I first watched Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) earlier this year and was blown away, I felt rare horror-chills throughout. It became an instant Top 10 Horror Film! A couple of years earlier I saw the american The Grudge 1 & 2: the first was nicely watchable but not scary. The sequel quite meh.

Now I'm on to my third version of the same story, tho' The Curse (2000) was released first. Unlike the american version I got a couple of scare-chills down my shoulders! Just not as often as its bigger-budget remake Ju-On: The Grudge. The lower budget and samey feel of the different sections make The Curse feel less substantial than the epic trippy feels of the 2002 version, the acting is also a level below. It's still superior to the american version.

Fair warning: there is a horribly-disturbing scene involving a baby near the end. It's not graphic in a gore sense (you don't see an actual baby), but it's hard to watch. Neither the 2002 version nor the american-remake had such a scene...it's just a bit much, frankly (i'm a parent of small kids so maybe a bit more sensitive).

Still, The Curse is objectively an impressive low-budget effort, but is only really worth watching if you've already seen the superior 2002 one, and are curious what the makers did before. It's essentially the same story.

I will watch The Curse 2 next, as it appears that Ju-On: The Grudge 2 is its own thing. Tho' not quite clear on that, and I don't wanna stumble on any spoilers by digging too deep.

It can get confusing to keep track, here's the Grudge films I've seen so far:

The Grudge (USA 2004) - 6/10.

The Grudge 2 (USA 2006) - 4/10.

Ju-On: The Grudge (Japan 2002) - 9/10.

Ju-On: The Curse (Japan 2000) - 7/10.

The 2002 one is essential, and should be watched first for maximum impact. If The Curse 2 and/or Ju-On: The Grudge 2 are close to that quality then I may be tempted to check out all of them (there's at least five more related films after these!).

First off this is the movie that kicked it all off. It was followed by Ju-On 2 , Ju-On The Grudge, Ju-On The Grudge 2, and now the Sarah Michelle Gellar version The Grudge all directed by Shimizu. These movies have since become sort of a mystery due to the fact that very little people actually know there are so many of these movies and that there is an actual order in which they proceed. So I personally decided to buck that trend and watch them from the start. So....

Anyways this movie eerily begins off with a teacher played by Yûrei Yanagi who must visit the ominous home of one of his students Toshio whom has not recently been to school and who's parents have not been able to be reached. When he arrives at the house he discovers the boy is alone at home and his parents are out and about.

This is when the movie flashes back into an almost short story mode where it tells the tale of others who have lived and been in the house and what has become of them. One of the characters being played by Chiaki Kuriyama who has gone on to bigger and better things with Battle Royale and Kill Bill. This movie is confusing and made even more confusing by not being used to watching a movie with all Asian people and subtitles. But from what I've understood these people have all been cursed with The Grudge as is described in the beginning of the movie as

"A curse of one who dies with strong resentment

Accumulates in the place where the dead were while alive, and turns into "Karma"

He who comes in contact with the curse loses his life, and a new curse is born."

After these sequences are finished Shimizu once again returns to the main story of the teacher and his student Toshio. Where we quickly learn what has really become of Toshio's parents. EEK!

These short story like sequences are very frightening and creepy, and it wasn't the limited amount of gore that got me. It was the great direction and incredible use of sound to freak the s**t out of me. I've never really seen any American horror movies made like this one, and it's almost hard to explain even to myself how a movie with such an erratic and confusing timeline could still be so satisfying. Although maybe I'm just ignoring the fact that many of these confusements(is that a word, if it isn't it should be) will be explained in the sequels, which I now must absolutely see.

For years I thought JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (2003) was the first in the long-running Japanese horror film series, but recently I've become aware it was preceded by a couple of shot-on-video films. JU-ON: THE CURSE (2000) is the first of these, available for viewing on Youtube, and very close to the plot and feel of its bigger budgeted remake/reimagining. Takashi Shimizu is once again the director, and his big cast includes such familiar faces as Denden and Chiaki Kuriyama (KILL BILL: VOL. 1).

The story begins with a teacher visiting a kid's home to find out why the boy hasn't been to school lately, but his experiences are just one in a series of six connected vignettes surrounding the haunted house. This is an intriguing exploration of metaphysics in which those who die after being scared to death by ghosts then themselves become ghosts, thus continuing the curse. Although low budget it's slick and professionally made, and it's extremely creepy: the blue kid, Kadako on the stairs, the cat noises, they're all present and correct in a series of startling set-piece scares. I prefer the 2003 movie overall and this feels like a dry run for it at times, but nonetheless this is still a fine slice of J-horror.