Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as an American nurse who has come to work in Tokyo. Following a series of horrifying and mysterious deaths, she encounters the vengeful supernatural spirit that possesses its victims, claims their souls, and then passes its curse to another person in a spreading chain of horror. Now, she must find a way to break this supernatural spell or become the next victim of an ancient evil that never dies, but forever lives to kill.

The Grudge was one of the first in a LONG line of American remakes of popular Asian films. After the success of The Ring, it seemed like everyone was getting in on it and even the bad films were being remade for our audiences. Thankfully this was one of the better remakes, though not my top pick in the category. This new remake was actually directed by the same person that did the original, making it nearly identical in many respects. The increased production budget gives it a bit more polish, but it also took away a bit of the grit that gave it some added realism in the original. Still, the film does a great job of putting you on edge and delivers some solid scares. This Blu-ray release includes both the theatrical cut and the extended version.

Sony is one of the most consistent studios when it comes to presentation on Blu-ray and they do a great job here. The image has a slightly dated look at times with a muted color palette and mildly washed out contrast. Dimension is still good though and fine object detail is strong for the most part. The image doesn’t have the high gloss look that seemed to be the trademarks of these remakes so don’t expect a super sharp look.

The Dolby TrueHD soundtrack is definitely the highlight of this presentation and is quite engaging. The sound design is quite creepy and there is plenty of dynamic range and low bass extension to put you on edge. Surrounds add an enormous amount of tension to the film and I loved the eerie discrete nuance thrown in throughout the mix.

Extras include a feature commentary with the director and cast members. You also get some deleted scenes and a look into the production of the film. Some short films are also included.

Definitely one of the better American remakes in the horror genre gets a pretty solid Blu-ray release. I was glad to see Sony include both cuts of the film and the presentation leaves little to be desired.