The title of today's post is just a silly title and has nothing to do with what I'm going to discuss... yet...
Last night I watched THE GRUDGE on dvd.
I saw the original Japanese version once on a rental dvd and it was good, with a slightly different take on the story, but I prefer the American version.
It had been so long since I'd seen it, although I've watched it a time or three over the years, that I had forgotten all of the cast except Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Jason Behr plays Sarah's characters boyfriend that she accompanied to Japan when he went there to attend medical school as an exchange student. She also was attending college and was working at a help center that, probably among other things, sent it's workers out to households with older people who needed help and to give a hand to the families of these people by doing light housework, tending to the old or sick person's needs by feeding, bathing and just generally taking care of them.
The story unfolds in a series of scenes with different people over time and switches from present day to 3 years or so into the past and sometimes those time streams are blended.
A LOST alumnist, William Mapother plays the husband/son of a family of 3 that were the first people to rent the house after a murder/suicide took place in it 3 years previously. A Japanese man had killed his wife, their son and their cat, then committed suicide himself after finding his wife's journal, filled with romantic meanderings about a college professor that she had been stalking so much that she appeared in all kinds of photos that had been taken of him over time. The college professor had been receiving letters from her and became so upset over getting them that he tracked down where she lived and went there to get her to stop, apparently. He was the one that found the bodies and while there, he and Sarah Michelle Gellar's characters shared the same space, but not the same time. She could see him and I think he got glimpses of her, but it was like he was seeing a shadow or a ghost or something out of the corner of his eye.
After seeing all the death that had happened in that house, the next morning he apparently jumped from the balcony of his apartment, his wife seeing him supposedly jump.
Much more goes on in this movie and I have it all out of order, I am sure, but for those who like Jade Horror and/or the movies THE RING or anything of that type, this is one I recommend for it's sheer creepiness.
The look of the movements of the creatures in the movie, as well as the use of long, creepy hair and the fear of dark water standing nearly to the top of a bathtub, as well as the horrible sounds in this movie coming from at least 2 characters and an animal, give it a spooky feeling.
I've already spoiled the movie for those who haven't seen it, but there is a lot more to scare you in it than what I have told you.
More creepy stuff about something tomorrow, I hope!
SciFiHorrorFem
