WTF Japan (Kind Of)?!?: The Grudge 2 (2006)

At last, I've reached the end!  Yes, I know there are like 7 more Grudge Films- don't ruin this for me!  This is The Grudge 2, the 2006 Sequel to the Remake that is not exactly a Remake of the Sequel.  Trying saying that one times fast.  The Film basically breaks down into 3 Parts, which I'll cover in the *actual* proper order.  Yeah, screw the Film's random-ass narrative!  At least they give you some hints as to the order before the end- such as saying that it had been 2 years since the house was burned-, but it is still annoying.  Put your Films in order!  I will also say *to be fair* that there is some minor pay-off to the order switcheroo, but I still would rather see the Film properly.  As such, you will.  Yes, Screen Capping this was fun!  Talking about the reaction to these Films by Audiences is a fun study in contrast.  The first Film grossed more than the Budget on opening night, whereupon it was immediately given a Sequel Order.  Said Sequel did well...but not as well as they had hoped.  Basically, it had a decent, but lower-than-previous opening and saw a big drop from Week 1 to 2.  As such, any Sequels were temporarily-shelved (more on that later) and the Blu-Ray release (in North America) was cancelled.  Damn!  What could make such a big drop-off in popularity?  Well, the Plot, as noted, has 3 sections.  One of them, I'm guessing, is the big issue for viewers, but I'll get to that.  Is it as bad as Audiences and Reviewers said (it has an 11% on Metacritic vs. the first Film's 39%)?  To find out, read on...

In the wake of the House Fire and the boyfriend's death, the Police blame Gellar.  Her Sister flies in to see her, although it must have been pretty damn fast, since Kayako hasn't gotten her yet.

Oh and what about the Cop's body?  Was it discovered?  Oh right- nobody cares!

While her Sister is trying to sort things out, Gellar does her best Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween Resurrection by going to the roof and being dropped by the killer.

Did she want out of this as badly as Jamie Lee did?

Sis- Amber Tamblyn, the daughter of the guy who sold Golden Shovels on Twin Peaks- and a Reporter look into the case, which is driven by the latter's having already gone into the House off-screen.

As for Tamblyn, she stays outside until the kid ghost, I guess, teleports her in.  I'm glad that this isn't complete bullshit or anything.

Just like the girl and guy solving basically this same case in The Ring Films, it doesn't end well for him.

He's killed by the spirit crawling out of media too- it is just his photo developing fluid and not a TV.

As for Tamblyn, she tracks down Kayako's Mother and learns that she had powers that were passed on to her Daughter, which later passed on with her death.  This is ALSO from The Ring!  Come on!

Oh and Tamblyn dies a vicious, cruel death for...flying to help her sister and being literally dragged into an evil House.

2 years (and vague amounts of death) later, 3 girls go into the House.  It is part of a prank to scare the new girl and, well, it works.

This is one of the bits that is supposed to be clever out-of-order and with cheap edits, as the ghost she sees here is Tamblyn's.  Ha?

Kayako picks the girls off one-by-one.  It is pretty by-the-numbers stuff too, as each one gets exactly one 'ooh scary and then run away' Scene before death.

One of them is pretty blatantly 'inspired' by the Film Into the Mirror (remade in 2008 as Mirrors).

The last one left is scared by the Guidance Counselor, who is revealed to also be a Ghost.  This raises SOOO many questions!

Some vague time later, a new Family moves into an Apartment Building in Chicago.  Yes, Chicago.

See the problem yet?

The curse seems to be in effect there as people start to act weird, irrational and violent.  To be fair, though, it is Chicago!  Zing!

This leads to the wife...killing her husband?  Wait- you got it backwards, Movie!  Enjoy the opening Scene, even though it is from nearly the end.

The Final Kid comes back later to find all of the bodies and confronts the hoodie-wearing stranger in the building, who has been hiding and acting weird.

It turns out to be Allison, whom Kayako allowed to travel for a THIRTEEN HOUR FLIGHT to Chicago, waited about a week and then shows up to kill her.

It did all of this since...um...she moved into a new House and now it is your fault for being there...I guess.  The End (until The Grudge 3).

More of the same, but somehow even less interesting.  In the last Film, they picked and chose parts of that Film to keep.  One bit that was excised was a small part involving some Schoolgirls going into the House and being killed.  That somehow made its way into *this* Film and was vastly expanded.  I want to give Shimizu credit for being less random and padding out the previous Films with lots of random characters.  I just wish he could have done more with the expanded time for them.  They are all one-note Horror Film Characters.  They each get one 'ooh scary' Scene.  While Allison *technically* gets more time and Scenes, her only other actual Scene after said 'ooh, scary' Scene is her being killed.  There are at least some good visuals- albeit brief- to make up for the nothing Plot.  The one kill with the mirror- while not original- was good and the body vanishing into the coat like she was a dead Jedi was good.  The pay-off scenes tend to be good- it is just everything else that feels so tedious.  All of the characters are just there to be scared and not much else, save for Edison Chen.  He is at least proactive, even if he is just as effective.  For this Film, I have the Special Edition DVD, so I got to see a Deleted Scene where apparently he sees a future Allison escape the closet.  Time Travel sure was necessary!  The big problem here is the same as the rest- there is no hope.  No matter what you do, you die.  No matter where you end up, you die.  These Ghosts are just assholes that kill people for progressively-sillier reasons.  The turn of the Ghost simply moving to chase Allison and acting like the rules were just updated for it are kind of insulting.  This was clearly an attempt to excise the last bit of Japan from the Film for future Sequels.  It's a weird thing to just not do from the start, but whatever.  The Grudge 2 isn't that good in actual order and is kind of annoying out of it.  At least 'Peek-a-boo' guy from Ju-On 2 is back...for no reason. 

****

Next up, I take a break from bleak Japanese-style Horror.  In its place, a random Anime Film I know nothing about and bought months ago, since why not?  Stay tuned...