Sony Pictures
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The Grudge was an amazing film and a phenomenal success. It was a freakishly brilliant horror rendition of the Japanese film about a woman with a curse born when someone dies though powerful rage or extreme sorrow. To see her creeping around the house, her long hair or the very pale small child was enough for some of us to check the bottom of the bed before getting in at night. Part two in the trilogy sees the curse move from Tokyo to America was a less impressive impression but nevertheless still gory enough for a few scares and moments to cover your eyes at. The concluding chapter in the trilogy, Grudge 3, just seems out of pace with the others.
It begins by exploring the originals of the female vengeful entity and her son, recapturing the reasons as to why they are there in the beginning; they were murdered. As the tale continues it looks to why the female character became a twisted woman and didn’t just move to the spirit side and how she can be stopped before she kills any more people.
There is nothing inspiring, nothing dreadfully terrorising or gruesome in this film. It just feels as though the makers have jumped onto the back of a good thing but have consequently bought the trilogy to a disappointing demise. At the start I was left with curiosity, who is this Japanese woman and how is she involved in the storyline but this is quickly established. This is followed by a few moments that make you jump but other than that I was left disappointed. The death sequences are not frightful or shocking just slightly gory; a boy ripped to shreds, snapped necks and a few stabbings to name but very few. The plot line becomes predictable and not amusing. To see a small boy as white as a sheet and talk to him rather than being scared is ridiculous as is a woman falling over rather than running, which along with the death of a lover is predictable and can be seen coming a mile away.
If you are intending to make the last film in a trilogy you need to be able to shock viewers in ways they have never seen before. You need to be able to twist the plot to a point viewers are left with their mouths open wide and stunned. Scream was the perfect conclusion to the trilogy as it incorporated elements present in the first film and even before and twisted them. Unless you can create something outrageous and something viewers will never see coming, you have no chance of the film being a hit. Grudge 3 attempts to take us back to the beginning and how Kayako became such a violent entity, but it just doesn’t click or entertain to a degree. This film is certainly not going to be the best horror film released to DVD in the next few months.
Michelle Moore