Quick Rating:  ****

 

 
 
This is the american remake of the Japanese horror movie, Ju-On, which I had watched and reviewed several months ago.  I normally find the originals better than remakes, but in this case, I don't.  Maybe it was the American actors.  Maybe it was the bigger budget.  Maybe I just understood it a little bit more.  Maybe it was just damn scary!  I don't find myself getting scared much anymore, but this film did it to me.  There were scares in Ju-On, too, but I think the use of music and sound effects in this one, plus the added edge of the main characters being in a foreign land, heightened the creepiness. 
 
The story is based around the Japanese belief that when someone dies in extreme sorrow or anger, then that emotion remains in the place of death, killing all who come in contact with it.  In this case, it's a house.  An American family buys the house and one by one, they encounter this angry spirit.  This remake pretty much follows the original, including the story and the direction, with several shorter scenes, told out of order, all interwoven around this house and what happened there. 
 
I'd recommend to all who haven't seen it.  Much better than the Ring (Don't know why I need to compare it to the Ring, but I do).  And even better than the original, Ju-On.
 
 



 
 

Quality: 6.0  Visuals: 5.5  Intensity: 7.5
OVERALL RATING: 6.3