Sarah Michelle Gellar

The Grudge, the latest American remake of a Japanese horror film, demonstrates a clear divide between audiences and critics. With a few exceptions, the film has been panned in the press, yet it made a surprising $40 million at the box office in its first weekend, doubling analyst predictions. Why? The film’s trailers looked scary, and, although it’s not much else, the film actually is scary.

More amusement park ride than feature film, The Grudge (rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing images/terror/violence, and some sensuality) delivers at least some of what it promises. To complain about the heavy atmosphere, the creepy sound effects and music, the red herrings-as have many critics-is like complaining that a roller coaster goes too fast and features too many upside-down loops. One isn’t meant to enjoy the view while plummeting, screaming, down the track.

What little story there is involves two graduate students (Jason Behr and Sarah Michelle Gellar) studying abroad in Tokyo. Ms. Gellar plays Karen, an aspiring nurse who does volunteer work at a care center. Karen’s first in-home assignment takes her to an address where an elderly, deranged woman lies alone in her bed. In a sequence repeated many times during the course of the film, Karen hears a noise upstairs, creeps down the dark hall to muffled rustlings behind a closet door, and...

You get the picture. The Grudge opens with some ridiculous on-screen titles to set up the story: “When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born...” The “curse,” unfortunately for Karen, is trapped in the house she visits, and the entire film involves the camera episodically following all who enter that home to their untimely end. The same tricks are used too often, and a black cat figures far too prominently in the story. But, then again, it’s hard to argue with what works.

The strength of this and other Japanese horror films is their comparative subtlety. The Grudge is filled with disturbing, frightening images, but very little actual violence or gore. Director Takashi Shimizu and his colleagues understand that our minds tend to fill in the blanks (guided by visual and aural cues) in a manner far more frightening than anything spelled out on screen.

The PG-13 rating suggests a conscious appeal to younger teen audiences. There’s no sex in the film (although it’s clear that Karen sleeps with her boyfriend), and very little bad language. But the disturbing images, particularly of a murdered mother and young boy, along with a twisted view of what happens after death, mean that parents ought to think carefully about this one.

Many elements of what’s generally considered to be capable storytelling are absent here, but one ought to be prepared to admit when a film does, at least modestly well, what it sets out to do-and The Grudge will make you jump.