Following in the footsteps of <I>The Ring</I> cycle, the <I>Ju-On</I> series of horror films has taken Japan by the throat. According to this movie, th ... more

Following in the footsteps of <I>The Ring</I> cycle, the <I>Ju-On</I> series of horror films has taken Japan by the throat. According to this movie, the title refers to a curse placed upon a house where violence occurred. Sure enough, we see a string of unhappy encounters in a seemingly ordinary home, where ghosts have settled in the aftermath of murder. Director Takashi Shimizu (who also directed the Hollywood remake, <I>The Grudge</I>) constructs the picture out of separate fragments, not told in chronological order; the haunted house is the main character, not any one of the unsuspecting human characters. Cult mavens might suggest that Shimizu uses devices and images that have already worked well in films by Hideo Nakata and Kiyoshi Kurosawa--the Japanese horror film does have its conventions. But none of that matters if you're watching this movie alone at home on a dark night. Click, click, click.... <I>--Robert Horton</I> less