There is an old rule in every trilogy. The first film is great, the second film is lousy and the third film is as good as the first, and sometimes better. The only notable exceptions to this rule are the original Star Wars trilogy (where Empire Strikes Back was clearly the best of the three) and the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which didn’t really have a weak link… although I’d say Fellowship was the most irritating to purists.)
Hoping that Grudge 3 would redeem my love of the series and give me some resolution that I had been craving since the first film, I resolved myself to see this movie, which was released exclusively to DVD.
Following the second Grudge film, I figured this movie would enlighten us to the plight of the few who remained that horrible film… but it quickly severs all ties to any previous films within the first ten minutes in what is admittedly one of the coolest death scenes in the entire trilogy (not cool spooky, just plain cool).
The house in Tokyo was left behind in this film, either to emphasize that the curse had, in fact, found a new home and was spreading beyond its roots or the film crew had lost the budget to return to Japan. In their efforts to make Chicago suburbia as creepy as modern day Japan, they returned to the mistakes they made in the second film… unnecessary sex, predictable scares, and the worst franchise concept of making every scene into a “Where’s Waldo” of the bad guys.
But my review of 3 isn’t cut completely out of the 2nd’s mold. There were some redeeming factors. First off, this movie focused less on the scary and more on the psychology. Not that this wasn’t a scary film, but if you’ve seen the first two you’ll be relieved at how the third gives each scary scene a little bit of breathing room so it hits you unexpectedly. It also brought the movie back to its psychological thriller roots… sort of.
Apparently Sadako has gotten madder over two movies and in the third one she goes from dragging people into blankets to bludgeoning them repeatedly against walls. There is a more gorey element than in the previous films, and frankly I thought it was a step in the wrong direction. However this was balanced out with an unnerving sense of disquiet that played throughout the whole film beautifully.
But the final question really is “does it redeem the series?” Sadly, I’d have to say no. While this film was an improvement on Grudge 2, it didn’t come close to the original Grudge. It had its moments, and the score is as creepy as ever, but there’s only so many times you can hear a long-haired corpse do a fraternity burp and pop out of nowhere before it loses its appeal.
So the final verdict is… you should rent this film. 5/10
