ellsworth81
10-25-2004, 12:51 AM
A new horror flick makes it into US theaters for that scary time of the year. No, I don’t mean income tax season. Something less terrifying. Well, for at least most of us brave enough to detach ourselves from reality and sink our teeth into the most terrifying worlds ever devised.
If you need a frame of reference, might I suggest a domestic, but still hair-rising number called “What Lies Beneath”. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer as the freak-out drama queen and Harrison Ford in a most uncharacteristic role, the movie brings you to a sleepy lakeside town with a mysterious secret. Pfeiffer and Ford, as the happy newlywed, move into a allegedly cursed house only for Pfeiffer to be hounded by some kind of angry spirit. I’ll leave the rest for you to find out on a gloomy Friday night. .
But now, imagine that movie, except the creepy factor amped up a hundred fold.
Ok, I exaggerate, but The Grudge movie was a hellacious fright. The Grudge utilizes a similar premise - a house with a tragic past finds itself some new tenants who soon run afoul of a vengeful presence. In time, people mysteriously disappear and dead bodies turn up randomly.
This time around, Sarah Michelle Gellar, better (and only) known as “Buffy” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show, is this installment’s stereotypically leading hapless female who still intrepidly faces danger. To her credit, she is not the only sap on the ill-fated voyage – expect plenty of soiled undergarments and frozen expressions of fear on the screen and to the immediate right and left of you.
A number of other characters get a pittance of screen time, but to be honest, the fodder can only stick around for so long. Yet in that time, all the accessory characters contribute handsomely and display an ample amount of muted panic – which, I predict, required little acting on their part thanks to the sparse lighting, tight quarters, and bleak environs.
Yet, I would imagine, however, that the actors did not have the luxury of the eerie sound to inspire them. To act under such conditions would require hearts of stone and guts of steel. I barely had the courage to keep my eyes open, and to immerse myself so deeply in the experience is simply unthinkable. Thankfully, the sound engineers perform magnificently in crafting bone-chilling aural components crucial in a great psycho thriller. Aside from impeccably timed and positioned sound effects and thoroughly spooky thumps, creators design their own calling card in the form of a most distressing “gurgle”. Rest assured, jokesters across the country will be imitating the sound trying to get a rise out of now traumatized viewers.
Naturally, there are going to be critics who are going to hate on this movie to no end. I imagine something along the lines of uninspired tripe and hackneyed scare tactics that any amateur could throw together. While I won’t applaud this movie for any measure of originality, I was (un)pleasantly surprised by how mundane the movie remained. No hockey masks, clawed gloves, possessed action figures, or pin heads – just mere disfigurement and an unusually bad hair day will ruin your sleep for days to come.
One thing I will point out is the pacing of the movie that added as well as detracted from the movie. While not overly important as in movies like Memento, the Grudge plays out similar to Pulp Fiction, though nowhere as random and splintered. The movie would have succeeded if all the individual scenes were released independently, yet it is only in the end that things make sense and loose ends are seemingly tied up. This gimmick or device seemed unnecessary and perhaps contrived. On the flipside though, this makes for the illusion of a long movie – reminiscent of a dentist’s visit. Just when you thought your last tooth was pummeled, more pain awaits you.
How painful it was, but oddly enough, I enjoyed it. The movie almost came close to living up to the $9 ticket fee. Considering my new income situation, that speaks volumes for the “entertainment” value of this feature. So if you are the casual scary movie fan that has not yet sampled any foreign entries, The Grudge will serve nicely as your gateway into a culture that has shaped the world of horror films for many years. In other words, it gets worse than this - much worse - and only if you have the grapes for it. I certainly don’t.
If you need a frame of reference, might I suggest a domestic, but still hair-rising number called “What Lies Beneath”. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer as the freak-out drama queen and Harrison Ford in a most uncharacteristic role, the movie brings you to a sleepy lakeside town with a mysterious secret. Pfeiffer and Ford, as the happy newlywed, move into a allegedly cursed house only for Pfeiffer to be hounded by some kind of angry spirit. I’ll leave the rest for you to find out on a gloomy Friday night. .
But now, imagine that movie, except the creepy factor amped up a hundred fold.
Ok, I exaggerate, but The Grudge movie was a hellacious fright. The Grudge utilizes a similar premise - a house with a tragic past finds itself some new tenants who soon run afoul of a vengeful presence. In time, people mysteriously disappear and dead bodies turn up randomly.
This time around, Sarah Michelle Gellar, better (and only) known as “Buffy” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show, is this installment’s stereotypically leading hapless female who still intrepidly faces danger. To her credit, she is not the only sap on the ill-fated voyage – expect plenty of soiled undergarments and frozen expressions of fear on the screen and to the immediate right and left of you.
A number of other characters get a pittance of screen time, but to be honest, the fodder can only stick around for so long. Yet in that time, all the accessory characters contribute handsomely and display an ample amount of muted panic – which, I predict, required little acting on their part thanks to the sparse lighting, tight quarters, and bleak environs.
Yet, I would imagine, however, that the actors did not have the luxury of the eerie sound to inspire them. To act under such conditions would require hearts of stone and guts of steel. I barely had the courage to keep my eyes open, and to immerse myself so deeply in the experience is simply unthinkable. Thankfully, the sound engineers perform magnificently in crafting bone-chilling aural components crucial in a great psycho thriller. Aside from impeccably timed and positioned sound effects and thoroughly spooky thumps, creators design their own calling card in the form of a most distressing “gurgle”. Rest assured, jokesters across the country will be imitating the sound trying to get a rise out of now traumatized viewers.
Naturally, there are going to be critics who are going to hate on this movie to no end. I imagine something along the lines of uninspired tripe and hackneyed scare tactics that any amateur could throw together. While I won’t applaud this movie for any measure of originality, I was (un)pleasantly surprised by how mundane the movie remained. No hockey masks, clawed gloves, possessed action figures, or pin heads – just mere disfigurement and an unusually bad hair day will ruin your sleep for days to come.
One thing I will point out is the pacing of the movie that added as well as detracted from the movie. While not overly important as in movies like Memento, the Grudge plays out similar to Pulp Fiction, though nowhere as random and splintered. The movie would have succeeded if all the individual scenes were released independently, yet it is only in the end that things make sense and loose ends are seemingly tied up. This gimmick or device seemed unnecessary and perhaps contrived. On the flipside though, this makes for the illusion of a long movie – reminiscent of a dentist’s visit. Just when you thought your last tooth was pummeled, more pain awaits you.
How painful it was, but oddly enough, I enjoyed it. The movie almost came close to living up to the $9 ticket fee. Considering my new income situation, that speaks volumes for the “entertainment” value of this feature. So if you are the casual scary movie fan that has not yet sampled any foreign entries, The Grudge will serve nicely as your gateway into a culture that has shaped the world of horror films for many years. In other words, it gets worse than this - much worse - and only if you have the grapes for it. I certainly don’t.