The Grudge is a hair-raising horror

The Grudge

Director: Takashi Shimuzu

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, KaDee Strickland, Bill Pullman, William Mapother

Cert: 15.

Gellar certainly knows about horror and grudges since she is also Buffy (the Vampire Slayer); she's also developing into a fine young - and very pretty - actress.

This 'Japanese' horror is from the director's Ju-On and it's stylish, disturbing and, even if it can't quite produce a nerve-shredding climax, well worth catching. The Japanese make the best, hair-raising horror films, far better than the bland, teenager-being-stalked-and-screaming-her-lungs-out Hollywood fodder.

Gellar plays a student living in Tokyo with boyfriend Behr. When she is asked to replace a missing fellow-student as minder to a deranged old lady she discovers what all young, pretty females do in such circumstances; things are not what they seem, and things start happening.

The weakness in an otherwise promising re-make of a clever original is that, curiously, Shimuzu fails to build the tension and doesn't quite, as he did with Ju-On, sustain the frighteners.

Star Rating: 4/5