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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - October 13th

"THE GRUDGE 2" released in 2006

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A young woman encounters a malevolent supernatural force while searching for her missing sister in Tokyo; a mean high school prank goes horribly wrong; a woman with a deadly secret moves into a Chicago apartment building. These three interwoven stories continue the saga of the terrifying vengeful spirit Kayako (Takako Fuji), in Takashi Shimizu's sequel to his successful American remake, The Grudge 2!

American social worker Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Geller) finds herself hospitalized after failing to burn down the haunted Saeki family home, and finds herself haunted by Kayako (Fuji). Meanwhile in Chicago, Karen’s younger sister Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) is summoned by their bed-ridden mother (Joanna Cassidy) who informs Aubrey of Karen’s situation and sends her to Tokyo to retrieve her. Once in Tokyo, Aubrey briefly speaks with Karen, who quickly panics, and has to be restrained. Karen later escapes her restraints and flees through the hospital stalked by Kayako, until she makes it to the roof which Kayako throws her off in front of Aubrey and Eason (Edison Chen), a journalist whom Aubrey met earlier.  Eason later explains the curse to Aubrey, revealing he rescued Karen from the house fire, and has been investigating the Saeki murders and surrounding events. The two go to the house to retrieve Kayako’s diary, but Toshio drags Aubrey inside to curse her. Flashing forward two years, school girls from the Japan International High School - Allison (Arielle Kebbel), Vanessa (Teresa Palmer), and Miyuki (Misako Uno) - break into the house on a dare, but Allison is locked in the closet while the two other girls escape, and encounters the vengeful spirits. After Miyuki and Vanessa are consumed by the curse, Allison speaks with school counsellor Ms. Dale (Eve Gordon) about the curse, but Dale denies its existence, but later reveals she went to the house once herself and is now actually a ghost herself. Allison, haunted by the ghosts of her friends, flees back to Chicago, where she stays with her parents. It is in Chicago, sometime later, that a young boy named Jake Kimble (Matthew Knight) begins to notice strange presence in the apartment building his family just moved into, beginning when a hooded stranger, who covers windows with newspaper, first arrived. When Jake's stepmother Trish (Jennifer Beals) brutally murders his father Bill (Christopher Cousins) with a frying pan - while under the influence of the curse - Jake and his sister Lacey (Sarah Roemer) finally confront the hooded stranger, who is revealed to be a terrified Allsion (and we learn the true fate that befell Aubrey in Japan), and come to the realization that they are all now consumed by the curse of Kayako!

Eason: [talking about Kayako's mother] She used to take evil spirits out from a person and feed them to her daughter.

 Top:   Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) travels to Japan to help her sister, but comes into contact with the very same vengeful spirit that consumed Karen!;

Above:   Aspiring journalist Eason (Edison Chen) also tries to find the origin of the curse.

Just three days after the release of the American remake of the Grudge - having grossed over $39 million on it's opening weekend - Sony Pictures quickly greenlit a sequel with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures producing. Director Takashi Shimizu flew to Los Angeles to meet with producers Rob Tapert and Raimi in a small office at Columbia Pictures, with the purpose of developing a story outline for the sequel's first draft. According to Tapert, the session was roughly seven or eight hours of people suggesting ideas for the story, including the origin of the curse and new character subplots. While the remake of The Grudge had omitted the subplot involving the three schoolgirls which was present in the original Ju-on: The Grudge (2002), the storyline was resurrected for this film (Misako Uno's character is even named Miyuki, just like one of the girls in the original film). Shimizu later stated in an interview with Sci Fi Wire in September, 2006, that, "The Grudge was a complete remake of Ju-on, meaning the storyline was very similar. Basically, it's the same. But Grudge 2 is actually different from Ju-on: The Grudge 2, and I don't think I would have accepted this job if it was going to be the same storyline. And because it was a different story, you know, my motivation was a bit higher, and I actually enjoy doing this."

The film was later placed into production hell for almost a year until December 2005, when the first few cast - Sarah Michelle Gellar and Teresa Palmer - members were announced. With Geller and Ryo Ishibashi (briefly reprising their roles as Karen Davis and Det. Nakagawa respectively) returning from the previous film, they were joined by new cast members Palmer, Misako Uno, and Arielle Kebbel as the doomed schoolgirls Vanessa, Miyuki, and Allison. Hong Kong popstar and actor Edison Chen was cast as journalist Eason, with Amber Tamblyn cast in the lead role of Karen's sister, Aubrey Davis - this would mark the second time Tamblyn has appeared in an American remake of a J-horror film, having previously starred in The Ring (2002). While having played the role of vengeful spirit Kayako Saeki in all previous films in the Ju-On/The Grudge series, The Grudge 2 would the last time Takako Fuji would portray the character. Yuya Ozeki, who previously played Toshio Saeki in The Grudge (and in Ju-on: The Grudge and Ju-on: The Grudge 2) had outgrown the role of Toshio and was replaced by Ohga Tanaka - becoming the fourth actor to play the character.

Allison: [whimpers] Why did you have to bring me into this house...?
Vanessa: Uuuh, you were the one who wanted to go in!
Allison: [stands up and cries] What did I ever do to you?

Top:   Students Vanessa (Teresa Palmer), Allison (Arielle Kebbel) and  Miyuki (Misako Uno) dare each other to enter the "most haunted house in all of Japan";

Above:   In the end, only Allison is left, still haunted by the ghosts of her friends!

The original scheduled date for principal photography, which was due to begin January 30, 2006, but was postponed until February, with the production based at Toho Studios in Tokyo, Japan. In order to keep the mood on the set light, the actors and director would often joke around and attempt to frighten one another. This included a Karaoke session performed by director Takashi Shimizu on Arielle Kebbel's birthday. Filming wrapped up on April 25, 2006, with sets being recreated in Chicago for Tamblyn to re-shoot several scenes in September.


To promote the film, Sony released a missing persons file on its official blog stating a student filmmaker known as "Jason C" disappeared a few weeks after visiting the set of the film. The blog originally broadcast interviews with the film's stars including Sarah Michelle Gellar and Amber Tamblyn but has been taken over by his roommate who filed the report. On September 19, 2006 Yahoo! Movies was the first site to release three short films titled Tales from the Grudge which expands on the story of the Saeki curse. Written by Ben Ketai directed by Toby Wilkins (future director of The Grudge 3), the shorts starred Daniel Sykes, Stefanie Butler, Ginny Weirick, and Anna Moon as Kayako; if your interested in checking out all three of the Tales from The Grudge shorts, you can find them on IHdb's Facebook video section.

[last lines]
Jake: It's all your fault! What did you do? What did you bring here?
Allison: [shaking and sobbing] It followed me here. THEY followed me here!

Top:   Jake Kimbell (Matthew Knight) begins to see strange things in his Chicago apartment building;

Above:   Kayako (Takako Fuji) finally consumes Allison in front of Jake!

Sony Pictures commissioned the amusement park, Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA, to design a Grudge 2 maze as part of its 2006 Halloween Haunt, which opened to the public at the same time The Grudge 2 premiered on October 8th. Released in 3,211 theaters four days later, the sequel was expected to generate $27 million across the October 13–15 weekend, but grossed far less than expected with $10,018,039 on its opening day, and $20.8 million for it's opening weekend. The Grudge 2 received notably worse reviews from critics than its predecessor, Pete Vonder Haar from Film Threat found "[t]he same problems that plagued the original are on display here. Most notably, the lack of any coherent plot." Keith Phipps from The A.V. Club agreed, writing, "While The Grudge 2 deserves some credit for creating and sustaining a creepy atmosphere, it doesn't matter much when the plot doesn't go anywhere." Tim Goernert from Joblo "found it really hard to follow the story as well, as there were three of them happening at the same time."

During post-production on The Grudge 2, Takashi Shimizu discussed ideas of creating another sequel, saying: "During the script meeting, Our ideas didn't go anywhere good, and we couldn't come up with anything interesting to stop the curse, so if that's the case, I would rather just go for something that could never be stopped. But who knows, maybe something can be stopped in The Grudge 3." During Comic Con '06, Sony officially announced plans for the sequel, and although being offered the chance to direct once again, Shimizu declined, instead acting as producer. Shawnee Smith, who appeared as Amanda in the Saw series, was first cast as Dr. Francine Sullivan, with Matthew Knight returning as Jake Kimble (the sole surivor of the last movie). The Grudge 3 also starred Johanna Braddy, Gil McKinney, Jadie Rose Hobson and Emi Ikehata as Naoko Kawamata, Kayako's younger sister, who holds the secret to ending the curse.  Takako Fuji and Yuya Ozeki decided not to return as the vengeful spirits Kayako and Toshio, and were recast with Aiko Horiuchi and Shimba Tsuchiya. Unlike the previous films in the Grudge franchise, The Grudge 3 was released direct-to-DVD on May 12, 2009, receiving generally mixed to negative reviews. And the, on March 20, 2014, it was announced that an American reboot was in the works, to be written by Jeff Buhler and produced by Sam Raimi, as with all previous American installments - although as yet, no further development has been announced. So guess Grudge fans may have to wait a little longer to have Kayako back on the screens.

 

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   10%

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