Variety on THE GRUDGE remake

[Joseph Murphy]

There was a more favorable discussion of The Grudge in a NY Times 
article this weekend by Terrence Rafferty called "Be Somewhat Afraid," 
which in general traced what it found to be a trend of diluting the 
impact of horror with conventions from action and comedy.
    "the only movie currently serving up an adequate portion of the 
genre's traditional red meat is Takashi Shimizu's "The Grudge," 
<http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/titlelist.html?v_idlist=292156;301035&inline=nyt_ttl> 
an English-language remake of his 2000 film, "Ju-On," which is as 
unnerving a horror movie as I've ever seen."
Not that long of a discussion, can be found at:
    
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/movies/31raff.html?pagewanted=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1099513933-iwh9RH+hK49HY8goJ5zUeg
J. Murphy

> Scout Foundas' review of THE GRUDGE just went online (subscription 
> only): "In its quest to appropriate global filmmaking trends, 
> Hollywood has honed in on a series of Japanese cult horror pics most 
> notable for bad acting and pedestrian direction. ... Project might 
> have been more successful if Shimizu had style and/or atmosphere to 
> substitute for his canned scares, cardboard compositions and flaccid 
> cutting."
> http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117925331?categoryid=31&cs=1
>
> Stephen
>
>