Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in this, the fifth time the Ju-On tale has been told, with the original writer/director crafting his spooky tale for a western audience.
The film introduces us to a house where something happened, causing spirits to haunt it. Anyone who enters the house will soon die, as the curse gets to them. SMG plays a student social care worker who is assigned to look after an old lady in the house.
Creepy, atmospheric, chilling, and excellent use of camera-work and sound....that was the Japanese version which was out earlier this year. This remake unfortunately lets itself down by using the Hollywood conventions of building music to let us know something is going to happen, blaring noise to make us jump (why, I don't know), and tricky/jumpy camera-work to add a disturbing edge to the film...thus dampening the overall effect.
The camera-work is the biggest problem. One brilliant scene in the original, of the female spirit crawling down the stairs showed the full journey step by step. Here, we see her at the top, a quick glimpse at the middle, then she is at the bottom (whilst rising music tells us we should be scared). The scene loses the whole effect in making it so quick.
It isn't a total failure. Like The Ring, it is better than most of the usual garbage Hollywood churns out these days, and is a reasonable translation of the story. It's just that once again the essence of what makes Ju-On so chilling has gone. This is even more distressing when you remember the original creator was in charge. WHy did he change his vision so much? Why did he decide to go conventional Hollywood?
Above average, but a letdown at the same time. Go watch the original instead.
The film introduces us to a house where something happened, causing spirits to haunt it. Anyone who enters the house will soon die, as the curse gets to them. SMG plays a student social care worker who is assigned to look after an old lady in the house.
Creepy, atmospheric, chilling, and excellent use of camera-work and sound....that was the Japanese version which was out earlier this year. This remake unfortunately lets itself down by using the Hollywood conventions of building music to let us know something is going to happen, blaring noise to make us jump (why, I don't know), and tricky/jumpy camera-work to add a disturbing edge to the film...thus dampening the overall effect.
The camera-work is the biggest problem. One brilliant scene in the original, of the female spirit crawling down the stairs showed the full journey step by step. Here, we see her at the top, a quick glimpse at the middle, then she is at the bottom (whilst rising music tells us we should be scared). The scene loses the whole effect in making it so quick.
It isn't a total failure. Like The Ring, it is better than most of the usual garbage Hollywood churns out these days, and is a reasonable translation of the story. It's just that once again the essence of what makes Ju-On so chilling has gone. This is even more distressing when you remember the original creator was in charge. WHy did he change his vision so much? Why did he decide to go conventional Hollywood?
Above average, but a letdown at the same time. Go watch the original instead.