Why The Grudge/Ju-On failed to scare the crap out of me.
The Grudge - Hollywood version and The Japanese Ju-On.
We were on some type of Grudge fest these past weeks. We first watched the Japanese version because neither of us have watched it and though D has part 2 of the film, I am not really excited to watch it. I mean, even before we even met and everyone had been going bonkers about it, I never really felt this burning need to watch the flick. I don't hate horror films. I like watching them actually especially if I am in the mood.
So there we went, finally got to watch Ju-on The Grudge and the verdict? It's OK, I guess. I wish I was scared, you know. I really hoped I did. But no. I suck? Bite me! Perhaps not many people would agree with me but I still say The Ring (Japanese version) still scared the crap out of me.
Okay, let me break it to you as to why Ju-On/The Grudge didn't quite make it to even raising the hair on my arms.
It's the element of anticipation. Whenever things turned gloomy, you know for sure something's going to crawl out of the darkness or something. Someone's going to die and all. The crazy woman will go "Thriller" on your ass. The little Toshio will look like Oliver Twist with Avril Lavigne's raccoon eye makeup.
I am not a big fan of anticipation on my horror films. I want the element of surprise. I want to watch a horror film where I can laugh my head off because of the deep confusion of fear and nervousness. I want to feel the hair at the back of my neck rise. I want to be STILL thinking about it a week later. I want to clap my heads because of its brilliance and totally highly unexpected scenes. I want to say.."DEMMIT! THAT WAS REALLY GOOD!" at the end of the film.
Well, none of those happened. So much for my expectations. The whole crooked slinking on the steps dance from the chop~chop lady has been done before. I think this sort of thing can only be delivered once and anyone who copies or repeats the same element in a horror film won't work and so directors make it MORE crooked but STILL it's the same routine. Sadako of the Ring did it and I saw that kind for the first time and it surely scared the crap out of me. That WAS REALLY good. It gave me the shivers. I couldn't stare at a screen of a TV that has been turned off for awhile. Heck! I couldn't stare at a TV with the showers either.
Then the shocked look around the eyes and stuff. I mean, what's with the overly done raccoon eye makeup? REALLY? WHY? I mean...she and her kid didn't die with eye makeup on. So why have them when they died? The kid was drowned and the woman was chopped up. In what scene did the chopper bothered to put makeup on? He didn't have any eye makeup on him so why did they?
Plus the slinkering and crawling wasn't anatomically possible at all. She was chopped. So why does she still have her parts all together? That's a presentation of someone who was broken and fell from a high place and not chopped. They just made her go down the stairs in a spider style. Now if they had separate body parts crawling all over the place...then perhaps that's something else.
The actors were good, don't get me wrong. They were merely doing their parts. The Grudge gave a more detailed approach on the timeline as opposed to the Ju-On were the scenes were as disjointed as chop~chop lady. Actually the ONLY scene that I particularly liked and totally unexpected was Sarah Michelle Gellar's bus scene where the face of the chop-chop lady suddenly appeared. That was a good one. It was a very bright scene as well. Lots of sunshine, so who'd expect that something creepy like that would appear in a bus window, huh?
But movies such as these deserve only to be shown ONCE. Just like Ring which I love. If it comes in sequels, it won't work so well anymore. It will JUST look like a franchise. Ju-on has become a franchise movie in itself. That for me is boring. Scare tactics will only work once, if someone is scared over and over with the same stuff...the person will develop immunity from it. This is what I got from watching Ju-On/The Grudge.
We were on some type of Grudge fest these past weeks. We first watched the Japanese version because neither of us have watched it and though D has part 2 of the film, I am not really excited to watch it. I mean, even before we even met and everyone had been going bonkers about it, I never really felt this burning need to watch the flick. I don't hate horror films. I like watching them actually especially if I am in the mood.
So there we went, finally got to watch Ju-on The Grudge and the verdict? It's OK, I guess. I wish I was scared, you know. I really hoped I did. But no. I suck? Bite me! Perhaps not many people would agree with me but I still say The Ring (Japanese version) still scared the crap out of me.
Okay, let me break it to you as to why Ju-On/The Grudge didn't quite make it to even raising the hair on my arms.
It's the element of anticipation. Whenever things turned gloomy, you know for sure something's going to crawl out of the darkness or something. Someone's going to die and all. The crazy woman will go "Thriller" on your ass. The little Toshio will look like Oliver Twist with Avril Lavigne's raccoon eye makeup.
I am not a big fan of anticipation on my horror films. I want the element of surprise. I want to watch a horror film where I can laugh my head off because of the deep confusion of fear and nervousness. I want to feel the hair at the back of my neck rise. I want to be STILL thinking about it a week later. I want to clap my heads because of its brilliance and totally highly unexpected scenes. I want to say.."DEMMIT! THAT WAS REALLY GOOD!" at the end of the film.
Well, none of those happened. So much for my expectations. The whole crooked slinking on the steps dance from the chop~chop lady has been done before. I think this sort of thing can only be delivered once and anyone who copies or repeats the same element in a horror film won't work and so directors make it MORE crooked but STILL it's the same routine. Sadako of the Ring did it and I saw that kind for the first time and it surely scared the crap out of me. That WAS REALLY good. It gave me the shivers. I couldn't stare at a screen of a TV that has been turned off for awhile. Heck! I couldn't stare at a TV with the showers either.
Then the shocked look around the eyes and stuff. I mean, what's with the overly done raccoon eye makeup? REALLY? WHY? I mean...she and her kid didn't die with eye makeup on. So why have them when they died? The kid was drowned and the woman was chopped up. In what scene did the chopper bothered to put makeup on? He didn't have any eye makeup on him so why did they?
Plus the slinkering and crawling wasn't anatomically possible at all. She was chopped. So why does she still have her parts all together? That's a presentation of someone who was broken and fell from a high place and not chopped. They just made her go down the stairs in a spider style. Now if they had separate body parts crawling all over the place...then perhaps that's something else.
The actors were good, don't get me wrong. They were merely doing their parts. The Grudge gave a more detailed approach on the timeline as opposed to the Ju-On were the scenes were as disjointed as chop~chop lady. Actually the ONLY scene that I particularly liked and totally unexpected was Sarah Michelle Gellar's bus scene where the face of the chop-chop lady suddenly appeared. That was a good one. It was a very bright scene as well. Lots of sunshine, so who'd expect that something creepy like that would appear in a bus window, huh?
But movies such as these deserve only to be shown ONCE. Just like Ring which I love. If it comes in sequels, it won't work so well anymore. It will JUST look like a franchise. Ju-on has become a franchise movie in itself. That for me is boring. Scare tactics will only work once, if someone is scared over and over with the same stuff...the person will develop immunity from it. This is what I got from watching Ju-On/The Grudge.