The Grudge 2

Plot synopsis:
This synopsis is given in chronological order, rather than the order in which the events happen in the film.Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) Davis' sick mother (Joanna Cassidy) sends Aubrey to Japan to bring her sister home since she is unable to do so on her own, given her current medical condition. Aubrey goes to the hospital in Japan, but initially couldn't see her sister due to the language barrier between the nurses (Yôko Chôsokabe, Kayoko Toda and Shuri Matsuda) and herself. Eason (Edison Chen), a journalist who pulled Karen from the fire in the previous film happens to be at the desk and translates for her. Karen is at first unsure of Aubrey, but once convinced, she repeatedly asks her sister to get her out of the hospital. Orderlies strap Karen down to the bed, and when Aubrey leaves the room, her sister whispers, "Aubrey, don't go in that house."The lights flicker in Karen's room. She struggles to get free when a hand grabs her right arm. Karen manages to get free and escape the guard and orderlies. After passing a group of medical staff and seeing Kayako, she ends up trapped in a hallway. The lights go out one by one, Kayako staggering towards her with the death rattle. Karen manages to get away and on to the roof of the hospital. She hears the death rattle once more and backs away to the edge of the roof. Kayako (Takako Fuji) pulls Karen over the edge in time for Aubrey and Eason, who are leaving the hospital, to see her land in front of them dead. A horrified Aubrey collapses, while Eason sees Kayako clutching Karen's corpse.Later, while Eason is in his apartment, he watches one of his interviews with Detective Nakagawa (Ryo Ishibashi) about the original family murder-suicide of the first film. When Eason rewinds and slows the tape down, he is able to hear Kayako's signature death rattle and see her face in the door. He shuts off the television and sees the reflection of Kayako, but when he turns around, she isn't there.Eason goes over to Karen's apartment to see Aubrey. They talk and Eason explains Karen's behavior, only because he himself feels it. He knows the fire didn't solve the curse, but made it worse.They go to the cursed house, and Eason tells Aubrey to stay outside the gate. Inside, Eason finds the closet, and inside there is nothing but Kayako's childhood diary. An unseen force flips it to a page with an eye. Outside, Aubrey hears Karen's voice asking her not to enter the house, but she does when Toshio's hand grabs her arm and pulls her in. Eason comes down and they leave.Eason calls a friend who is more knowledgeable of folklore to understand Kayako's diary. They find out her mother was able to heal people by removing inhabiting evil spirits and feeding them to her daughter Kayako. Aubrey and Eason find a matching photograph and drawing of a traditional archway outside the house where she grew up. The pair spend some time together at Eason's apartment, and when Aubrey falls asleep, he goes into his darkroom to look at pictures he took of the house's exterior. He notices a dark mass in one and develops another, an enlargement of that area. As it develops, the dark mass grows and the chemicals turn black. Kayako's head slowly comes out, and then leaps out and grabs him.Aubrey wakes up in the morning and finds herself alone. She goes into the darkroom and finds the picture, then notices Eason's body in the corner. She embraces Eason's lifeless body, but he becomes Kayako and his arms wrap around her. Aubrey runs away as all the pictures in the darkroom show Kayako's face.Aubrey takes a train and then a bus to Kayako's home. A man on the bus plays peekaboo with some unseen child, but Aubrey doesn't notice it's Toshio's (Ohga Tanaka) reflection. She goes to the house and finds Kayako's mother, Mrs. Kawamata, (Kim Miyori) who says that although she fed evil spirits to her daughter to heal others, she did not make Kayako what she is now. She explains that the events are not about the house, but making others suffer the way she suffered; there is no way to stop it. She then realizes that Aubrey had brought Kayako with her, and Mrs. Kawamata dies.Aubrey leaves and returns to the cursed house. She calls home and tells her mother Karen is dead. When her mother accuses her of not being "able to do anything on her own," Aubrey tells her she loves her, but her mother has to stop talking to her like that and says goodbye. She goes into the house and sees Karen go upstairs, calling for Doug. Aubrey follows her. Then suddenly, the house appears like what it was when Kayako lived in it. She then sees Takeo (Takashi Matsuyama) reading Kayako's diary.As Kayako turns to run away, her ankle snaps and she crawls down the stairs, but is caught by Takeo who snaps her neck. Comparison flashbacks from Kayako's death show exactly how she was murdered, and Aubrey is able to understand the pain Kayako went through as she shows her how she became evil.Allison (Arielle Kebbel) is a new student at the international high school in Tokyo, where she meets popular students Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misako Uno). Allison is desperate to make friends so she tries to talk to them, despite Miyuki thinking that Allison has been at their school for only three weeks and Vanessa laughing at her uniform. They eventually decide to take Allison to the Saeki House in order to play a prank on her. While there, Allison and Vanessa head upstairs but Miyuki sees the bath where Toshio was drowned and backs away as something sinister stirs submerged. Vanessa then tells Miyuki to follow her upstairs, Miyuki wants to leave but Vanessa then accuses her of befriending Allison and Miyuki chooses to keep her popularity by doing what Vanessa says. The two girls then tell Allison of the Saeki murders and then convince her to enter the closet Kayako and Toshio's body was stored in, lying by telling her that they have been the only girls brave enough to enter. Allison, thinking that if she does what they say then they will become her friends, enters the closet and the two other girls force then door closed while she is inside. The idea was to take a picture of Allison's frightened face and show their fellow classmates, humiliating her. After Allison screams, the other girls try to open the door but can't as a mysterious force seems to be holding it shut, and Allison is unable to exit the closet until she sees Toshio, who utters his cat-cry, and then Kayako emerges from the attic. Allison screams in horror and Vanessa runs from the house, Miyuki close behind. Allison manages to escape from the closet and follows the other two out.Later, Allison is in class when she feels Toshio's cat brushing between her legs. She then senses human hands on her thighs. Pushing her supplies forward on her desk, she peers under her desk to find Toshio curled in a ball at her feet. As she jumps up, she realizes that he is not there, causing her to be embarrassed in front of her fellow classmates. As she sits down, she notices Toshio's cat proceeding to a very exhausted looking Miyuki sitting at her desk, Miyuki feels the cat touch her but doesn't make a large scene about it and the two then exchange nervous glances.After they return to school, all three girls deal with hauntings from Toshio, his cat, and Kayako. After gym class, Vanessa humiliates Allison about taking a trip to the school shrink in front of the other girls. As Allison leaves, Vanessa begins taking a shower in which Kayako haunts Vanessa in a fashion similar to the somewhat iconic scene in The Grudge, Vanessa then sees a ghostly image of Kayako in the locker room that frightens her, causing her to urinate on herself. Miyuki leaves school for an afternoon rendezvous with her boyfriend Michael (Shaun Sipos) at a love hotel. While Michael is in the shower, Miyuki removes her jacket and hair clip before she sits on the large double bed and finds his condom. She gets under the covers waiting for Michael. She then feels something grabbing her beneath the covers. She wriggles and laughs, thinking it is Michael. When she looks towards the bathroom, she sees that Michael is still in the shower, meaning that something else is beneath the covers. Miyuki backs away in terror toward the mirror behind her. Suddenly, her reflection changes into Kayako who then emerges from the mirror and grabs Miyuki, pulling her within the mirror. Michael returns to an empty bedroom.Vanessa and Allison are later interviewed by the school counselor (Eve Gordon) over the events surrounding Miyuki's disappearance and their trip to the haunted house. Allison is overcome and shouts at Vanessa, blaming her for making her go to that house. Vanessa heartlessly tells her that she wanted to come and Allison bursts into tears and leaves followed by the school counselor, while Vanessa is told to wait in her office. She texts Miyuki, wondering where she is. She waits for the counselor to come back and fiddles with pens and the light. She looks down and notices the lamp is unplugged, but as she goes to plug it in again, she sees Toshio's legs as he runs in front of the desk. The phone starts to vibrate from a call, and as she goes to pick up the phone, she feels Toshio's legs instead on the desk. She cries out in shock and gets out from under the desk, frightened, and picks up the call. Instead of Miyuki, it is Toshio on the other line. Vanessa runs out from school grounds to a phone booth and calls Miyuki. All she hears is the death rattle and Toshio grabs her legs, while she is consumed and killed by Kayako's long black hair.Allison is again called to the counselor's office, where she reveals her belief that she and anyone who enters the Saeki house have been cursed and will be hunted down and killed by Kayako. The counselor reveals that she went to the house with the police, making Allison believe that she will be Kayako's next victim. The counselor begins acting towards Allison as if she is being stupid. When Allison mentions Miyuki and Vanessa being killed, the counselor smiles and tells her that they are right next to her. The ghosts of Miyuki and Vanessa then appear on either side of Allison (with pale white skin and black rings around their eyes like Kayako and Toshio), glaring angrily at her. Allison screams and falls to the floor. The counselor then turns into a ghost as well and advances on Allison making a loud moaning noise. Allison, completely horrified, runs out of the room screaming.In Chicago, Bill Kimble (Christopher Cousins) has recently married a woman named Trish (Jennifer Beals), and is moving into the apartment he shares with his daughter Lacey (Sarah Roemer) and son Jake (Matthew Knight). While Lacey and her friend Sally (Jenna Dewan) are friendly with Trish, Jake is distant. The young boy is troubled when the child of his neighbors, the Flemings, moves back in after going insane. At night, he is awakened by a series of loud knockings from the Flemings apartment. Curious, he follows one of the apartments tenants and sees the person, who is wearing a hooded sweatshirt, getting old newspapers from the trash. When the person turns around to leave, Jake hides behind an object. He then notices two pairs of feet following the person out the basement. Jake looks out, only to see that there is no one behind the person. After Bill leaves for work, Jake and Lacey leave for school, and Jake notices that all of the windows in the Flemming's apartment are covered with newspaper. Bill, doubting his wife's fidelity, returns home unexpectedly, under the pretense of having forgotten his keys, only to find Trish on the phone with a coworker she identifies as Nate. It is revealed, that Bill is squeezing his keys so hard that they cut his hands, though Trish doesn't notice.After school, Lacey decides to show off her cheerleader outfit to Sally, who appears ill (presumably due to the curse). Sally drinks then regurgitates milk. Lacey returns home to find Jake shivering in his closet, afraid because Trish and Bill have been fighting. Jake is again awakened by pounding on the walls, and upon investigation discovers his sweatshirt-wearing neighbor is a young woman, who is banging her arm on the wall as she furiously cuts her own hair. After seeing the ghostly eyes of Vanessa and Miyuki staring in the window, Jake returns home and spends the night with his sister. That night Toshio appears by Sally's bed as she dies after a too large intake of milk.The next morning, after Trish listens to the banging from next door, she begins to make breakfast in a trance. Bill, all this time having been influenced by the spirit of Takeo, accuses her of having an affair, but she does not respond. After Bill criticizes her for burning the bacon, Trish pours the oil from the pan onto his head before killing him with a blow to the head. Lacey and Jake return home to a dark and messy apartment, while the banging from next door continues. As his sister looks for Bill and Trish, Jake discovers his father's body. Searching for Lacey, Jake finds that she has been drowned in the tub. As he hears Trish calling his name, Jake pulls back the shower curtain to find nothing. An already dead Trish appears in the tub, telling him it's time for his bath, before Toshio pulls her under the water.As Jake is fleeing his apartment, he hears screams from the Flemings' apartment. The girl in the sweatshirt turns out to be Allison, haunted by Vanessa and Miyuki, from the school in Tokyo. Jake accuses her of bringing something back with her which caused his family's death, and she confirms that "they" have followed her to Chicago. Allison sees Kayako climbing down the hallway stairs, and Jake shortly after sees Toshio inside the hood of Allison's sweat shirt. Kayako's hands emerge from the hood and pull Allison into her clothing, her body disappearing into it. Jake reaches for the sweatshirt as a ghostly hand grasps his arm; Kayako then rises from the hood and lurches towards him as the movie ends.

Tags: gothic, murder, paranormal, horror, flashback, good versus evil, revenge

Review:
With The Grudge 2, director Takashi Shimizu and screenwriter Stephen Susco have attempted to not fall into that trap by approaching the sequel a little differently, but by the time it's over, unfortunately, it still proves to be a little too repetitive for its own good.Unlike 2004's The Grudge, which unfolded in a largely linear fashion, The Grudge 2 shakes things up a bit by splitting the narrative between three different plot lines that all take place at different times.
First, there is the continuation, essentially, of the story from the first film, where Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is being kept in a hospital after surviving the ordeal of the first film, which centered around a house in Japan where a woman had been killed by her husband and thus created "The Grudge," a rage that consumes every living being that enters the house.
Sarah Michelle Gellar reappears for a relatively small role, so she doesn't make much impact, and the other major actress, Jennifer Beals, is also saddled with what almost amounts to a bit part.The Grudge 2 isn't a complete bomb, by any means, it is more than disturbing enough in moments to provide some general discomfort that horror films should try to apply.
A typical American-ized sequel that sadly didn't follow the unique plot of Ju-On 2.After Sarah Michelle Gellar's cameo, the movie focuses on her sister, but gives her nothing to do.
And the ending is a lot darker and much more mean spirited than the original, and for that, it has to earn some points for not taking the safe way out.The Grudge 2 is not a complete loss, but it could have been so much better..
On the next door, weird things happen with their neighbor."The Grudge 2" has scary sound and visual effects, with the creepy woman and boy, and I have startled a couple of times while watching this movie.
The end result is a chaotic mess with a convoluted storyline that weaves through time without ever indicating it (slightly confusing at the start, as there is a two year difference between the events we see throughout the film, but I will refrain from spoilers).The attempts at building suspense fall flat, as every significant event is telegraphed and, therefore, incredibly predictable even when you're not trying to think ahead of the film's pace.
I'm sorry, but even if you have never watched the Asian originals, the creepy girl with the hair in her face and the hitch in her step fails to frighten after two Ring films, Dark Water, Pulse, and, of course, the previous Grudge film.I had seriously hoped that Takashi Shimizu would bring some of his style to the film.
This time they don't try to surprise you with the scares as they did in the first movie, they make sure the audience KNOWS something is going to happen and just keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Amber Tamblyn does a great job playing Sarah Michelle Gellar's sister, although Sarah is in the movie, she only makes an appearance for a short period of time (I think she was filming The Return at the time).The horror in this is in no way cheesy or corny like some parts of Grudge had, this is full-on make you jump out of seat and leave the theater horror.
I was wrong.Now, I don't want to get your hopes up and have you think "Oh, a sequel to a horror that's actually good!", because the object of going into a movie is to not have your hopes so high, because they usually come crashing down on you.
I had read some bad reviews before hand, so I thought this would be a typical bad horror sequel like The Ring Two. It's not that bad.This movie has a variety of scary/suspenseful moments, and let me tell you, my heart was pumping a LOT throughout the movie.
The ending was nothing new and about the same, like I said it was not a boring movie thanks to the kills, however it was only mildly scary here and there and it just seemed to Americanized this time too.
"The Grudge 2" is one of the most scariest ghost/horror movie sequels I have ever seen.
Set two year after the events of "The Grudge" left off, Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) goes to Tokyo to bring her sister Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) back to the United States.
Meanwhile in Tokyo, high school students Allison, Vanessa and Miyuki visit the haunted house and are also chased by the ghost, and in Chicago, Trish (Jennifer Beals) moves into the apartment of her boyfriend Bill (Christopher Cousins), where paranormal events take place at their next-door neighbor's.This movie starts out with Aubrey visiting Tokyo to find her sister Karen and discover what troubling her, where we get a taste of suspense that quickly captures the thrills and horror of the first movie.
The tension builds when Aubrey also encounters the mysterious events in the house Karen was a caretaker in and, what follows, are one creepy moment one after the other as main ghosts Kayako (Takako Fuji) and Toshiro (Yuya Ozeki) take center stage, terrorizing not only Aubrey but two groups of people, three high school students and a Chicago family.Takashi Shimizu did a great job directing this sequel, which grabs the audience's attention with bone-chilling scenes and with moments that make you jump.
After a so-so first remake, Shimizu finally hits it in this sequel.The movie is great, filled with creepy atmosphere and scary scenes.
It's a good idea to put a couple of Asian actors because it reminds and gave me the same chill as when I first saw the original Ju-On. Sarah Michelle Gellar is on for a short period of time, but her scene is as great.It's also a pleasant surprise to find out that this sequel is not a remake of the Japanese sequel.
Great new touch from director Shimizu proving that you don't need much gore to make an effective thriller.My only problem is that the trailer showed so many scare details that when you watch the movie, you have this "I knew that was coming" feeling into it, which I don't think is good for a horror/suspense flick.
This movie is the sequel to "The Grudge", an American remake of a Japanese horror film based on the story of a powerful haunt.
It's a good movie to see if we're able to ignore the lack of logic and coherence of the story and focus on what we're watching, but its far from the first film and probably miles away from the original Japanese..
Some people by the end may not understand what happened because it is clever and requires a little thinking.This movie had a interesting story line, some freaky scenes, eerie music, and one hell of a clever ending.
Well, it certainly had me breaking out in laughter in several places, but I don't think that was the intention.Certainly a film to see if you want to sit around with your friends discussing the 'worst movie you've seen' this year.
Terrible plot (if any), confusing scene-cuts, no distinction for most of the females characters (hard to figure out who was who after awhile), and a waste of time to watch.
Including two shorts, the Japanese original Ju-on, its sequel, the American remake and now its follow-up, Takashi Shimizu has directed six films about the grudge curse.
It was a good, pretty scary movie, but the first like i said was way scarier and better!
This is movie is really scary and is way scarier and better than the first Grudge.
The plot was amazing you will understand more about what happened and why the ending was also really good.The Grudge 2 is a true horror movie is scary and have a very good storyline but there is still some unanswered questions so there should a Grudge 3 which I hope is coming out soon..
There are much better this you could spend your (or your parents) hard earned money on!Honestly, if you've seen the first movie there is no need to see the second, its pretty much a bad remake of the first!
the plot lines are a little different for this film, th is time there are no less than 3 different plot lines going at the same time,, but that's okay, because i was able to follow them all, unlike the first film where it was so hard to understand it,, i guess they must have americanized this film, to make it more user friendly,, t his movie had just the right amount of tension,,s cares surprises, and just at the right times too, there was a hell of an opening scene , and much more seeing of the ghost too,, scarier this time i might add also.
I've seen the two TV movies that started the series (the first being one of the scariest movies ever made), the two Japanese films which brought the series international attention (both good little films), I saw the first American version (which was an okay retread of the previous four films) and now I've seen the second American film and all I have to say is, its probably one of the least necessary films ever made.The point of the film seems to take the series out of Japan and bring it to America while at the same time dumbing the whole thing down.
Clearly having made a career that mostly consists of every other Grudge film he decided to kill his cash cow by making a film that is almost unwatchable.The plot is as disjointed as any thats gone before involves the sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar's character from the last film coming to see her in the hospital in Tokyo just before the curse finally gets her.
While the plot gets confusing at times, this sequel to THE GRUDGE is a worthy and scary successor.
Its not that I didn't get it, I did but the problem was there wasn't really much to get, it was boring he should concentrate on making a decent solid film instead of trying to mix it all up and blend different stories together, its like it took him 5 mins to think of each "scary/jumpy part" and then 5 mins to make it!
In fact, in many ways it was probably worse.Think of all of your played-out horror movie clichés; roll them up in an absolute mess of a plot-line (which is actually three completely separate stories); add a circus of bad actors; and finally, take all of the unrelenting shock and suspense that made The Grudge so great and flush it straight down the toilet, and you have yourself The Grudge 2.I am a huge fan of the horror genre.
Random people that have nothing to do with the story get killed, like the 3 school girls for example.The family at the beginning has nothing to do with the story either, I believe them to be a random family that never went in the house, and never had anything to do with the killings of the Grudge.Did not impress me at all, I was not scared, I didn't jump at any parts, and the whole movie was just a random piece of crap to get more money off of.
I don't have a problem with non-linear story lines IF they're done right, like 1994's "Pulp Fiction" and 2007's "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead," but "The Grudge 2" is a good example of how NOT to do them.Despite my criticisms, I like this movie and think it's very worthwhile if you're in the mood for a haunting picture in the mold of 2002's "The Ring." Some have even called it the scariest movie ever made.
This was odd movie, there were things that i liked., how they kinda of change a bit of the plot from Ju-on-The Grudge 2 but did remake some of the scenes form that movie, i did not have the same impact at all.Some of the spooky scenes felt a little strange but not scary and there were some moments that i found the movie was a little too dark at times.
If you ask me there's probably nothing scarier than that and i've seen so many scary movies in my life it's not even funny.I saw it yesterday and everyone would scream during the scary parts.The effects are awesome and the movie is like 50,000 times better than the 1st one and i saw the 1st one it didn't scare me at all.This will have you screaming your lungs out.However I also suggest that the movie isn't for the faint of heart.Some people started to cry ( i don't know why).But if you're the type of person that loves scary movies like me then you should definitely go and see it..
My friends and I have a little tradition every Wednesday night, we watch a movie either in the theater or we rent something and this time my friend rented The Grudge 2, I found out that he never saw the first, so maybe that's why.
But I decided to be nice and sit down through the movie and wipe a clean slate for this film, still, it did me no good, because it seems like the plot got only worse along with the crummy actors.Basically, Karen is now in a hospital and has been accused of setting the fire to the house that was from the first film, so her mom sends her sister, Aubrey, to Japan to bring Karen back home to America.
But, as the things get complicated, Aubrey bumps with the curse herself and starts a race against time to stop the curse before it kills her...Then, the curse starts affecting (out of the nowhere until the end of the movie "makes sense" of it on a very lame way) a family in some apartment building on Chicago.The real problem is that the Stephen Susco (writter), tried to mix 3 story lines (I can only make sense of two) in a single linear movie.
instead he got everyone confused about the storyline (not even first scene makes sense after you end this movie) and applied some rough twists that somehow, changed completely the original story...
making a full paradox of the Ju-On legend by switching Kayako's ghostly vendetta for something that made her being cursed from her childhood until the day she died...Side characters (everyone but Tamblyn) act so bad that I believe they couldn't ask for too much when getting paid...The extended version felt better than the cut one, and even so, the deleted scenes made less sense for the movie (thank God they removed them), but one scene...
Never before had I heard the unique audio of chilling sounds, it truly was gripping.The Grudge 2 however, had a couple of good jumps, but the story line was real messy, and not entirely believable, and all over the place, with a couple of scenes, (like a female urinating herself out of fear, or another one of a young woman drinking a jug of milk then vomiting it all up again) which really made no sense, and did not help to enhance the creep factor of the film.
I really like the first one but, the sequel is just really weak.Too much of a good thing can be bad, and in the case of Grudge 2 it is.
The "grudge" (the ghostly force from the first film) is still around, attacking high school girls in the house, following Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) to her sister, and showing up as far away as Chicago.
It's too slow, too dull, and just not scary enough to make up for the confusing plot (which adds nothing new to the story, by the way, so not even Grudge fans will be pleased).Oh, and what is it with the old man playing Japanese peek-a-boo on the bus??
I'm deeply saddened by the fact that this piece of junk has topped The Departed at the box office(even though it will be just for a day or two).What does people expect from a sequel to Grudge and then even go to watch that???I went just because my girlfriend wanted me to and now I will be hating her for quite some time.This was even worse than Ring 2.Amber Tamblyn can act so you can give this movie 1 and maybe another one for the effort.So that makes 2 out of 10.Please don't even think of wasting your or your parent's hard earned money on this unless you are in need to repair your funny bone.After that you can wonder what's wrong with these people who are leaving comments like "great movie" or "definitely worth seeing".I'd rather go watch The Departed few more times and relive the moments with Frank Costello..
On the plus side, these films all seem to have a lot of style going for them but at the cost of having absolutely no logic.In "The Grudge 2", director Takashi Shimizu jumbles several story lines that get really complicated when it all should have been so very simple.
I bet a whole lot of people like this movie but just have a grudge or something against it.
i thought this was going to be a really good movie after watching the first one, but i was wrong, it was hard to follow and there were a few stories going on at once, i didn't understand what was going on and thought it was going to explain it all by the end of the film, but it didn't, but that might be why they are making the grudge 3.
Some of the horror scenes were much like "The Grudge", but most of them definitely had a Japanese feel to them.