Sarah Michelle Gellar

Scares in "Ju-On" are familiar, but still creepy

Now that "The Ring" has made it safe (or at least popular) to see Japanese horror movies, we should be getting more of these creepy little grabbers, which have been lighting up the Japanese box office for the last decade.

Case in point: "Ju-On: The Grudge," part of a new cycle of horror from director Takashi Shimizu. This film is actually (if I’m counting right) the third in the "Ju-On" series, and is already being remade in English, by Shimizu himself, with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

If horror devotees out there have seen a few of these Japanese horrors, they may find some of the scares in "Ju-On" rather familiar. The genre is already imitating itself.

Creep out: A popular Japanese horror picture in the tradition of "The Ring." This one’s a series of interlocking sequences about people unfortunate enough to visit a house of violence. (In Japanese, with English subtitles.) Rated: R for violence. Now showing: Varsity, Seattle. > However, it does work up the creeps. We are told in a forward that a "ju-on" is a curse that lands on a house where violent murder occurred. Anybody who has contact with the haunted place will be similarly cursed.

So what we watch after that is a series of self-contained sequences (not necessarily in chronological order) of people encountering a house of death. We see more and more of the ghosts each time we go back to the house, and they are clearly not happy.

The characters come and go, just long enough to make an impression. Only Mika (Megumi Okina), a social worker visiting the house, plays more than a temporary role.

The effect is therefore largely a matter of mood, tempo and the weirdness of an ordinary house interior made to look slightly, menacingly, different. And ghosts, of course, which might be scarier if the main spirit didn’t look so much like the terrifying ghost girl from "The Ring." ("Ringu" was the Japanese movie on which "The Ring" was based.)

Instead of building a story in the conventional way, Shimizu takes a circle around the central situation, as though seeing it from many different angles. If the intent is to mess with our minds, to make us experience the haunted house in a new way, he has succeeded. It’s also a blunt way to suggest that violence has a ripple effect that doesn’t end with its original outbreak.

And by the way, Shimizu’s use of a freaky clicking sound is extremely effective. He understands that sounds are as scary as images.

While I was watching it, I thought "Ju-On" leaned heavily on gimmicks from movies by directors such as Hideo Nakata and Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Cure"). Thinking about it later, I can see how the whole thing makes its own kind of sense, and why it would inspire multiple sequels. Cult fans will want to check it out, but they’re probably already at the theater.