Japanese horror flick like others, only worse

More startling than scary, Japan's "Ju-on: The Grudge" follows too closely in the footsteps of its predecessors.

The film effectively uses all of the standard horror flick devices:

A haunted house causes a family member to go crazy. The crazy person attacks his loved ones. One loved one (in this case, a sister) survives and is later attacked by the spirit of the house, but only after she has come in contact with someone else who will later be stalked.

Ugh.

The dead reappear as white-faced zombie-esque creatures who rattle when they breathe and creep about as if their joints were independent of their bodies.

Similar to "The Ring," the plot revolves around a mysterious child who chooses his victims as if it's a WWE tag-team match. No character is up for attack until he has successfully placed one of his friends next in line.

And just like in "The Ring," there are omens of several girls' deaths found in photographs in which their faces are marred.

But we, the horror film aficionados that we are, could handle all this regurgitation if it weren't for the utter erraticism of the plot.

There is an abundance of characters in "Ju-on," but absolutely none of their stories lead anywhere. It's as if director Takashi Shimizu wanted to make a slice-of-life film about a haunted house - nothing is resolved, and no full explanation surfaces for why the house is haunted in the first place.

Shimizu created 92 minutes of images to make people jump and then gave them no explanation about why they were so startled.

The spasmodic plotline couldn't have been ameliorated even if the film were in English. There's very little dialogue, and none of it explains why the plot jumps back and forth in time.

In one scene, an elementary schooler is highlighted, and in the next, she's in her teens. In the following scene, the film jumps back in time to before another character, who already has been murdered, meets her demise.

This jumbling of chronology coupled with the lack of dialogue to explain character histories makes the movie difficult to comprehend.

But plotlines aside, many shots in the film are startling. Yuya Ozeki, who plays Toshio, is delightfully disturbing as the young boy who wreaks havoc on all who enter his suburban lair.

The only time he speaks in the entire movie is when he speaks his name, which he scratches just like Danny screeches "redrum" in "The Shining."

Wait, was that another reference to a good horror flick?

There is absolutely nothing new or creative here, but the fact is that these tired devices continue to get a rise out of the audience.

But it's not as if we go into horror movies expecting a film that will change our lives. We enter expecting some goosebumps and to be a bit startled, and "Ju-on" accomplishes these reasonably well.

Basically, "Ju-on" is mildly frightening, but you should be able to sleep easily - no night light necessary.

Contact the A&E Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.