Unlike some genres, movies of the horror domain have the power to work on many levels. While some find fright films are always inferior to their dramatic or comedic counterparts, there are some genuinely good horror movies — and not just by the horror genre standards. Unfortunately, these thrilling gems get lost in a sea of lowbrow, terrible horror films like "The Grudge 2."

Instead of trying to be somewhat creative with "The Grudge 2," returning director Takashi Shimizu places flat characters similar to those in the first "Grudge" in another illogical, un-scary movie.

The audience is conned into believing the movie might actually be somewhat good, due to an effective opening scene. Shimizu manages to create one original and entertaining murder involving Jennifer "Flashdance" Beals, bacon and her abusive husband. Unfortunately, everything after this point significantly fails to live up to the first scene.

"The Grudge 2" follows Amber Tamblyn ("Joan of Arcadia"), who plays the overlooked little sister of the character played by Sarah Michelle Gellar ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") from the first film. Tamblyn's character, Aubrey, travels to Tokyo to pick up her sister, who has been recently placed in a mental institution for burning down the house from the first "Grudge" while her boyfriend was in it. Gellar lasts long enough in the movie to pass the torch to Tamblyn, who then spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out how to stop the murderous ghosts with her new journalist friend Eason.

Two other storylines run concurrently with Tamblyn's. Three schoolgirls are tormented by the angry ghosts of the murder mother and child after they venture into what one of the girls calls "the most haunted house in all of Japan." Meanwhile, across the ocean in Chicago, the rage spreads to an apartment building inhabited by Beals and her new family. This, of course, is nothing but a ploy to move the next "Grudge" movie to more familiar settings, making it easier for the audience to relate to.

The audience knows that all those who encounter the vengeful spirits will ultimately die, but they could care less. The audience does not develop any sort of attachment to the characters, making their deaths not the least bit upsetting. Since the characters just stand there waiting for the world's slowest ghosts to take them, they deserve to die. If you see a ghost slowly come out of a photograph, you move — you don't stand there waiting for it. When these characters do die, it is far from scary or surprising.

If you aren't going to make the characters interesting, at least make their deaths interesting. Hair consuming a girl in a phone booth is hardly entertaining.

Even though some of the actors have done some great previous acting jobs, not a single actor in the bunch seems to convey any emotion beyond forced facial expressions. Tamblyn goes through the entire movie without changing the confused, forlorn look on her face.

Shimizu and the actors aren't completely responsible for this mess of a film. Writer Stephen Susco deserves some of the blame. He fills the film with a lot of predictable, exposition-filled lines, constantly setting up the next scene rather than allowing the film to progress naturally.

After many random events, including a girl who drinks a gallon of milk and then spews it back up into the jug, Shimizu brings all of the strange occurrences together badly, creating a pointless, partially illogical ending. Granted one must suspend a certain amount of logic for a horror movie, but most still attempt to make a certain amount of sense. The one thing to be learned from this movie is that nothing can stop the spirits, which is more disturbing to the audience than to the characters of the movie. Read: we will have to suffer through another "Grudge" movie.

Instead of deepening the mythology of the world of "The Grudge," making some social commentary or following an out-of-place American character in a foreign world (making a sort of "Lost in Translation" horror movie), the director just regurgitates the same story he did in his American remake and original Japanese "Grudge" movies.

Tragically, "The Grudge 2" weighed in at No. 1 at the box office this weekend, making it only a matter of time until the next "Grudge" and more terrible Japanese horror movie remakes are unleashed.

Grade: 1 out of 5