I'm not much of a horror fan, being jumpy and susceptible to nightmares (I know, I know.) So when I watched this, I was expecting to be reduced to a weeping wreck cowering behind a pillow - that is, after all, how I ended up watching half of The Ring, from behind a hastily-grabbed cushion.
But this...well, I'll start by saying if you've seen the Ring films, you're not really gaining any new knowledge by watching Grudge 2. The films are desperately similar - maybe it's just Japanese horror, maybe it's overuse of the "writers are all thieves" excuse, possibly it's the exact same director using a pseudonym - I don't know. But don't expect anything vastly different from this.
Some of it is just plain weird. One bit, in the principal's office, may even make you laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. There are some decent jolts, but they're followed by an immediate drop in pace which takes a while to build up again, and after a while you can predict with incredible accuracy what the next scare is going to be, or how so-and-so is going to die.
"So-and-so", by the way, is the way you'll end up referring to the characters, because I only learnt the name of the main character about 3/4 of the way through, and the three interchangeable story lines, held awkwardly together by a fishing-line thin link, each have a dark-haired female character that look related to each other. Perhaps this is intentional, but confusion takes away some of the impact.
Watch it with the lights off on your own and you might get something more from it. This is really suited to a teen sleepover, followed by a nice game of "Bloody Mary". In the dark, of course. With a candle.
But this...well, I'll start by saying if you've seen the Ring films, you're not really gaining any new knowledge by watching Grudge 2. The films are desperately similar - maybe it's just Japanese horror, maybe it's overuse of the "writers are all thieves" excuse, possibly it's the exact same director using a pseudonym - I don't know. But don't expect anything vastly different from this.
Some of it is just plain weird. One bit, in the principal's office, may even make you laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. There are some decent jolts, but they're followed by an immediate drop in pace which takes a while to build up again, and after a while you can predict with incredible accuracy what the next scare is going to be, or how so-and-so is going to die.
"So-and-so", by the way, is the way you'll end up referring to the characters, because I only learnt the name of the main character about 3/4 of the way through, and the three interchangeable story lines, held awkwardly together by a fishing-line thin link, each have a dark-haired female character that look related to each other. Perhaps this is intentional, but confusion takes away some of the impact.
Watch it with the lights off on your own and you might get something more from it. This is really suited to a teen sleepover, followed by a nice game of "Bloody Mary". In the dark, of course. With a candle.