Senseless Grudge

Directed by the one and only Takashi Shimizu, there are three storyline in The Grudge 2 but the main plot revolves around Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn), the sister of the principal character Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar). At the end of The Grudge, Karen was last seen as the hospital, watching her dead boyfriend, after she set the cursed house on fire, thinking that it would end the curse but she failed miserably as the curse never did leave her.

Mrs. Davis (Joanna Cassidy), who was ill in bed, requested her youngest daughter, Aubrey, to fly to Tokyo to bring Karen back. The two sisters are not in talking terms, but Aubrey knows that she has no choice but to obey. Reluctantly, she makes her way to the foreign land to get her sister back.

In Tokyo, Aubrey goes to the hospital to visit Karen, who is delusional and keeps urging her sister to get her out. At the hospital, Aubrey meets Eason (Edison Chen), a Japanese journalist who happened to be the one who pulled Karen out of the burning house. As a result of that, he is exposed to the same mysterious curse that badly affected Karen. Together with Eason, Aubrey sets out to uncover the truth of the mysterious killings that have been going on.

Meanwhile, the second storyline tells the story of the three high school students in Tokyo, Allison (Arielle Kebbel), Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misako Uno) in their encounters with the ghost when they visited the cursed house after school. Allison is dared by Vanessa to stand in the exact spot where the body of Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji) was hidden after she was killed. It all soon turns into a frightening nightmare when the door jams and the girls fail to get it open. That was the first appearance of the ghost in this sequel.

The final storyline resolves around a family in Chicago. Trish (Jennifer Beals) moves in with her boyfriend, Bill (Christopher Cousins). He lives with his children, the teenager Lacey (Sarah Roehmer) and boy Jake (Matthew Knight). Everything seems normal at first even though Jake finds it difficult to accept a ‘new mom’. Realising that something is not right on the next door neighbour, Jake’s curiosity leads him to find out more about the strange events that he has been witnessing. As it turns out, these events are related to the curse being brought back from Tokyo.

The three storyline are struggles for those who are afflicted with the curse that seems to haunt them everywhere they go. The story in this sequel appears to be more psychological and broken into chronological orders that eventually intersect in the end, which somehow left me confused and disappointed. I bet the director was confused as well because it is just too obvious that the story just does not add up. There are obviously some missing links, which I hope will be explained in the third sequel, if there is any. Each time after a confusing scene, I went "What?!", then another scene, "What?!". Well, you get the picture.

With its scary sound and visual effects, the eerie images of Kayako appearing more often that she did in The Grudge, it could be startling. Somehow, it fails miserably in its attempt to scare those who have watched the likes of The Grudge, The Ring sequels and Dark Waters. If you have not watched any of these films, The Grudge 2 is probably good news for those who are looking for a good scare.