Fantasia Festival Report: Juon: The Grudge 2
Once again here is Mark Mann reporting in from Fantasia. This time around he's reporting on Juon 2. For those keeping track of Takashi Shimizu's wildly overcomplicated filmography THIS Juon 2 is the second Juon film theatrically released in Japan and not to be confused with the second installment of the direct to video Juon's that predated the theatrical releases or with the upcoming sequel to Shimizu's American remake. Got it? Good.
If you liked the first Juon, what you can expect from the sequel is to be almost as pleased, though not quite. Nothing is that different in terms of the mood and movement of the film; it is still arranged according to chapters and vignettes about loosely connected characters, the ghosts do basically the same things and continue to appear in weird places, the little boy Toshio is still blue and creepy as ever, etc. However, some of the more simple horror tactics Takashi Shimizu uses in the first film become over-the-top and almost slapstick in the second, which is perfectly in accordance with the laws of escalation, but actually serves to diminish the fright factor (imagine: tv studio dressing room with a row of wigs…). In fact, at the Fantasia screening the audience was laughing more than anything else, though it wasn't clear whether they were giggling as a giddy response to fear or just at Shimizu's various excesses – probably a bit of both.
The premise of Juon II is that the original haunted house has received some notoriety after the murders in the first film, and so a reporter, a film star known as ‘the Horror Queen', and a TV crew go to visit the house. Writ large, this is essentially the same idea as the sequel to The Blair Witch Project. Of course, they are all cursed and consecutively killed in various horrifying manners, with the exception of ‘the Horror Queen', who is haunted in one of the most unpleasant places imaginable: her own womb.
Despite the moments that were just plain silly (an incident with a soccer ball comes to mind) there were a lot of elements in this film and the first that struck me as being quite smart. Firstly and most obviously, I really enjoy how Shimizu uses temporal play to confuse the viewer and toy with expectations. Just as in the first, a single event bleeds into the surrounding minutes, hours, or days, and then Shimizu pieces it all together in a patchwork manner. The result is that when someone dies, you've already seen it happen from fifty different angles without quite realizing what you were seeing. Then, when it finally happens, you have to do the mental work of going back and reassembling what you've already seen (though sometimes Shimizu does make it too easy for the viewer).
The sound effects for this movie were also really great, especially the infamous metallic throat-gargle. Todd tells me that Shimizu made all of them himself, which is damned impressive, as the noises the ghosts make when they appear – especially the mother – are easily the most chilling parts of the movie. In terms of the set, Shimizu also makes particularly interesting and effective use of hair. I won't elaborate on this point, but take my word for it: it's either very cool or very gross, depending on your disposition.
To reiterate, most people that will watch Juon II will have seen Juon I, and if you're wondering what to expect in relation to the first, expect more of the same. Juon II is probably less scary and slightly more campy, but these movies are good for their pervading playfulness, and none of that fun is lost in the second. Of course it doesn't feel as fresh as the first, but it's still a good time.
Review by Mark Mann.
