The Grudge (Unrated Extended Director's Cut)

It arrived as expected

Finally I now own the UNRATED EXTENDED CUT of 'The Grudge' from 2004. I've only ever had the Theatrical PG-13 version in my DVD collection for the LONGEST time until I found this UNRATED DVD Edition which features more disturbing imagery, bloody scenes, and at least an 8 min longer difference from the original PG-13 Cut. That's the length of a whole short film which is how Extended Cut releases like this one should be! This is a very cool edition of the film to own! Highly recommend!

If I learned anything from watching The Grudge (2004) last night its that malevolent spirits are very messy, and don't pick up after themselves. Perhaps that's part of their modus operandi...they come into your home, create a huge mess, and then while your attention is focused on cleaning up the place, that's when they choose to scare the heebie jeebies out of you. Well, few things, cinematically speaking, scare the heebie jeebies out of me anymore (real life is infinitely more frightening), but I did think this film was, at the very least, entertaining, and provided some spooky visuals and an interesting and fairly simple story. Co-written and directed by Takashi Shimizu, The Grudge is actually a remake of a Japanese film he did previously titled Ju-on: The Grudge (2003), which I have not seen, so I can't comment or compare without sounding foolish. Appearing in the film is Sarah Michelle Gellar (I Know What You Did Last Summer)...does anyone else find it slightly pretentious to consistently use all three names? But I digress...also appearing is Jason Behr ("Dawson's Creek"), William Mapother (Lords of Dogtown), Clea DuVall (Identity), KaDee Strickland (Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), Ted Raimi (Man with the Screaming Brain), Ryo Ishibashi (Dog Star), and Bill Pullman, the guy who played the President of the United States in Roland Emmerich's bloated and flawed science fiction orgasmofest masterpiece Independence Day (1996)...I rip on Emmerich because I think he's one of the worst kinds of filmmakers (load the movie with costly special effects to hide the fact its lacking in everything else, including an actual story) but in a purely visual sense his films can be fun...The film begins with some text telling us that when a really angry person bites during a fit of unprecedented rage, the negative energies stick around, creating some wickedly awesome bad mojo that waits to glom onto unsuspecting individuals who happen to visit the area, thus consuming their juicy and effervescent life force. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Karen Davis, an exchange student living in Japan with her boyfriend Doug (Behr) who's quite the hunk with his perfectly tousled hair...you know the style, it's the one that someone spends two hours and a whole lot of money at the hairdressers for to get that `just woke up' look (I get it every morning for free)...anyway, Karen, who's a nurse of sorts, receives an assignment to provide daytime care for a really creepy infirmed elderly woman (Zabriskie) after the mysterious disappearance of the previous caregiver named Yoko...alas, poor Yoko, I knew her not, Horatio, but she was a pretty, young, hello kitty maiden...anyway, Karen arrives at the house, sensing something odd, but goes about performing her chores. Turns out the crazy lady lives with her son (Mapother) and his wife (DuVall), neither of whom return home, prompting Karen to call her boss (Raimi) as she doesn't want to leave the goony old bat alone...but guess what? They're not alone...at least not in that house, as it has a violent history, and something was left behind, something in the form of a small, nekkid Japanese boy with a whole lot of eyeliner...and a big mouth...(the evil takes on many forms, but this was the oddest)First of all, does anyone else think William Mapother is kinda creepy? I'm not talking about his character, but the man himself...his face is all scrunched up and too small for his head, reminding me of one of those angry midgets from the Phantasm movies...well, I suppose I'm no Adonis myself, and he's probably a very kind fellow...as I said before, I enjoyed this film. It sort of reminded me of a Japanese version of The Amityville Horror, but, instead of Satan moving in and causing all sorts of mischief, we have a nondescript evil entity, the result of a past incident of great anger and violence (the Japanese detective referred to it an `emotional stain'), indiscriminately preying on unsuspecting visitors who happen to enter the abode. I might be tempted to label this a haunted house story, but that's not entirely true as the malevolent force wasn't confined to the house, but rather latched on to individuals who spent time within the four walls, and subsequently followed them wherever they went until...well, let's just say following them around was by far the least harmful thing it would do...the story was actually pretty simple, but told in a way to make it appear more complicated. What I mean is instead of proceeding on a linear path, the film is edited in such a way that we see past sequences mixed in with scenes of the present, as they story crosses timeline boundaries, weaving three, connected tales into one. This kind of thing can get messed up very easily, but here they kept it clean, orderly, and understandable. The main one involves Sarah Michelle Gellar's character, the second involves the family currently residing in the house, and the third features the family that lived in the house three years past, and the ones responsible for all the stuff going on presently. Oddly, there seemed to be less focus on the characters and more on the story itself, which may be a result of cultural differences, I'm not sure, but it felt intentional, so I went with it...there are some good scares throughout the film, many the result of something seemingly innocuous in the background coming forth to surprise an unsuspecting audience, along with a few, drawn out sequences designed to create a sense of suspense. The overall effect for me was a permeating sense of unease, as the evil was clinging to the characters, biding its time. Overall I thought the cinematography was really beautiful, and I especially liked those long and foreboding shots, as they developed a real sense of tension. If you're looking for some visceral thrills, you'll probably be disappointed as the blood n' guts factor is minimal, but in terms of a spooky ghost story, the film does very well. I have only seen the PG-13 version, but there is an R rated directors cut available on DVD, one that features about six or seven minutes of extra footage.The picture on this DVD, presented in widescreen (1.85:1) anamorphic high definition, looks very sharp and clean and the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio comes through very well. The PG-13 version that I have has a commentary track with producer Sam Raimi, screenwriter Stephen Susco, actors Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ted Raimi, KaDee Strickland, and Jason Behr, along with a couple of others. It also features a five part, `making of' documentary titled `A Powerful Rage', a featurette titled `Under the Skin' - A medical explanation of fear response in film, along with trailers, one for this film, along with The Forgotten (2004), Guess Who (2005), Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004), Boogeyman (2005), Riding Giants (2004), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Man of the House (2005), and Mirrormask (2005). The Director's Cut DVD contains a few more extras, so if you are planning on buying this film, keep an eye on which version you're getting, depending on what you're looking for...Cookieman108By the way, did anyone notice how I got through this entire review without mentioning The Ring (2002)?

My mother rented this movie when it first came out, this was when I was pretty young so I didn't get the chance to see it. She said it was one of creepiest movies she's ever seen. Now that I'm older I went ahead and bought it and I'm very glad I did! It was indeed creepy. It's one of those movies that will keep you on the edge of your seat. You also have to play very close attention because there is always something going on, even if it's in the background. It definitely made me jump. So I would recommend this film if your into these types of movies. Although I will say it's not the scariest movie I've ever seen, but that's just my opinion and everyone's different. I don't want to go too much into detail and reveal too much about it so you can be surprised and see for yourself! You really can't go wrong with the price! :)

Great movie but it wouldn’t finish playing. The worst part is I was watching with a few people that hadn’t seen it before, it made it to her lighting the house on fire and stopped playing. When I tried to return it Amazon tried charging me a restocking fee along with paying to ship it back.

Love this movie when it first came out. Ended being the best one out of the series. This movie really freaked me out the first time.

If you haven't seen 2003's The Grudge, you're missing out. I originally bought this years ago on DVD but I have since lost that copy and just recently purchased the blu-ray version of it to add to my movie collection.The quality of the blu-ray is well beyond what I was expecting. The colors are vibrant when they need to be, the grain is enough to add to the film instead of taking away from it and being an annoying distraction, and the added details are almost worth it.If you have a blu-ray player and you're looking for a classic horror movie to watch, I can't recommend The Grudge enough!

The only scary thing about this movie is that they hired such an inept person to do the sound. I've tried twice to watch this movie, but I can't get far in it because the sound is too painful. Most of the movie is very VERY quiet, so you have to turn the volume up and strain to hear anything, and then the movie will blast you with a painfully loud noise without any warning to turn the volume down. It HURTS.

Came this morning I like Sarah Michelle gallar so was pleased thankyou

this completes my collection in DVD format

La portada indica que es la versión extendida de The Grudge, pero cuando puse el disco y reproduje la película, fue la versión de cine la que se reprodujo.

Being a Sarah Michelle Geller fan after Buffy, I saw this ages ago on the horror channel and I enjoyed it so seeing that it was available on blu ray with an extra unreleased version on the same disc, I snapped it up. Prompt delivery, good price. Excellent 👍

Dopo Buffy, Sarah interpreta la protagonista di The Grudge, dopo The Ring un ottimo Horror dei primi anni 2000 che ha lasciato il sengo, assolutamente da vedere.