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| Rated: 0.00/5 | Votes: 1 | Views: 151 |Submitted: 05/22/09 |
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The GRUDGE 3
Review by Heather Wixson Starring Matthew Knight, Shawnee Smith, Gil McKinney, Johanna E. Braddy, Jadie Hobson Directed by Toby Wilkins Distributed by Ghost House Pictures THE GRUDGE 3 picks up right where part two left off. The film is set in the Chicago apartment building where Kayako’s curse of anger followed an American who had the misfortune of getting it as a souvenir while in Japan. When that wasn’t enough, Kayako claimed several other victims for good measure. Here, the building’s landlord Max (McKinney) has enough of his own problems beyond an apartment full of dead bodies. He’s been looking after his sick little sister Rose (Hobson) and the other sister Lisa (Braddy) is about to say goodbye to the Midwest and relocate to New York with her boyfriend. True to horror convention, the youngster is the first to sense the supernatural happenings in the building as Rose starts seeing a strange little boy haunting the building’s halls. Enter a young Japanese woman named Naoko (Emi Ikehata) who arrives from Japan to rent a room in the building, who just might have the answers to the evil that has taken up residence and is laying waste to several peripheral characters. We also meet Dr. Sullivan (Smith), who was caring for Jake (Matthew Knight, the only returnee from the past features), also turns up to investigate what went on, and comes to realize that her now deceased patient might have just been right when he talked about how an evil force killed off his entire family and was now after him. It’s now up to Naoko and the others to figure out how to finally put the curse to rest before it’s too late and they become the latest set of Kayako’s victims. Truth be told, THE GRUDGE 3 was probably one of the sequels I never needed to see happen. The first GRUDGE film was decent (this was before theaters were getting slammed regularly with Asian remakes) and its follow-up felt pretty flat and forced to me. All this being said, it turns out, the third installment of THE GRUDGE exceeded my expectations because I actually thought they did a great job of bringing the mythology of Kayako full circle. A lot of this was due to Brad Keene’s script (which follows the spirit of Takashi Shimizu’s work in the Japanese originals) as well as the direction of Toby Wilkins. THE GRUDGE 3 doesn’t so anything profoundly groundbreaking here, as it really doesn’t need to. It’s a continuation of a series and its attempt to focus on the idea of family dynamics amidst horrific scenarios succeeds here. As on par with the first two films, the scares aren’t what I would call anything terrifying but average. THE GRUDGE 3 does kick it up a notch in the last 30 minutes though and what ended up making the film for me was that the gore and the violence ended up being a bit beyond anything attempted in the first two films. The climax of the film is what saves the movie from itself. I think if GRUDGE 3 would have just stayed within the safe PG-13 world of violence it has been in for the last two films and not dared to be a little bolder, I would have been more disappointed. Director Wilkins (SPLINTER) does a noble job of creating a film that still stays true to the spirit of Shimizu’s work and yet, feels like it is his own vision. The core family here of Max, Lisa and Rose is also the heart of the project and were all compelling to watch. I didn’t feel like I was watching actors on the screen pretending to be a family- all three actors had great chemistry together. GRUDGE 3 isn’t perfect, as sometimes the film does feel like it’s trying to hard to be Shimizu’s work and the beginning has some pacing issues. But ultimately, the third act redeems any problems early on in the film and GRUDGE 3 left me feeling like the series had a satisfying resolution. |
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