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Ju-on: The Grudge (2003)

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4 articles from 2004

15 November 2004 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Sarah Michelle Gellar may star in a sequel to her movie The Grudge, after it proved to be a surprise hit. The producers behind the thriller, Senator International and director Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures, have hired Grudge writer Stephen Susco to pen a second chilling entry in what they hope will evolve into a franchise. Raimi says, "My partner Rob Tapert is working on Grudge 2 now." The film-maker admits that they had waited to see whether the movie would be a hit before working on another installment. He explains, "We didn't want to jinx the first one and put the cart before the horse." The Grudge is an English language remake of the 2003 Japanese horror film Ju- On by the same director Takashi Shimizu. It is not yet known whether Gellar will appear in the sequel.

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22 October 2004 | From Studio Briefing | See recent Studio Briefing news

The Grudge is another holiday movie being released this weekend, if you can call Halloween a holiday. The work of Takashi Shimizu, who translates one of his Japanese horror films (from his Ju-On series) into the Hollywood idiom, the movie, most reviewers suggest, has not lost much in translation. Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post says, in fact, that "you might argue that this version of the film is a little better than the original." He concludes that the movie will "send you home with jiggly knees and a tummy ache." Gene Seymour in Newsday comments: "There may be more art-house than slaughterhouse in [Grudge]. ... But there are enough of the Hollywood-style musical cues and broad nudges to remind American audiences they are, in fact, watching a scary movie." Robert K. Elder in the Chicago Tribune suggests the movie is not your typical horror film: "Non-linear storytelling and a third-act shuffle of the narrative deck elevates The Grudge above most of its contemporaries, but for true test of how scary Shimizu's remake is, check your seat cushion," he writes. However, Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe & Mail, was obviously left unshaken by the movie, writing that it "is less like a real movie than a long, chronically fractured movie preview. The story doesn't make sense, but you feel bombarded with highlights." And Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times came to a similar conclusion, commenting: "The movie may have some subterranean level on which the story strands connect and make sense, but it eluded me."

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15 October 2004 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Sarah Michelle Gellar's latest movie The Grudge hasn't even been released yet but the actress is already keen to make a follow-up. The horror film is an English language remake of the Japanese film Ju-on which was also directed by Takashi Shimizu. Ju-on 2 has already been made in Japan, although the Buffy The Vampire Slayer star says she hasn't spoken to producer Sam Raimi about a second movie. Gellar says, "No, we haven't really. I mean, knock on wood, but let's wait until it comes out. I would go back to Japan in a heartbeat." The American actress says a sequel wouldn't be a carbon copy of the original. She continues, "Tonally, it's incredibly different. It's much more in the vein of a Scream movie. It's about an actress whose career is kind of washing up and she gets this gig sort of like one of the unsolved mystery shows in America. She has to go back and do an interview at the house that no one's been in since four years ago when (the events of first movie) occurred."

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25 March 2004 | From wenn.com | See recent WENN news

Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar has acquired a taste for eating poisonous blowfish since working in Japan. The Scooby Doo was already a fan of the nation's other specialties, such a sushi, before spending three months there to film her upcoming thriller The Grudge, but was immensely impressed by the poisonous fish - which is illegal to eat in her native America. She says, "I love Japanese food. They have this great fish market and you go down at like four in the morning and they cut open the fish and you just eat it right out of there. But my favorite was blowfish. It's completely poisonous so you have to slice it very, very carefully, but you wanna slice it just enough so you get a little bit of poison so that your mouth gets all tingly. It's delicious. It's so good I got a plate (but) it was a very little portion. So then I got a second plate of it. And then I was about to order my third plate when some of my castmates stopped me due to the fact that it's $85 a plate - to have poisonous fish!"

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4 articles from 2004