I just saw The Grudge. While I don't have a reference point (I'm not familiar with the original Japanese version), I thought it was creepy as hell and had me jumping left and right. I liked it better (and thought it was scarier) than The Ring. What do you all think?

I personally would nominate it as one of the worst of '04. They used cheap scares with loud bumps that are used in every bad horror movie. The plot was incoherent beyond belief and most of the time predictable. I don't know why I am supposed to be scared by a little boy who sounds like a kitty or a women who clicks. Strange: Sure, Good: no. Maybe I should check out the original version and then form a better opinion, but Sarah Michelle Gellar was a terrible decision in the first place. I liked "The Ring" much better because it was genuinely scary and creepy at the same time.

I found the things you thought were weird to be genuinely freaky. I'm not sure why you found it "incoherent"...the story arc seemed solid to me. The out-of-time sequence telling of the story made it far more interesting than it would have been were it a straight-time film.

I can't see SMG without thinking of Buffy, but she didn't bother me here. Her acting (as an out of place American in Japan) seemed dead on to me. Not GOOD, but she seemed scared and out of sorts throughout, which was what she needed to be.

I can't say the Ring was bad, but I honestly was never gripped by it. I really gave up on it halfway through because the first half was so slow. There was one REALLY freaky scene in the Ring: when the ghost comes out of the TV screen at the end but I thought the (very similar) scene in the Grudge (The security camera video of the clicking woman just appearing in the hallway) was freaky as all get out. Personally, I found the freaky meowing boy and the clickity-click woman both creepy AND scary. My wife was absolutely FREAKED OUT by the whole thing.

Well, I have seen the original Ju-On, and in my opinion The Grudge was far superior and much more satisfying. Ju-On had none of the explanations that the Grudge had and was much shorter with far fewer frights. In retrospect, it really seemed to me that Ju-On was almost like a teaser resume in order to get the money to make the film properly a second time. I have never watched more than a minute of Buffy The Vampire Slayer or seen any Scooby Doo movies, so I really have no bias against Sarah Michelle Gellar, personally I thought she was fine, as were the other actors. I would actually say that The Grudge was the best new horror film I have seen in a long time, although that really isn't a huge compliment, as I can't remember the last horror film before this that I enjoyed. Oh wait, it was Joy Ride!

Which is interesting Smenkhan, that you say the American version is better than Ju-On. Interesting because if you are going to base a horror movie on a different horror movie, make sure that OTHER horror movie is scary as hell. If that makes sense.

2 words, NOT SCARY. but still good. O ya, The Ring 2 is actually scary! U wont be dissapointed!

The grude was nowhere near scary. People who said it was so scary that they couln't sleep must be out of their minds. I thought the ring was scarier.

I am sorry for the spelling mistakes. I am a deluded individual. Now carry on.

i personally did not find either the grudge or the ring especially frightening..but i did like the ring's story line better

This was, I have to say, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. My friend's girlfriend, a horror buff, said it was the scariest thing she'd ever seen. So, we rented it, and my sister rented Clueless. Clueless was better.

I even rented Ju-On, the original japanese version. It sucked worse. If you wanna see a good movie, it the same genre, see The Ring. But not The Ring 2, it sucks.