Movie Review: The Grudge 3

The Grudge 3 

Stage 6 Films, Ghost House Pictures, Ozla Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Unified Film Organization (UFO), Vertigo Entertainment, USA, Japan, 2009. 

The curse has moved to Chicago. Jake (Matthew Knight) survived "The Grudge 2", but witnessed the deaths of his family members and is now in mental hospital. Kayako kills him in a locked room. Dr. Sullivan (Shawnee Smith) is puzzled. 

Jake

Dr. Sullivan

In Chicago Lisa's (Johanna Braddy) little sister Rose (Jadie Rose Hobson) begins to see ghost Toshio (Shimba Tsuchiya). Lisa is moving to New York with her boyfriend Andy (Beau Mirchoff). Their brother Max (Gil McKinney) is the manager of the building. Rose has bad asthma and Max wants to send Rose away to a healthier location. In Japan Naoko (Emi Ikehata) finds out about Jake's death and travels to Chicago. 

Lisa and Andy

Max

Rose

Tenants of the haunted house Renee (Laura Giosh) and her traumatized daughter Brenda (Mihaela Nankova) move away from the house. Brenda has barely entered new home when the ghosts take her (now that was the most pointless death in the Grudge series, wasn't it?) Also various other characters are killed by the ghosts. Naoko wants to exorcise the house. 

Brenda

Naoko

Kayako

Shock reveal! Naoko is Kayako's sister who was never referenced even in "The Grudge 2." (In next part do we get to see Kayako's uncle or cousin? Or Saeki-family's meter reader?) 

Takashi Shimizu was no longer directing this and worked only as producer. And it is understandable as making six Ju-on & Grudge films must have been quite repetitive and numbing experience. Also Kayako's and Toshio's actors changed. The third movie tries to milk the last drops from an already dried cow. Not much is left of the original creepy atmosphere. As the series descended to direct-to-video limbo, the budget is lower than in the two previous movies. Shimizu could have pulled that to his advantage but Toby Wilkins couldn't. The story is completely linear with regular teen-horror tropes and uninspired dialogue. The subtle horror of the original is changed  to cheap slasher horror. Even Kayako's rattling sound somehow sounds worse.

Co-produced by Phillip J. Roth and filmed in Bulgaria.

Rating: Bad

Starring: Matthew Knight, Shawnee Smith, Mike Straub, Aiko Horiuchi, Shimba Tsuchiya, Emi Ikehata, Takatsuna Mukai, Johanna Braddy, Beau Mirchoff, Jadie Rose Hobson, Marina Sirtis, Gil McKinney, Laura Giosh, Mihaela Nankova, Michael McCoy 

Director: Toby Wilkins