The Grudge 2

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about The Grudge 2's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of The Grudge 2 completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 28 October 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie The Grudge 2 contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn), goes to Japan to bring her sister Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar), back to America , after her sister appears to have been traumatised by an evil spirit she had encountered in a mysterious burned down house. When Karen apparently falls from a hospital rooftop and is killed, Aubrey and Eason (Edison Chen), an investigative reporter whom she has befriended, investigate what had happened to Karen before she was admitted to the hospital. They discover that a woman named Kayako and her young son were murdered in the house by the woman's husband, who then hanged himself. The spirits of these three people are now haunting the house and seeking revenge.

In the meantime, Allison (Arielle Kebbel), who has just started at a Tokyo high school, is tricked by two friends Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misako Uno) into going into the haunted house, resulting in them all being chased and attacked by the spirits.

Back in Chicago , nine-year-old Jake (Matthew Knight) is struggling to adjust to his new blended family, consisting of his Dad (Christopher Cousins), Dad's new partner Trish (Jennifer Beals) and his sister Lacey (Sarah Roemer). A hooded stranger moves in to the apartment next door and strange things begin to happen. One day, Jake and Lacey arrive home to discover that Trish has tipped a frypan full of hot oil over their father's head and then killed him by bashing him over the head with the frypan. Jake later finds Lacey face down in a bathtub full of water. When the terrified Jake runs into the hallway, he encounters the hooded stranger, who turns out to be Allison, and has brought back the evil spirits from the haunted house in Tokyo to wreak havoc in Chicago.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Supernatural themes.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• after being verbally abused, a woman tips a frypan full of hot oil over her husband's head and then kills him by bashing him over the head with the frypan
• a man physically attacks his wife, throwing her to the floor and grabbing her by her hair
• a man holds a small boy under water in a bathtub
• a cat is thrown against a wall
• two high school girls shut a third girl in the closet of a haunted house
• a spirit grabs a woman from behind and pulls her from the roof of a hospital building. The woman lands on the ground with a pool of blood leaking from her head.
• a high school girl is frightened to the point where she loses control and urinates on the floor
• a scary looking spirit grabs a high school girl from behind and the girl disappears
• a man with a strange manner comes home stating that he forgot his key. He is holding his keys so tightly in his hand that blood starts to leak from his clenched fist.
• a spirit attacks a high school girl in a phone booth. The spirit smothers the girl with long black hair and she disappears.
• a spirit head rises up from a tray containing photographic developing fluids. Hands reach out to grab a man's face with the intent of dragging him in.
• a small boy discovers his father lying dead on the floor with a large gash in his forehead and blood leaking from the gash
• the same boy then walks into a bathroom to find his sister dead sitting next to the bath with her face submerged in the bath water.
• a woman is attacked and killed by a male spirit. The spirit grabs the woman by the hair, pulls her face, squeezes her jaw with his hand and then brutally twists her head snapping her neck. The woman is left dying on the floor with blood trickling from her mouth as she makes strange gurgling sounds.
• a spirit attacks a high school girl from within her own clothing with the girl shrinking into nothingness. The spirit then grows into the clothing and reaches out to attack a small boy.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Grudge 2 is a genuinely creepy and scary movie that is designed to scare adults. The above-mentioned violent scenes could be extremely traumatic for children under the age of eight, and in addition, there are some visual images of concern for this age group, including the following:

• disturbing shadowy ghost-like images of a woman, a small boy and a man. The images make strange and disturbing clicking or gurgling sounds
• ghost-like images of faces and hands coming out of darkened places or jumping out of bathtubs to grab their helpless victims
• disturbing child-like drawings of a small girl with dark shadows going into her mouth
• repeated images of young girls being chased or terrorised by ghost-like images
• strange moaning sounds coming over a phone
• a female exorcist takes a drop of blood from a woman's mouth and places it in her daughter's mouth.
• a teenage girl drinks milk from a container and then calmly regurgitates the milk back into the container
• a disturbed teenage girl cuts chunks of her hair off and then bangs her fist against a wall
• a ghost-like eye stares through a hole in a newspaper covering a window
• a small boy hides in his closet after being scared by his parents arguing
• a small boy is so scared that he runs into his older sister's bedroom and jumps into her bed sleeping with her for the night
• a female high school psychiatrist transforms into a ghost-like image.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

All of the images listed above and the violent scenes are equally capable of disturbing or traumatising children between the ages of eight and thirteen years. Of specific concern to this age group are:

• the scene in which a mother tips hot oil over a father's head and then bashes him over the head with a frypan
• a father drowning his young son in a bathtub
• all scenes involving supernatural threats to Jake (a nine-year-old boy).

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children over the age of thirteen years may find many of the scenes involving supernatural threats frightening and or disturbing.

Product placement

None of concern.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including comments by high school aged girls, such as:

• “Roll up your dress—you'll look cooler. That's better; you should show up your legs some more they look great.”
• a boy is referred to as being “really hot.”
• a girl describes her friend as being “sexually adventurous”.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some partial nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• shower scenes depicting naked legs and back, implying complete nudity
• several girls in underwear and bras, or scantily clad
• Miyuki and her boyfriend check into a hotel, clearly for the purpose of sexual intimacy.

Use of substances

None of concern

Coarse language

There is some low level coarse language in this movie, including:

• damn
• goddamn,
• pissed
• hell.

The movie's message

The Grudge 2 is a horror movie with a message that evil spirits are unstoppable and will kill all that they comes into contact with. The movie presents no positive take home message, but could raise issues such as violence, domestic violence and cruel practical jokes that parents could discuss with older adolescents.