'Japan is the scariest place on Earth'

[Taro Toporific]

Slayed in Japan
Redlands Daily Facts, CA - Oct 29 / By Bob Strauss.
... "The Ring" suggested it two years ago, and "The Grudge" just confirmed it: Japan is the scariest place on Earth. ...
.... "We're just seeing a previously untapped, or unrecognized, marketplace where there are viable films that could make the transition to American film," notes Mark Sourian, a DreamWorks executive who oversees the studio's "Ring" remakes.
"But something that's interesting about 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge,' something that's distinctively Japanese, is they tend to be films that don't want to spell everything out to the audience. They're elliptical in some ways, there's an ambiguity. Even our versions leave things somewhat confusing, but audiences are so compelled by the mythology that they don't need, or seem to want, those things spelled out for them," Sourian adds...more...

[Andocrates]

Makes you wonder how they managed to screw "the grudge" up so bad. They seem to understand the concept, but they can't help but dumb everything down with a dose of Hollywood logic.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Andocrates,

All they really did was make a dumb movie even dumber.

[Andocrates]

Andocrates,

All they really did was make a dumb movie even dumber.

The story may have not been all that great, but the acting and scares within the movie were outstanding. The girl snaking her way down the stairways, the 3 school girls and the pictures, the newspaper all over the windows, the video camara ghost, those are all images and concepts that stick long after the movie is over.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I'll admit that there was a creepiness factor in the original that was totally lost in the remake. It also seemed like the remake used a lot more horror movie cliches. But I guess they did something right because "The Grudge" is no. 1 for the second week in a row and has already made over $70 mil in the US. Pretty damn good especially since it only cost $10 mil to make.

[Naniwan Kid]

Screw it up? It's basically a scene for scene remake of the original(s) with the same sets, actors and director.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Screw it up? It's basically a scene for scene remake of the original(s) with the same sets, actors and director.

I still say it has a different feel to it. Although that could be because I watched the original about a week before and so I was totally desensitized.

[Naniwan Kid]

Well, one of the problems is that he is making the same movie over and over again, so once you have seen one, you have seen the movie. The differences are real, but this isn't a movie made to change your way of thinging, it's just a movie meant to scare you. Rare is the movie that gets scarier and scarier every time you see it. Generally you get desensitized.