The Grudge 3 (2009) Review

SYNOPSIS:

A young Japanese woman hears about a mysterious curse that claimed several people as victims. She thinks she knows how to end the grudge, and travels to Chicago to the apartment building where the curse was first recorded, hoping to end it once and for all.

It is widely acknowledged by fans and critics alike that The Grudge 2 sent the fledgling American version of the franchise spiraling off into the wrong direction, reducing its Asian horror roots in a fractured narrative that would drag the story kicking and screaming all the way to America. The Grudge 3 - The Final Scare starts out pretty much where the last one left off, and keeps walking down that same ugly path, this time without director Shimizu Takashi, and with the added bonus of it being a direct to video feature shot in Eastern Europe. The Grudge 3 takes an already struggling franchise and pushes its head underwater.

The movie starts by updating us on the status of Jake, the kid who was the sole survivor of vengeful ghost Kayako’s haunting of a Chicago apartment. He’s been committed to a psychiatric facility, and the moment he’s alone, Kayako exacts her punishment on him. Meanwhile, back in the apartment building where all of that took place, Max (Gil McKinney), the landlord, is struggling to keep things together and take care of his family as tenants leave and the building owner breathes down his neck. Things get worse when the hauntings continue, once again causing people to die in mysterious ways. But Naoko (Emi Ikehata) has just arrived in Chicago, and she may have a way to rid the world of Kayako once and for all.

The movie forgoes the fractured storytelling of the franchise and features a more straightforward narrative. In theory, that ought to simplify things, but this story seems even more broken than the previous movies, the plot points feeling barely cobbled together. One would One of the shakiest aspects of the movie is the character of Naoko, who we learn has a history with Kayako, and has always held the knowledge on how to defeat her. But of course, despite Kayako killing people for years in Japan, it takes the death of a random boy from Chicago to make her decide that she must finally step up and prevent these killings. That’s the sort of narrative logic we’re dealing with, every possible road towards towards contrivance taken in order to move pieces into convenient places. And strange, despite the more traditional setup, we don’t really get to know the characters very well, everyone given the bare minimum of characterization before being shuffled off to face Kayako’s killing hand. Without Shimizu at the helm, the filmmaking has taken a hit as well. The movie feels like a pale imitation of his style, working off lame shocks and relying on added gore to provide chills that the stale atmosphere cannot.

The Grudge series has become somewhat notorious for wasting the talent that it gets in the acting department, using capable stars and giving them pretty much nothing to do. This movie goes in the opposite direction, taking bad actors and giving them stuff that they obviously can’t handle. Take Gil McKinney, who turns the genuine burdens of his character and turns them into whiny rants. Or Johanna Braddy, whose petulant performance makes it difficult to sympathize with her character. Also, the role of boy ghost Toshio is terribly miscast.

The Grudge 3 ranks high in the list of unnecessary sequels. There’s just no reason to follow up on the events of The Grudge 2, which itself was an unnecessary and much despised sequel. And yet, here we are, stuck with another terrible direct to video horror sequel in our theaters, while we miss out on many of the more original cinematic offerings that the world has to offer. To me, that’s a far scarier curse than what Kayako can ever bring.

THE GRUDGE 3 (2009)

Main Cast:

Beau Mirchoff, Emi Ikehata, Johanna Braddy, Matthew Knight, Shawnee Smith

Supporting Cast:

Aiko Horiuchi, Mike Straub, Shimba Tsuchiya, Takatsuna Mukai

Director:

Toby Wilkins

Writer:

Brad Keene

Release Year:

2009

Released By:

Viva

Website:

The Grudge 3

MTRCB Rating:

PG-13