The new setting immediately adds an increased level of anxiety for the viewer, with the sliding, mechanical doors providing the constant threat that the inhabitants are never safe. The house of the "Thirteen Ghosts" remake trades in the classic residential home of yesteryear for a high-tech glass home with inscriptions embossed on the walls. Characters like The Angry Princess, The Juggernaut, and The Jackal became nightmare fuel for a generation, and continue to terrify audiences even today.Īt the turn of the millennium, filmmakers were fascinated with the advances in technology and often incorporated these elements into their work. However, it's the inclusion of the ghosts as part of the Black Zodiac that has given the film its staying power after all these years. The original film centered on an occultist who captured ghosts from around the world, and for the most part, "Thirteen Ghosts" follows a similar premise. Steve Beck's "Thirteen Ghosts" gave the William Castle story much-needed defibrillation, exchanging the funhouse aesthetic of slamming doors and throwing dishes for extreme violence and graphic deaths. Every story swings like this, back and forth between the dead and the living, and the balance keeps going with a soundtrack from composer Toru Takemitsu, who gave an equally ambitious score to Akira Kurosawa's "Ran." The result is so immersive that walking away after the end of Kobayashi's "Kwaidan" feels like barely escaping with one's life, and living to tell the tale. They're both eerie and gorgeous, unnerving and magnetic. In "Kwaidan," ghosts are accepted as real and part of everyday life instead of something to be debunked. The sight of the samurai clan battle from the poem isn't going to be as violent as a horror fan might expect, and the film holds back from gruesomeness. Potential spoiler: the plottings of the story's lady monster resemble those of the morbid "Lover's Vow" segment from John Harrison's 1980 anthology "Tales From the Darkside," culled from the same Hearn collection, "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things."ĭon't come for scares, even though there are some unnerving parts come for the polish on it. While many ghost movies hesitate to reveal their creepiest cast members, "Ju-On: The Grudge" utilizes them to perfection. "Ju-On" is a distinctly Japanese story that manages universal appeal, using traditional imagery and themes to tell a terrifying story anyone can relate to. The young boy ghost, Toshio, and his murdered mother Kayako are two of the scariest spirits in horror history, and Kayako's unnerving staircase walk is unforgettable. While she takes care of an old woman, she discovers a curse in the house and its not-so-friendly ghost inhabitants.Ī big part of the success of "Ju-On" was just how creepy its two ghosts managed to be. The movie follows a young woman named Rika, played by Megumi Okina, who works as a social worker and caretaker for the elderly. The first two films, "Ju-On: The Curse," and "Ju-On: The Curse 2," were only released on television in Japan, and thus "Ju-On: The Grudge" was the first part of the franchise to make it overseas. "Ju-On" is technically the third movie in the franchise, though it's the first one to get a theatrical release.
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