The Grudge 2 with Amber Tamblyn and Takako Fuji. I don't normally go to see horror movies in theaters, but I was offered free tickets, so how could I refuse? Having never seen the first one, I'm not sure how it compares but I'm told it's better-ish. The overwhelming sentiment is that it isn't as creepy as the Japanese Ju-an movies upon which they were based. Quite a few people said it sucked, but I'm inclined to dismiss their opinions for a couple of reasons. First, I gauge horror movies' quality on how scary they are, not their subtle acting, logical plots or character development. Since I get the feeling that those are most people's criteria, they might be right, but since the movie was indeed scary, I say it was good. The other group of people who said it sucked I dismiss because they don't provide any constructive criticism and I suspect are trying to rationalize a way not to be scared when they go to bed. For example, when asked what he thought could have been better about the movie, one guy I watched it with said, "If they didn't make it suck so much!" he then said how it was so funny and he didn't get why everyone was so afraid of "the albino kid." Dude, it's OK to say a scary movie scared, you don't need to put on some macho bullshit act.
My old roommate had more constructive opinions of the movie: having seen the Japanese version, he felt that the obligatory American origin/explanation scenes took something away from the movie. He suggested that in the original, rather than giving the characters hope, they just know they're going to die and there's nothing they can do about it. While that kind of fatalism can definitely be scary, I think there's also something to be said for dangling hope in front of the characters, then taking it away. He also felt that the number of jump scenes was too much and by the end you kind of got desensitized to them, whereas the Japanese ones use them sparingly and to a greater effect.
I think it's always strange that no one ever thinks to fight against the ghost, certainly they don't have anything to lose. Granted, there are some instances where they are caught totally by surprise, but there are some times when they had ample time for a punch, kick, anything, but they don't. I think that's one thing some of the moviegoers didn't get, the ghosts, aside from being seemingly omnipotent and creepy looking induce paralytic fear, preventing people from doing anything. In that thought of what would happen if someone fought back, we wondered who would be able to. One person had suggested they would like to see the ghost from the Grudge vs. Constantine. That would certainly be an interesting fight. I, on the other hand, think that the ghost vs. aliens a la Communion or Taken would be a pretty interesting fight to see as well. I keep hoping someone will make an aliens vs. ghosts movie, or at least a short film.