Ju-On (2002)
October 15, 2014 10:43 AM - Subscribe

The original Japanese version of The Grudge, from 2002. A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides.
posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total)
 
This is one of the more legitimately terrifying movies I have ever seen. Some of its impact has been blunted by how often both this film in particular and the tropes of J-Horror in general have been beaten to death in subsequent years. But still... REALLy scary.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:49 AM on October 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


I liked this one much better than The Ring, which was the first J-Horror-type movie I can recall to hit North America. Somehow less gimmicky, and the ghosts are just pure malevolence no matter who comes across the house. All of the spooky tricks were so new and fresh to my eyes, too, and I haven't really seen it done as well since.
posted by Hoopo at 1:31 PM on October 15, 2014


This movie embodies what I love about Japanese ghost stories: the ghosts are just utterly implacable, they don't care that you're innocently or even benevolently entering the house. You entered the house.
posted by tomboko at 8:08 PM on October 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


As a bit of a derail, if you haven't seen the 2000 version of Ju-on that preceded this higher budget version, it is well worth searching out. Also directed and written by Takashi Shimizu, it looks like it cost about $100 to shoot on someone's mom's camcorder, and it is brilliantly creative and terrifying. It also features some of the most terrible CG that you've ever seen.

A clever director can get an awful lot of pants-wetting milage out of an extra pair of legs in the corner of a frame that takes the viewer a few seconds to notice in a room that should be empty.
posted by figurant at 8:36 PM on October 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


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