Sarah Michelle Gellar

A great horror film builds suspense and keeps the audience focused on the characters’ plights as they move toward the climactic fright at the end of the film. Much like its predecessor, “The Grudge 2” can’t make this climax satisfying.

“The Grudge” franchise is based on the highly successful “Ju-On” series from Japanese director Takashi Shimizu. Coupling this with the producing talents of Sam Raimi, it would seem this film has the potential to be quite successful.

2004’s “The Grudge” made more than $100 million on a $10 million budget.

The even lower budget Japanese films indulge more in the darkness and macabre of the curse whereas the American films seem more character driven. Sadly, there is little fright in this sequel, and the film itself starts to meander listlessly towards the finale, making it even more difficult to endure.

This sequel takes place immediately after the events of “The Grudge,” where nurse Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is in a Japanese hospital under guard after attempting to burn down the haunted house. Her sister, Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) is dispatched from the U.S. to retrieve Karen and settle matters back in Japan. She is met by eager journalist Eason (Edison Chen) who helped Karen escape the fire and is eager to speak with her.

“The Grudge 2” has several other crossing vignettes including a group of high school students that is overly interested in exploring the haunted house and a flash-forward to a Chicago family that begins to deteriorate mysteriously. The other stories don’t contribute much to the story and obfuscate the main story about Aubrey.

“The Grudge” succeeded in large part because Gellar makes a convincing protagonist by leaning on her experience from the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV series and her other cinematic horror roles in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Scream 2.”

In this film, Tamblyn’s Aubrey is not nearly so compelling and comes off as irritating and whiney. The high school girls trespassing into the house start interestingly enough, but the story becomes very choppy and almost an after-thought until the end of the film.

The Chicago storyline is told in a stream of consciousness starting at the beginning of the film and interspersed throughout with an ending that opens the possibility for an obvious sequel.

The special effects are largely reminiscent of “The Grudge,” though this film lacks the bone-chilling frights of watching a ghost emerge from Karen’s hair in one scene from the original.

The eeriness is minimal here, and the audience viewing the film hardly expressed any surprise at the appearance of the ghost throughout the showing.

In the end, my only grudge was with wasting another 90 minutes and $6.

Movie: ’The Grudge 2’ Director: Takashi Shimizu Featuring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amber Tamblyn, Edison Chen Rating: PG-13 Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes Reviewer’s Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Ms