Do you like people crawling really fast on all fours? How about crawling at you? How about if that person is a ghost? Let’s just say that there was at least one person sleeping with all the covers on Saturday night. The Japanese horror movie, “Ju-on,” which translates to “The Grudge,” is the latest horror import to be adapted by Hollywood and it is a doozy. There are not the quick cuts and loud noises that caused so many jumps during “The Ring.” Instead, writer/director Takashi Shimizu relies on creepy visuals again, and again, never letting the audience relax. There is always something around the corner, on the stairs, or in the mirror. The ghouls in the movie are a pasty little boy with large dark eyes, who further proves that little kids are scary as hell, and an unnamed woman who is alternately bloody and deranged or pitch black, except for her eyes. One scene involving the pitch black alter ego and a security camera is nightmare worthy. As I said, the ghosts pretty much show up everywhere. Any fear you’ve ever had of dark places will be affirmed here. Even the covers on your bed aren’t safe.
The story is kind of hard to follow. The movie is broken up into six different segments, and each is precluded by the name of the character it features. The first segment introduces our main hero Rika, who works for a care agency, and is sent to check on an old woman at her home. When she gets to the house, she finds it in dissarray and the old woman looks like she’s about to become a ghost herself. Rika starts tidying up and while doing so, finds a small boy in a closet that has been taped shut. Craziness ensues, until we begin a new segment, this one a flashback to the previous inhabitants of the house; a man, his wife, and his mother, the old woman from the previous segment. The man comes home from work to find his wife missing and his mother pretty much incoherent. His sister arrives for a previously arranged dinner date, but is basically pushed out the door by her brother, who is acting strangely. He too has encountered the boy. Again, more creepiness, and then we cut to a new segment, this time featuring the man’s sister. She is soon embroiled in the demonic antics as pretty much every character eventually is. This segment runs parallel to the first segment starring Riku. There are three more segments, one which follows the first and third, one that happens sometime in the future, and the last, which follows the fifth one, and features Rika for a final time.
Confused yet? It is confusing, especially since we pretty much figure out what happened in the house pretty early on. We are left to discover why the ghosts are out to get all of these people. They seem to just go after anyone who has stepped foot in the house, which is fine, but we don’t really know why. The old woman seems to know more, but she is killed in the first segment, and a detective who also apparently knows more than he is telling dies. Rika seems to realize the secret to everything near the end of the movie. However, nothing is really revealed in the flashbacks which ensue. Instead, these basically recap the fates of all the characters, fates that we all saw the first time and were terrified by, but not confused with. There may be a secret hidden in here somewhere and if so it seems impossible to discern. However, the movie is so freaky that it is forgiven this somewhat large detail.
This film does what most others doesn’t: it shows the ghouls at every opportunity. There are no parts where you think something is going to pop up and it doesn’t. Everytime you think something’s going to pop up, something pops up.
Grade: A