The Grudge 3

I didn't really remember much about this movie except that I liked it, so I bought it hoping to watch it this October for Horror Month and catch myself up on whatever it was that I enjoyed so much when I first saw it. I remembered that the opening scene was great, and so it is. Shawnee Smith plays a psychiatrist working with a patient who has been menaced by the sinister ghost of Kayako from the first two "Grudge" movies. Of course, she doesn't believe that the patient is really being haunted until something horribly nasty happens that makes her question her certainty on this matter. That sequence sets up the events that are to follow, and it's a doozy.

I remember thinking that not much happens for the next hour of the movie after that great opening sequence, but this time around, I appreciated the building story more. It's not really boring, just slow to build like the other Grudge films, only those had multiple stories going on at once so it never felt as flat as this one does since this one really only has the one story. I like the characters though, and thus I feel bad for them when their lives start to go to hell around them. I wish they'd realized sooner that something was seriously wrong, but I empathize with their plight to try and hold everything together (plus the little girl Rose is really cute). there's a little too much reliance on jump scares in this one, and some ridiculousness (dude, blood does NOT fly out of someone's neck when you snap their neck, so stop it) but otherwise, this was a good sequel and I enjoyed revisiting it.