The Grudge 2 review

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Boo! Did we scare you? Then you’ll love The Grudge 2, a shock-reel of creep-outs for the easily freaked. Director Takashi Shimizu is back with his haunt-kill-repeat formula, picking up where US remake The Grudge left off with Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in hospital and sister Audrey (Amber Tamblyn) in Tokyo to take her home. As usual ghosts Kayako (spider-walk, long hair) and Toshio (pasty-skinned nipper who likes to go, “Raaaa!”) snuff anyone and everyone. And as usual Shimizu-san jumbles several storylines. There’s too much that’s familiar here, a Ring rip-off backstory about Kayako’s childhood adding little new. It’s mechanical horror, a cinematic ghost train with shocks at every stop (standout jumps include an unexpected threesome in a love hotel and a girl regurgitating milk). But if you’ve already seen one (or five) Grudge movies, you’ve seen them all. Boo! Oh, what’s the point?

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