The Grudge

A while back, Lauren, being a sucker for watching late night horror by herself, called me in to watch the American version of The Grudge with her that she'd scoured out on MegaTV. It was pretty rubbish. Sarah Michelle Gellar flitting about her countryside Japan getting spooked by unforgiving souls in a haunted house.

Having said this, that night I was envisaging black haired freaky girls crawling about my ceiling as I retreated to my apartment...alone... (I like to get into these things and scare myself; kind of like focussing on the spinning background while riding the kiddy rides at funfairs to get some kind of adrenaline rush that you're not supposed to get)

Now the "good" thing about this version of the movie was that they tied up all the loose ends. Sure, it was a horror film so there was a nice spooky cliffhanger, but the story was explained and we kind of understood the reasons behind the 'grudge'. Man kills wife due to unforgiving affair; wife upset. Not too much thinking involved.

On Wednesday, in the company of Alex - a nice, protecting, strong man, able to look after a pathetic girl such as myself - I thought it'd be a good idea to get in on some DVD horror watching. I really want to see the Japanese version of The Ring, having totally been haunted by the American version since I saw it, but if I really wanted to be scared, Alex recommended the original Grudge instead.

From the point of view of not wanting to be jumping out of my skin every other minute, I was definitely glad to have seen the re-make first. It's the lack of music and other devices usually employed to make the viewer comfortable that makes you feel, well, uncomfortable. But in terms of who was going to pop round the corner next, I felt pretty much prepared.

Regarding story line: HUH?? Everyone who goes in the house dies? The woman is a cat? The cat has a grudge? The boy has a grudge? The girl is the girl? The girl died? Where's the man? Who now? What?

Evidently I came out utterly confused and not that inspired. Images of extra hands running through my hair in the shower were forced to the back of my mind and nightmares were avoided.

But now I've dragged this up I'm probably not sleeping well tonight.