Susan Granger’s review of “The Grudge 2” (Columbia Pictures)
Every Halloween has a scary movie and, this time, Amber Tamblyn (“Joan of Arcadia”) falls victim to that same vengeful Japanese “rage” curse that affected Sarah Michelle Gellar in the 2004 horror hit.
As the story begins, Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is confined to a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo and her younger, estranged sister Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) is sent by their mother (Joanna Cassidy) in Chicago to bring her home. Shortly after Aubrey arrives, she’s warned by a journalist (Edison Chen) that her sister is under an evil curse.
Meanwhile, nerdy Allison (Arielle Kebbel) is desperately trying to please the saucy ‘mean girls’ (Teresa Palmer, Misako Uno) who dominate her international high school’s “in” crowd – and agrees to go into the mysterious, boarded-up, burned-down house where Karen met her fate. Back in the United States, young Jake (Matthew Knight) is unhappy that his widower father (Christopher Cousins) is engaged to Trish (Jennifer Beals). And what’s up with Jake’s elusive neighbor?
Eventually, everyone winds up victimized by the eerie spirits emanating from the dark, malevolent haunted house that’s terrorized by creepy, obsessive Kayako (Takako Fuji), clad in a white kimono, and little Toshio (Ohga Tanaka), who was also brutally murdered. And the torment will continue: “There can be no end to what has begun.”
Director Takashi Shimizu knows this material all too well. This is his seventh “Grudge” movie: four in Japan, two here. I’m told the Japanese versions are far more coherent and suspenseful than Stephen Susco’s disjointed, senseless screenplay. Nevertheless, “Grudge 3” is already in the works. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Grudge 2” is a tiresome, repetitive, ominously boring 1. Stay away.
