The Grudge 2 (2006)

[HorrorMovieFan]

"The Grudge 2"......Where to begin? Watching this u realize the whole movie is out of order, which causes some people to get annoyed at it.There are 3 story arcs. One arc involves the family in America. This story starts off with a wife killing her husband with a fry pan. Then it jumps back before that event happened with her moving in with him and his son and daughter. The little boy starts seeing an odd person, whom is now living with the Flemings in the apartment down the hall, acting very suspicious and he continues to be curious of that person, after many odd occurrences. For me I was like "what is the purpose of this storyline?" As you never saw anyone of this family go into the forsaken 'grudge' house. Of course, there is a point to them which you find out in the last 5 minutes of the film. Even though this part of the story arc ties in nicely the movie would have been better without it. Another story arc focuses on an outcast named "Allison" (Arielle Kebbel) who attends an International school in Japan. Two girls trick her into going in The Grudge house (2 years after "Karen" set the house on fire) and they get her to go into the infamous closet. She sees a diary with a strange eye at the front. Then "Kayako" appears, "Allison" freaks(Arielle lets loose a bone chilling scream...love it) and runs away. After this she and the other 2 girls start seeing odd things and Allison begins seeing the school therapist.The last story arc is "Aubrey's" (Amber Tamblyn) which is set a few days after the event (Karen setting the house on fire) occurred. She is sent by her mother to bring Karen back to America. In Japan, she sees her sister (Karen) who clearly is now insane, in the hospital. There she meets a very handsome guy in the hospital named "Eason" (Edison Chen) ,who is a reporter and whom also has the grudge curse. As the 2 are walking out of the hospital, Karen falls from the hospital roof to her death. Aubrey is determined to find out what caused her sisters death and Eason helps her. Eason goes back into the house to find out more clues. Aubrey is dragged in there by one of the evil spirits. Towards the end of the film Aubrey goes to see Kayakos mother to see if this will help her. The mother tells her everyone is making the curse worse and that it wont be stopped. Aubrey grabs her hand for help, and she then experiences a flashback. Kayako's mother then realizes that Aubrey has brought Kayako with her and as Aubrey stands disoriented, Kayako kills her mother. The story all comes together within the last 10 minutes. It shows Aubrey going into the house. She sees Karen's vision and goes upstairs. The diary from when Allison was in the cupboard flips open revealing the drawn eye becoming real and drags Aubrey into the vision. "Takeo", the husband who originally killed Kayako kills Aubrey the same way he killed Kayako and she dies of Asphyxia(where we find out what has caused the horrible croaking sound from Kayako). Then it cuts back to when Allison was locked in the cupboard at the beginning of the film revealing that 'Kayako' was really "Aubrey". That was a bit of a shocking twist. "Jake" in America runs out of the apartment after discovering his family's deaths. He finds the 'odd' person from the Flemmings apartment in the hallway. This person is finally revealed to be schoolgirl Allison. Allison is taken by Kayako at the end. Sure the whole movie is out of sorts and doesnt really come clear until the 10 remaining minutes, but it makes you think. I also found that "Kayako" was more creepier (due to the makeup and atmosphere) in this part. The cast isn't too bad. Arielle, Amber, Takako Fuji, and Edison were the major standouts. In closing, the movie didn't really make any actual ground with the whole 'grudge mystery' and how it can be stopped. I did like the part with Kayako's mother, but it should have been expanded more. It also would have been a lot better if the whole movie focused on only 2 story arcs with more on Aubrey's storyline. All in all a pretty good sequel that delivered some unnerving atmosphere, had more creepy images, and delivered some nice jolts.

8/10

[RomeroCarpenter Fan]

well lets just say this sequel was packed with different storylines and characters. it had a little too much of both. the demise of aubrey and seeing her ghost coming out of the attic opening instead of kayako was a bit confusing. why repeat what happened to kayako? there was no need to repeat the moment.

(7/10)