The Grudge 2

Director: Takashi Shimizu
Screenwriter: Stephen Susco
Starring: Amber Tamblyn, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Takako Fuji, Edison Chen, Arielle Kebbel
Running time: 102 mins
Certificate: 15

Aubrey Davis (Tamblyn) is sent to Tokyo to discover the fate of her hospitalised sister Karen (Gellar), who burned down the house containing her dead boyfriend at the end of the first film. Acquiring the help of journalist Eason (Chen) she tries to get to bottom of the nasty curse which manifests itself in a croaking girl and screeching boy, formerly a cat. Meanwhile, there's something not quite right with the occupants of a Chicago apartment block or a Tokyo school.

The Grudge 2, the sequel to an adaptation of Japanese horror Ju-On, is director Takashi Shimizu's seventh movie based on the same material. Unfortunately it is just that – the same material rather than just the same basic premise. With no successful attempt to keep proceedings fresh, the film is an inferior rehash of its English language predecessor, itself hardly a classic.

To its credit, the film tackles the origins of the curse to a much greater extent than we got in the first Sarah Michelle Gellar instalment, though we're still treated to the murder that set the whole thing off a little more than is necessary. However, rather than following the explanatory route as far as it might, the script propels us hastily towards another familiar encounter with the curse, which we invariably see coming. It sometimes feels like an exceptionally easy game of Where's Wally?

On occasion Shimizu manages to build up suspense in 'false alarm' sequences, but this dissipates before too long as the audience becomes steadily more immune to the sound of screeching violins. As time passes, we don't fear the coming of the sore-throated girl and the boy with the Marc Bolan eyes because little happens when they do.

We never grow particularly attached to any of the characters, which has a lot to do with the fact that much of the time they really do bring it upon themselves. Three girls stand outside what they dub "the most haunted house in Tokyo", so they naturally go in. This isn't an uncommon problem perhaps, but instead of willing them not to go in, we're not really invited to care.

Former heroine Gellar's time is brief and this instalment's burden falls on Tamblyn's shoulders, and she handles herself well enough all things considered, but again the hopping around in time and space prevents us from growing too attached.

Although not without its occasional fun and tense parts, The Grudge 2 puts so much padding around them in which so little actually seems to happen that by the end we're hoping, probably in vain, that the curse is really over.