15 Horror Films That Prove Hollywood Hates You

After two straight-to-video films, two theatrically released features and an American remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, the amusingly titled The Grudge 2 was director Takashi Shimizu’s sixth take on the material, making it his Revenge of the Sith. Like George Lucas’ final trip to the well, it’s the act of a malevolent creator who doesn’t like you, never wanted you and views you as an impediment to his golf game, but at least Hayden Christensen isn’t in it.

Gellar’s not the main focus this time around, so in tried-and-true horror movie fashion, a sister (Amber Tamblyn) who looks nothing like her shows up and starts poking around in a haunted house. Then before you can say “Huh?”, the narrative jumps backwards and forwards in time, moving between Japan and Chicago, where some idiots are being stalked by a female ghost.

For all its supposedly elliptical storytelling, though, the film deals in the same old same old: characters behave in stupid ways, the hot blonde takes a shower, people wander off alone down dark corridors etc. There are hooded figures, creepy kids and false scares by the dozen, the most irritating being the crashing chords heard whenever someone turns around.