Which of the grudges is the scariest

Here are all The Grudge movies ranked, worst to best. The Grudge 3 was the third American remake in the franchise, but was the first and only to be released direct-to-video. Shawnee Smith Saw starred as Dr. Sullivan, but even her formidable acting chops and penchant for success in horror films couldn't revive the film.

The other two films in the American remake series set the bar high enough that The Grudge 3 seemed dull, lifeless, and lackluster in comparison, and brought nothing new that audiences hadn't already seen many times before. Ju-On: The Grudge 2 was also written and directed by Shimizu, and was only released a year after his first Ju-On: The Grudge movie, adding to the rich franchise that he was already building with the overall universe and series.

While it was a good effort, it strongly reiterated many of the points of the first and seemed half-baked. One year is a very quick turnaround, and because of this, it seemed like Shimizu got too focused on what worked with the first, therefore leaving the second repetitive and boring. The newest installment in The Grudge franchise has gotten majorly negative reviews, and some of the worst that the franchise has experienced. However, Pesce attempted to bring something different to the franchise by invoking the curse as a viral transfer and showing how it can travel.

Ultimately, the jump scares are repetitive and too consistent to have any real effect, but the film's R rating, which is only the second for the American remakes in the franchise, added some grotesque elements that redeemed it from being just another supernatural scary movie. The actors involved with the project, including horror veteran Lin Shaye Insidious redeemed it somewhat, but couldn't do enough to be completely successful.

Banking heavily off the success of the first American remake in , The Grudge 2 was green-lit after its predecessor was in theaters only three days. Just a couple of films, right? Or should some of it just crawl back up the staircase and stay locked in its room? Ad — content continues below. The two central characters from the Ju-On franchise first appear in these two short films from Takashi Shimizu.

Butoh is a mysterious type of avant-garde theatre from postwar Japan that uses contortion, body paint and expressive, uncanny movements to create intense performances, often relating to taboo subject matter.

Ju-On: The Curse finds Shimizu experimenting with the unusual chronology and fragmented storytelling that would define the franchise, introducing us to the backstory of his two ghosts through a series of six linked segments.

We are introduced to a house in Tokyo and the horrible event that kicks the story off, as artist Takeo Saeki murders his wife Kayako, son Toshio and cat Mar in a jealous rage. Now, anyone who enters the house becomes cursed and dies at the hands of their vengeful spirits. The scares from the original shorts are both recycled here but, given the additional context, take on a deeper meaning.

Ju-On: The Curse is by no means a perfect film. Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The Curse 2 is a short and curious sequel that was shot back-to-back with The Curse. That said, this one re-edits some of those original vignettes and arguably makes them more effective.

Both Curse films were very successful in Japan, so Shimizu was asked to bring Kayako and Toshio out of the video world and onto the big screen, which he did with style. If you only watch one Ju-On film, make it this one.

The Grudge has the indefinable cinematic alchemy of a classic. Something just works. There are so many iconic moments and you can feel his glee at scaring the audience. It all builds to the most effective climax in the franchise, the infamous scene in which Kayako descends the staircase. The over-arching plot is less abstract than usual and focuses on a film crew who enter the Saeki house to investigate all the deaths that have occurred there.

With the series now becoming something of a worldwide cult phenomenon, the US remake was inevitable. Ring and, to a lesser extent, Pulse had already done great numbers, so Sam Raimi and Ghost House produced this English-language reworking of Ju-On: The Grudge without much fear of it failing.

To their credit, they brought in Takashi Shimizu to direct and this helped preserve the purity of his vision, making it one of the less blasphemous remakes.

Why, they become Netflix shows! Maybe the newest new beginning for Ju-On , the J-horror mainstay about ghosts with grudges, will be a return to scary form. We will know when Ju-On: Origins hits the streaming service on July 3. Until then, we will think only happy thoughts and remember the five films out of 13 yes, 13, not counting shorts that once made this series great.

It still works. Maybe because we have been conditioned to understand that this is how sequels operate. Ju-On: The Grudge 2 has moments of gleefully pompous atrocity that dwarf anything in the rest of the franchise. But while those moments will stick with you forever, the film as a whole leaves less of an impression than its predecessor.

Can American remakes of international horror hits ever succeed? Apparently they have a chance, if you enlist the original director and let him direct on his home turf, from a script that streamlines the original concept without dumbing it down too much.

Still set in Japan, The Grudge takes a more consumer-friendly version of the old Ju-On plot and throws in a few American characters for international marketability. Surprisingly, the more conventional aspects of this version like more or less sticking with one protagonist prove to be a welcome change of pace for a franchise that was in danger of turning its once fresh idiosyncrasies into worn-out shtick. Only the most orthodox J-horror purists will balk at the result. The Grudge is the Lost in Translation of horror movies.

Only better.