Ju-on

If there's a creepier noise in all of horror than the guttural crackle coming from the ghost here, I don't know what it is. Maybe Franklin's regular speaking voice from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but that's about it. I love that the ghost here looks angry, like legitimately hateful. That's icing on the cake in a movie where creepy kids in closets answer questions with meows.

Low-budget Japanese horror done right. It has some awesome scenes, and though it takes some time to realize what they actually want to do, once you realize, it is scary, and disturbing. Worth a watch.

Hard to follow and some dated effects unfortunately drag this movie down.

Shimizu is very good in keeping tension.

Creepy throat noises and some fairly effective atmosphere make this ok. Much better than the American version.

This movie has the most terrifying stairway scene since The Exorcist. Pure nightmare fuel.

This horror flick relied on stupid pop-ups to be scary. The plot was no help either.

Ju-on: The Grudge is very much the sub-par product of the Japanese horror era. Creepy and occasionally scary yet, fails to utilise the cumulative effect they could have if worked under skilled hands.

If you watch the two made-for-TV movies that preceded Ju-on: The Grudge, you need to be prepared for them to look awful. they're shot on crappy early digital cameras with terrible lighting, constant overexposed and improperly white-balanced shots, and a barebones budget that hamstrings everything from the get-go. If you can get past all that, you'll find much of the same content and substance that was later reproduced in elevated fashion for the theatrical Ju-on: The Grudge.

Does a lot with a little.

Perhaps most famous for being the inspiration for the US version, this Japanese original has solid performances & an intriguing premise going for it, as well as memorable antagonists. However, beyond that, it gets a little messy. The plot, pieced together in a confusing, time-jumping, anthology-esque format, is cluttered and hard to follow at times, and none of the characters really have enough to them to be worth investing in. It's a fine J-horror & its legacy in undeniable, but it's not great.

Filmé en DV et se déroulant en chapitres, le film essaie d'effrayer comme il peut : souvent avec des miaulement de chats (ce que personnellement je trouve plutôt mignon mais bon...). Le film est assez peu explicatif sur les tenants et aboutissements des fantômes, mais chaque segments de l'histoire se déroulant de la même façon on comprend vite le principe et on en est vite ennuyé.

Unsurprisingly, the original is the best.

OK until the end. Without giving too much away, in this sort of story, I prefer a character who is brave and bold to have a happier ending than what happens here.

While watching it I felt... a little puzzled and even bored at parts. But it was only after the movie was over that I discovered how scary it actually is...!

A quick little anthology piece, which builds tension effectively but relies on jumps too heavily at times. But, like most good B-horror, it also turns some of the limitations of a small budget into strengths, such as the often static angle, or the disorienting effect of the often natural lighting.