the series "Buffy," which aired worldwide from 1996 to 2003. The choice of this actress is evidently an attempt to market the film to young Western audiences.
Many discussions have been held about Gellar's performance, certainly a good TV actress but nothing more, described by some as scandalous. Not having seen the original version and knowing how much dubbing can influence the perception of acting for Italian audiences, it is better to overlook this topic and focus instead on the hybrid setting of the film: since the story is deeply Japanese, a complete transplant to the American continent à la "Ring" was not possible. Thus, the "Erasmus" option was chosen, situating the film in a Japan well-populated by exchange students, in this case medical students, to harmonize with the original story, which involved caring for a demented woman. To be honest, the large number of American students grouped in a small Japanese town is a bit suspicious.
Nonetheless, the operation somewhat recreates the atmosphere of internal isolation experienced by a foreigner in a culturally distant country, while at other times it is clear that it is an artifice to allow the narrative from the viewers' perspective, who in the original films fail to identify with the Japanese protagonists.
It is unnecessary to dwell on the plot, virtually identical to "Ju-On," but it is impossible not to highlight some inconsistencies in the storyline, which, without too many spoilers, consist of an unclear situation regarding the father, who never appears as a "ghost" despite being an integral part, indeed the driving force of the drama, and the son who sometimes appears as dead (with the makeup already appreciated in "Ju-On") but in other contexts incomprehensibly seems to be a living and completely harmless child.
Despite the effort put forth by the crew, this remake produced by horror master Sam Raimi is neither as captivating nor as terrifying as the original Japanese version. Also worth noting is the blatant plagiarism of the scene with the corpse whose black hair extends under the shroud: a scene taken directly from "Ring 2" from 1999.
Overall, however, the film flows well and offers the novice viewer a good dose of tension.
If, on the other hand, the story has already been seen, it risks seeming boring, repetitive, and superficial, as is usually the case for those familiar with the original Japanese films.
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