Sadly, something is usually lost in translation. Don’t get me wrong…I jumped when I watched The Grudge…but the original is so much creepier! There are similarities in the story-lines of both movies, but in all reality they differ greatly. I would say that Ju-on was more self-contained than the remake. And more convoluted. There wasn’t a big “tell the audience what’s going on” scene like in the American version..which I appreciated. I don’t like it when my entertainment thinks I’m dumb (I might be..but it doesn’t have to get all condescending about it!)
There be spoilers ahead! I will go ahead and give any intrepid horror connoisseur a hearty recommendation: if you haven’t seen this, do so!
This is one of those movies that starts at the end…or near it at any rate. The story takes place in a quiet neighborhood in Japan, in a house which harbors a particularly nasty secret. People who live there die. Or simply disappear. The middle of the movie basically shows the gruesome deaths of the current tenants of the house…and then flips back to the beginning. The story progresses through a series of snapshots, if you will. Each segment concerns a particular character and their interactions with the house. They aren’t shown in chronological order, which in my opinion adds to the sense of unease. After all you don’t know what’s going to happen to who, or when. The horror ratchets up and up…becoming more bizarre and more creepy with each passing snapshot….until the big scare!
I remember the Grudge being a rather gory movie. And pretty in your face with the scares as well. A lot of things lunging into the camera’s view. Ju-on was a bit different…necessarily since it had such a low budget compared to its American remake. In a word, it was more subtle. The tension was ratcheted up progressively throughout the movie, with one sort of odd detour into American style horror. The gore was minimal until one particular scene, where one victim of the ghost’s sour disposition stumbled into the house, sans jaw. It was sort of an odd exposition and not particularly in keeping with what I felt was the feel of the rest of the movie. That and it wasn’t really well done. Don’t get me wrong it was still creepy…but this is one point where the remake has the original beat.
I feel the whole “Hey look there’s a bloody hole where my jaw should be!” scene was lacking simply because it played against the strength the movie had going for it: the subtle ratcheting of the horror. It was very much an understated movie, but it worked really well. Sure the remake made me jump, but the original got under my skin. When the mother-ghost came crawling down the stairs…I got the shivers. Did it look as good as the American version? No…but that’s the point. Like I said about Ringu…the fact it wasn’t all polished CGI was what made it creepy. It looked real, but not too real. The fact it was an actual person in make-up crawling down those steps made it that much worse. It wasn’t fake..it wasn’t the result of some computer wizardry. It was some ashen faced woman crawling down the stairs, eyes wide, emitting some weird croaking sound…
…and staring right at you. Coming for you. Well…you and the guy frozen in terror at the bottom of the steps.
Oh..and did anyone else find the ending confusing? I did…it just seemed an odd way to end it. There were some things that didn’t make sense to me, but I would probably pick them up on a second viewing. That and I’m not used to watching movies with subtitles. I find it hard to keep track of who is who with subtitles…can’t associate a voice with a face and a name.
All of that said…I enjoyed this one. I wouldn’t call this fare for a get together with a bunch of friends…maybe the American version would fit better for that. No…watch Ju-on in an empty house, with the lights off.
And don’t mind it too much if you hear something clumping around up in the attic. Or if you hear a cat’s scream.
It’s probably nothing.
