Movie #100 -- The Grudge

Title: The Grudge

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Release Year: 2004

Plot Summary: An American nurse (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in Japan "discovers" a haunted house.

Thoughts: The first 10 minutes of this movie are genuinely creepy. I mean... GENUINELY creepy. It all goes downhill from there... Except the part where Sarah Michelle Gellar's character (Karen Davis) has a hand coming out of the back of her head.

The cast is B-List at best... Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bill Pullman, William Mapother, Ted Raimi. Seriously. And it's hard to complain that any one particular actor gets outdone in any scene, because none of them are all that good. The kids who play the haunted children are kinda creepy, but more or less you just want to punch them in the face any time either one of them is on screen.

Sam Raimi (director of both Spider-Man movies and all three Evil Deads) produced this movie, which is the only reason that I gave it a shot. It wasn't really worth it. The directing is affecting, but the way that the story is told is too jumpy and there are waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many flashbacks. Still, there were enough 'make-you-jump-out-of-your-seat-parts' to keep me from changing the channel.

Rating (0-10): 6.25

recommendations: As far as horror films go, you could do much, much better. If you liked The Ring you'll probably like this. If you liked the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre you probably won't.