Sarah Michelle Gellar

"Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" star Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in the 2004 horror film "The Grudge" (8 p.m., and 10 p.m., TNT).

She plays an American exchange student who encounters evil spirits in a Japanese haunted house.

Critical reviews were mixed about this remake of a Japanese horror favorite.

TV Guide’s Maitland McDonagh called it "one of the flat-out creepiest films ever released by a major American studio."

But the Philadelphia Inquirer deemed it more "laughable" than frightening.

It would be unfair to say whether Gellar’s character does any ghost whispering in either English or Japanese, but Gellar did co-star with "Ghost Whisperer" star Jennifer Love Hewitt in the 1997 teen horror movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

It’s hard for me to watch Sarah Michelle Gellar playing helpless in "The Grudge" (6 p.m., TBS) after all those years she spent kicking demon booty on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

This screaming-in-fear business is so not becoming to her.

In this 2004 horror flick, Gellar plays Karen, an exchange student studying social work in Japan.

She makes a big mistake by agreeing to cover for a nurse who didn’t show up for work. When she enters the assigned home, she discovers an elderly American woman who is lost in a catatonic state while the rest of the house appears deserted.

This jacked-up piece of real estate is possessed by a violent plague that destroys the lives of everyone who enters.

Maybe "Trading Spaces" or one of those nice HGTV programs could help them with that. A fresh coat of paint and some new kitchen appliances could give that curse a run for its money.

Of course, that pesky curse has had a few years to fester and has the ability to make its victims die in the grip of a powerful rage.

What a nice way to go, don’t ya think?

When the victims die, a new curse is born - passed like a virus to all those unfortunate enough to visit.

Seriously spooky.