re:mote voices

Title: The Grudge

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Clea DuVall, Bill Pullman

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Produced by Sam Raimi, The Grudge is a remake of the Japanese film Ju-On, with both versions being directed by Takashi Shimizu. Which is just one of the ways this version at times feels more like a remix than a starting from first principles. The Grudge does something which strikes me as highly unusual for a Hollywood remake of a non-American film – instead of relocating to America, The Grudge is filmed in Tokyo. Which at times creates a greater sense of déjà vu in comparing The Grudge to Ju-On than one would normally experience.

In particular the look and feel of the Japanese house, which informs the centre of the film, is so crucial to the way in which the visuals work. In addition the young Japanese boy who runs around the house could be the exact same actor from the original version. There are as a result many similarities, but of course there are also a variety of changes. All the main characters are now American – the nurse who visits the old woman is an American student, the old woman and her family are Americans; though the previous inhabitants of the house and the police are Japanese.

The concept of “the grudge” comes from the idea of a curse, which originates from violent death charged by strong emotion. So that the emotion lingers on beyond the passing of those involved. An American man moves to Japan for work, bringing his wife and mother with him. The mother soon falls into a lethargic stupor, requiring the attendance of a nurse. But when the regular nurse fails to return from the house, American student Karen (Gellar) goes out to the house – where she encounters a small Japanese boy, a black cat, and a lingering darkness. This sets us up to flashes back and forth, much like the original, which see the story of the house and the darkness at it’s core unfold.

One of the things with an American remake is that there is a bigger audience at the preview Halloween showing of The Grudge than there had been for Ju-On. So there is some amusement with scenes that are so similar you can count down to the point where half the audience is going to jump or scream at events on screen. Comparing the two, The Grudge in some ways ditches some of the peripheral detail from the original, and tightens the whole up – providing to some degree a more streamlined result, which is easier to follow. However the material which has been ditched, has instead been replaced by certain Americanisms – the fact that Gellar’s character has a boyfriend to support her, while the original character didn’t, the way in which some explanation has to be added for why the original deaths took place, and the way in which Bill Pullman’s character is added to the plot in place of the original investigating officer.

Unusually for a remake there is part of me which prefers The Grudge to Ju-On – but then Ju-On, like much of this type of Japanese horror, is some how unsatisfying – while a remake takes the opportunity to tighten up some of those issues, a fact that is particularly significant with something like The Grudge which on the whole is as true to the base material.