# I just saw The Grudge. Good heavens. (Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963 "2004-10-25T00:32:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PussyCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@PussyCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PussyCow)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/41 "2004-11-01T17:41:22Z")
I just saw it last night with my husband. I thought it was \*real[/] creepy. And my husband is such a big jerk. He kept scaring me through the whole movie, and on the way home - he’s make the long, spooky face and the clicking/burping/gurgling sounds. He continued into bed and actually caused me to have a nightmare that he was scaring me with imagery from the movie, but he would look and sound much more like it. I woke myself up screaming his name. He found that really funny. I got a call about an hour after he left home today. On the other line was the gurling/clicking/burping noise. I screamed, “stop it stop it stop it!” And then kept calling his name, but the line went dead. What a creep! ---
**Author:** ![PussyCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@PussyCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PussyCow)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2004, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/42 "2004-11-01T17:43:34Z")
> [@bodypoet](#): > > I warned you about those spoilers, now… > One question: When SMG went into the Room of Doom, after having witnessed the professor fleeing the house, what did she see that was making that incredibly loud, rhythmic pounding noise? My sister thought the father had hung himself (or his wife) and it was the body swinging against the wall, but I’m not sure–it seemed too loud and continual for that. Did anyone see something I missed? I thought he hung himself from a ceiling fan. But they didn’t show what he was hanging from. ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/43 "2004-11-02T05:22:48Z")
I’m another person who was terribly disappointed in the movie. Not scary at all. Every scare was telegraphed by the scary music cues. I jumped maybe once or twice out of surprise. There were some twelve year old girls that were scared in the theatre. I wouldn’t rank it even in the top twenty scariest movies I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![Necro\_Romancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Necro\_Romancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necro_Romancer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/44 "2004-11-02T05:56:09Z")
I just saw it with a few buddies, and none of us jumped out of our seats more than once. The horror was lost on me after Peter’s suicide. After seeing the position his body was in, the whole theater lost it. This also happened during the “What’s wrong, Yoko?” scene, and the final Kare/Kayako encounter. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/45 "2004-11-02T08:57:04Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > I saw it yesterday, and my reaction is pretty much “eh” as well. > > (…) > > A friend and I saw it at a mall, and as we were waiting for her ride to show up, we saw a little Asian boy crawling along the floor past us. (We were standing next to the kids’ play area.) He stopped, then turned and looked up at us, and must’ve been surprised that we both kind of stared in horror at him and backed away. I hope we didn’t traumatize the poor kid. So it was an “eh” movie … but it affected you even after you left the theatre. Sounds to me like someone did their job _right_. **Wile E** - Ju-On: The Grudge is a sequel to Ju-On: The Curse. It’s possible to make sense from it without having seen the earlier version, but it’s much easier if you have. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/46 "2004-11-02T14:11:41Z")
PussyCow, your hubby is being a big doodoo-head. I say you wait until he’s asleep and put on a scraggly black wig, paint your face white or black and stand over him making weird noises. It will be even better if you can borrow a small Japanese child from someone and put white makeup on him, and get yourself a black cat, too. Or if that’s too much trouble, next time he’s feeling romantic, just punch him in the jewels. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/47 "2004-11-02T15:16:33Z")
We watched Ju-On last night. It was pretty good and creepy. I feel no need to see The Grudge, because I can’t stand Sarah Michelle Gellar. Ju-On satisfied my curiosity enough. As for the Ring, I actually liked the American version better than Ringu. Not sure why, they were both creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/48 "2004-11-02T17:41:14Z")
I wish I’d seen Ju-On before seeing The Grudge, just for comparison’s sake. I wasn’t expecting to be scared out of my seat like other horror movies, so I wasn’t disappointed. I found that some of the imagery has continued to stick with me several days after seeing it–Kayako crawling down the stairs, and then all over the hapless boyfriend; the eyes; and Toshio’s creepy cat face–and I’d consider that evidence of a pretty effective film. It would have been great to have gone as Kayako for Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/49 "2004-11-03T14:13:43Z")
I liked the American version well enough, but it really didn’t stand up to the Japanese one. The Ju-On has two of the creepiest shots I’ve seen in a horror film to date, and niether of them were kept in the American remake The scene where Yoko (I believe that was the main character’s name, it’s been a while) and her friend are at the restaraunt and she feels the cat brush against her leg, but when she looks under the table, it’s the kid crouched down padding his knees; and worst yet, the scene where she’s sleeping at night, and the kid appears next to her bed. Then his mother appears at the head of the bed, leans over her face, and then we’re treated with that shot of her leaning over Yoko while the little boy’s sitting on her legs. That’s one of those moments where I’d shit tomorrows dinner all over myself if it were to happen to me. Really wish they’d kept that in. I’m still glad they kept the bed scene with the sister in, though. That was fucking awesome, and one of those scenes that got the audience freaking out, too. Too often, the only sound you hear from the audience nowadays during a horror movie is laughter, so it’s good to see people still getting creeped out. And SMG’s acting was attrocious, but it was good to see Ted Raimi in action again 🙂 Still, it was nice to have a good explaination of things, unlike Ju-On’s wierd little flash back jumble of stuff. I didn’t care for the American ending, though. Even though they were pretty much the same film, I found **The Grudge** to be way too repetative. I know the same shit pretty much happens in both movies, but it seemed like **Ju-On** had a bit more filler, so even though we’re treated to scene after scene of someone walking into the cursed room and getting pulled into the attic, it didn’t seem to feel like the same scene repeated over and over again like it did while watching **The Grudge**. And I found the creation of her boyfriend to be really pointless. Niether version beforehand had a relationship, why’d this one? For those of you who’ve watched the television version **Ju-On: the Curse** , was there a scene where a girl with no bottom jaw showed up? I seem to recall there being one, but I think I may just be recalling a different movie. I saw the theatrical release first, and was trying to show a friend, but he rented this one, and the poor video quality turned my bias against it, so I really didn’t pay that much attention. Aside from the girl being chased around in the class room, I don’t really remember anything too scary happening in that one. I did like the explaination as to why the father went bonkers though the shot of him holding the fetus while talking to his wife’s lover on the phone was really friggin’ sick ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/50 "2004-11-03T14:37:35Z")
[QUOTE=El Elvis Rojo] For those of you who’ve watched the television version **Ju-On: the Curse** , was there a scene where a girl with no bottom jaw showed up? I seem to recall there being one, but I think I may just be recalling a different movie. I saw the theatrical release first, and was trying to show a friend, but he rented this one, and the poor video quality turned my bias against it, so I really didn’t pay that much attention. Aside from the girl being chased around in the class room, I don’t really remember anything too scary happening in that one. [QUOTE] Yeah, there was such a scene. And a number of reviewers thought that the _Ju-On: The Curse_ was a lot scarier than the theatrical _Ju-On: The Grudge_ version because of it. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/51 "2004-11-03T19:04:45Z")
> [@](#): > > I got that the ghost cannot teleport, only follow the victims. Whattaya call materializing out of the shadows, eh? 😃 The only real explanation I can think of for the ghost not simply showing up and killing someone lickety-split would be the intense emotional rage that it’s locked in… it can’t think straight, basically, reacting to things the same way an animal would. That’s why some people get offed right quick, and some manage to hang on for days. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/52 "2004-11-29T05:51:33Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > If the ghost can instantly teleport anywhere it wants and kill its victims… why doesn’t it? Why bother scaring them first? For the same reason the ghosts kill at all, of course - they’re _sadistic_, they want to make people suffer. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/53 "2004-11-29T15:08:12Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I did groan at the Googlewhack for “Toshio,” though. And the professor’s story on the same page doesn’t make any sense any way you slice it – unless the English version of the paper is on a two-day news cycle. 😃 I didn’t think this strange at all. The stories are related after all. A brutal murder, and a suicide of the man that found the victims. Why _wouldn’t_ they be on the same page? I see nothing unusual about the police waiting a couple of days before releasing dtails to the press. don’t they usually do this? It gives them time to identify the victims, and inform relatives, so the relatives don’t hear about it on the news. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/54 "2005-02-26T19:21:46Z")
I just saw _The Grudge_ on DVD, and I’m resurrecting (heh) this thread to answer a couple of questions. > [@Wile E](#): > > Was the murdered woman (creepy crunchy crawl down the stairs lady) the same as the darker woman who seemed more like an apparition? What was the noise the weird dead chick was making? Same woman – the mother Kayako. The noise was the last sound she made, her death rattle, as her husband broke her neck (while Toshio, the son, watched from the balcony of the stairs). That scene was cut from the theatrical and DVD release, but will probably be in a director’s cut. > [@bodypoet](#): > > One question: When SMG went into the Room of Doom, after having witnessed the professor fleeing the house, what did she see that was making that incredibly loud, rhythmic pounding noise? According to the commentary, that was the sound of Toshio swinging his fathers body, who had hung himself with Kayako’s hair. The sound doesn’t make sense without something pushing the body. > [@Fionn](#): > > I expected more from the detective. While investigating the noise was just plain stupid, I’d also wondered if there was a greater purpose to his meeting on the rooftop with Karen. I was expecting another Bill Pullman moment. Again, according to the commentary, the roof scene was only added as a concession to the American audience. The film makers felt that Americans would need some background that the Japanese audience would understand without the explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/55 "2005-02-26T19:49:06Z")
One of the things I liked about it was the way they turned one specific horror movie convention on it’s head. In most horror movies you have at least one scene where a person is in bed and you see a shape under the blankets moving towards the victim, but when they lift the blanket, nothing is there and the attack comes from a different direction. I was expecting this to happen here as well, but this time there actually WAS something there! Scared the pants off of me because it was completely not what I expected. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/56 "2005-02-27T01:44:18Z")
I saw it the week before last. I thought it was unscary and ultimately pointless. The ending seemed to have just been where they got bored of filming and turned the camera off… OTOH, I liked **Boogeyman** , which has a much lower rating on IMDB. _That_ is the scariest movie I’ve seen in years. What can I say, the masses and I are in wild disagreement about what makes a movie scary. (I kind of want to see the second Ring movie, though, even though the 1st one only has 3 scary scenes.) ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963/57 "2005-02-27T06:15:52Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I saw it the week before last. I thought it was unscary and ultimately pointless. The ending seemed to have just been where they got bored of filming and turned the camera off… > > OTOH, I liked **Boogeyman** , which has a much lower rating on IMDB. _That_ is the scariest movie I’ve seen in years. What can I say, the masses and I are in wild disagreement about what makes a movie scary. (I kind of want to see the second Ring movie, though, even though the 1st one only has 3 scary scenes.) See, now, I thought _Boogeyman_ was EXACTLY like _The Grudge_ – just a random and pointless sequence of scary scenes stitched together into an incoherent mess. Which REALLY irritated me, because I was looking forward to both movies so much. But I found _Ringu_ and _Ju-On_ much more enjoyable. And it’s not just a case of liking the Japanese originals and not liking the remakes, because I liked _The Ring_ even more than _Ringu_ or _Ju-On_. Here’s hoping the sequel is good too… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-the-grudge-good-heavens-spoilers/270963.md?page=2)