The Grudge 2 (2006)

 

The sixth film in the GRUDGE universe is getting a new Blu-ray and DVD release courtesy of Fabulous Films. Yes that's right I said the sixth. As of this writing there are thirteen films in the various Japanese and US franchises and if you want the list then it's all in my review to the 13th film called unhelpfully, THE GRUDGE.

But back to THE GRUDGE 2, which is the US sequel to the 2004 THE GRUDGE and not the 2020 THE GRUDGE or any of the Japanese films. A summary of the story so far will probably be more helpful.

The source of all the ghostly goings-on in these films is Kayako (Takako Fuji), who was murdered by her husband for having designs on another man. Her husband also murdered her only child and the family cat. Because of the violence of the murder and because (it turns out in this one) as a child Kayako was some kind of repository for evil spirits exorcised by her mother from other people, the house where she was killed now has a curse on it. Anyone who enters dies a horrible ghostly death. 

In the previous film, Sarah Michelle Gellar became involved after being sent to the house to look after an elderly woman whose usual social worker had disappeared (yes it was Kayako) after her son and his wife also disappeared (Kayako again). Miss Gellar eventually burned the house down.

Now it's sequel time! Amber Tamblyn, previously seen messing around with the cursed videotape in Gore Verbinski's remake of RINGU as THE RING (you'd think she'd have learned by now) plays Gellar's sister who travels to Japan and finds herself in a world of creaky-voiced creepy crawly horrors, uncovering more of Kayako's past (see above). Meanwhile in the US, why are Jennifer Beals and her family suddenly the subject of hauntings in what must be the most drab-looking apartment to grace a mid 2000s American horror film?

Blu-ray extras include ten minutes on Ms Fuji, whose sixth and final film this was playing Kayako as well as featurettes on story development, adapting the films for a Western audience and director of all six films Takashi Shimizu talking about his creation and how he hoped he would get to direct THE GRUDGE 3 (he didn't) and cast Ms Fuji again (that didn't happen either). Altogether you get 50 minutes of behind the scenes material that touches on all the previous films including the Japanese ones. There are also deleted scenes, an alternate ending and an additional epilogue that was cut from the original release. 

Takashi Shimizu's THE GRUDGE 2 is out on Blu-ray and DVD from Fabulous Films on Monday 2nd November 2020