Ju-On 2 (2003)

Summary: Kyoko is a Horror movie actress known throughout Japan as "The Horror Queen.” She recently got into a car accident and it appears lost the child, she just find out she was pregnant with. Her husband, Masashi is injured severely in the accident. And so she gives up her career to take care of him…but also to make some money appearing in a quick documentary on the famed house. What happens after that will change everyone!           Overall: Unfortunately for this franchise, once you see the first film, the others tend to be a little less scary. You already know “who” is gonna scare you and frankly, much of the scares tend to get used up. Having send the 2 American films at this point, seeing my 2nd of the Japanese films, you sorta can get all “Toshio’d out.” But to the films credit, it didn’t stay “stagnant” and use the same scares...Shimizu went a different route with the plot, with the film. I enjoy his little vignettes featuring our characters and how our spirits scare and kill them off. We get to see who they all get affected, from different angles. I like that, it’s different, it’s new, it’s exciting. In addition, although the scares can be ho-hum at times, Shimizu still has some tricks up his sleeve. I think the best involve the scenes involving the mysterious noises in the apartment...especially when you l,ate find out what was causing them. In addition, as we see Chiharu and her friend and the scene changes back and forth between reality and dream and nightmare….it’s done so expertly. It really was a treat and also a good scare to handle that.           So just know if you haven’t seen this sequel yet. The American sequel is directly related to the first American film. The 2 sequels are not really related to each other (outside of our 2 spirits and the title). So you can watch both the American sequel and this sequel and still enjoy both…but I still might take this film if I had to choose a sequel.           Comparison: The Grudge meets Halloween 8: Resurrection

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