DVD Pick: The Grudge 3

The third Grudge film runs itself (very) thin

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

There's a reason why direct-to-DVD movies don't get to play with the big boys down at the local theatres...they suck! Okay, I guess that's a general observation, and I'm sure there's exceptions, but as a rule of thumb...they suck! Case in point, an unnecessary and expendable sequel to a sequel, The Grudge 3.

The 2004 original was pretty good. The 2006 follow-up wasn't bad. But that's where the horror franchise shoulda called it quits, as The Grudge 3 buries itself with a diluted plotline, callous settings, and layman acting that is so bad at times it becomes distracting. To its credit though, the third Grudge film does manage to conserve some of the eeriness that the prior two extended.

Directed by newcomer Toby Wilkins (Splinter), part 3 shuffles around a trio of siblings, including Max (Gil McKinney), the landlord of a deprived and nearly-vacant apartment complex in downtown Chicago, where he lives with his two younger sisters Lisa (Johanna Braddy) and Rose (Jadie Hobson). A young Japanese woman named Naoko (Emi Kahata) travels to the "Windy City" to put an end to the grudge once and for all--or so we can hope--by persuading Rose to participate in an exorcism of the building, which takes affect only after the youngest sibling drinks the blood of Kayako, the original victim that set off the persistant curse upon her murder years ago in Tokyo.

I found myself barking "as if" more times than Alicia Silverstone in Clueless, and rolling my eyes got tiresome after the first hour, so I let the shit flow until the credits kicked in. To add insult to injury, those same credits unconceivably included producers Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge, Ju-on) and one of the masters of horror, Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead trilogy, Drag Me to Hell). Nonetheless, The Grudge 3 betrays the splendor that its predecessors (including Ju-on) enveloped, as Hollywood--yet again--takes a perfectly fine film series and wears it so thin that it eludes its own roots. Sounds like I've got a grudge of my own!

1/5 stars