The Grudge

When I first watched The Grudge, I felt a bit confused by the way the story unfolded. Afterwards, I did a little bit of research on the characters and was able to put some pieces together. Although The Grudge started as a Japanese horror film, the 2004 version is a westernized version and I feel that the westernization of the movie may have had an effect on the plot.

I saw many similarities between The Grudge and western horror films. The major technique employed was jump scares. This movie loves jump scares – but they’re not really even ‘scary’. You can just tell by the cinematography that they were meant to be jump scares. Maybe I wasn’t perturbed by them because I am quite desensitized to horror films (horror is my favorite genre) but they were so ineffective that I found them comical at times, which took away from the immersion in the movie.

The major conflict in the movie is one that shows up in practically every horror movie about a person brutally murdered or abused before death: the anguish and suffering of the person stays with their soul upon death and creates an evil force in the location of their demise. The title of the movie, The Grudge, perfectly describes this phenomenon as the spirit of Kayako is incredibly vengeful and seeks to spread her curse onto anyone who comes across her place of death – like she is holding a grudge onto the human race for the actions her husband took against her.

One movie that comes to mind when I think about Kayako is The Amityville Horror. In this movie, there is a house that is cursed because the land the house sits on was used to enslave and torture Native Americans. As a result, the souls of the deceased and that of murderer who committed suicide on the land now haunt the grounds and bring death onto anyone who live there. A family moved into the house and after 28 days, the father was possessed by the demonic presence and unbeknownst to him, convinced to kill his entire family and then himself. Another family moves in and the cycle continues.

The cyclical nature of curses is a common theme in horror films and is the reason why I associated The Grudge with The Amityville Horror. I see the parallels between ghosts or spirits holding grudges on humanity for the terrible actions taken upon them till their death.