Sarah Michelle Gellar

"Ju-on," as the film explains, is "the curse of a person who dies in the grip of powerful rage." It must also mean "curse of a sinking viewer in the grip of sustained tedium."

In a Japanese house, various gotta-go-there victims are possessed by the Ju-on hex, which means: shadows like foggy hairballs; wraiths in zombie paint; black cats; a creepy attic; a Halloween-faced boy, in and out at the wink of an editor’s eye. And then blood. But no "Blair Witch."

It was praised by Sam ("Spider-Man") Raimi, and director Takashi Shimizu recently finished an American version ("The Grudge"), set for this fall, with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Any chance for the "Blair Witch"? More blood? Better shadows?