The Grudge

United States, Japan

2004

92 Min

English, Japanese

Currently 2.1/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

EXEC Doug Davison, Joseph Drake, Nathan Kahane, Roy Lee, Carsten H.W. Lorenz

PROD Takashige Ichise, Sam Raimi, Robert G. Tapert

SCR Stephen Susco, Takashi Shimizu

CAST Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Ryo Ishibashi, William Mapother, Clea DuVall, KaDee Strickland, Grace Zabriskie, Bill Pullman, Rosa Blasi, Ted Raimi, Yoko Maki, Yuya Ozeki, Takako Fuji, Takashi Matsuyama

After Yoko fails to show up for work, Karen Davis, an exchange Nurse-student from the states living in Tokyo, is asked to check on Emma, an American lady who recently moved to Japan with her son, daughter, and daughter in-law. Whilst inside the house, Karen is alarmed by Emma’s unusual behavior: She is mute and sleeps through the day. Karen then soon discovers that the house is haunted by a curse, a curse that will consume anyone who enters the house. Now after several horrific deaths, she finds herself locked in a race against time for she too is consumed by The Grudge. ––IMDb

Director

Takashi Shimizu

Japanese director Takashi Shimizu’s first experience in film was working part-time at a Kyoto movie theater, while writing scripts in his spare time. Several years of freelancing as an assistant director followed and in 1997 he enrolled at the Film School of Tokyo.

A short film project he did for school attracted the attention of director Kyoshi Kurosawa and screenwriter Hiroshi Takashi. They introduced him to producer Taka Ichise, who had been asked to produce a series of horror stories for a cell phone company. He asked the young director to give him some ideas of what might scare him and this process launched the beginning of the Ju-on horror movie series.

Four Japanese Ju-on movies later, Shimizu directed his first American-produced feature — The Grudge (2004), an English-language version of his hit film, Ju-on: The Grudge — starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as an American in Japan.

Shimizu won a Crystal Skull Award at Screamfest for Ju-on: The Grudge (2003). —tribute… read more