Grudge 2, The

Stars: Amber Tamblyn, Edison Chen, Arielle Kebbel, Jennifer Beals, Joanna Cassidy, Sarah Michelle Gellar

Director: Takashi Shimizu

More of the same. Various people venture into the Tokyo house of horror, where lurk the vengeful spirits of a murdered mother and son - and they all die. Before she perishes, one of them (Kebbel) takes the curse back to Chicago, where a parallel scenario is played out.

Standard horror lines - 'Just wait here' - are present in abundance, as Aubrey (Tamblyn) travels to Tokyo to find out what has happened to her sister (Gellar, reprising her role from the first film; she doesn't last long in this one).

Eventually, Aubrey tracks down the mother of the original murdered woman, only to be told: 'It will spread beyond the house. There will be no end to what has started,' thereby presumably dooming us all to episodes 3, 4, 5 and 6.

This one is admittedly quite scary in parts if you haven't seen its content before, and does try to take the story into new places. But horror hounds will be only too familiar with the blue ghosts whose black hair entwines their victims.

David Quinlan

USA 2006. UK Distributor: UIP (Columbia). Colour by De Luxe.
102 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 14 Oct 2006