The Grudge 3

The Grudge 3
Directed by	Toby Wilkins
Written by	Brad Keene
Produced by	Takashi Shimizu Sam Raimi
Starring	Johanna Braddy Gil McKinney Shawnee Smith Emi Ikehata Jadie Hobson Beau Mirchoff Marina Sirtis Matthew Knight
Cinematography	Anton Bakarski
Edited by	John Quinn
Music by	Sean Mchahon
Distributed by	Stage 6 Films Sony (USA) Columbia Pictures
Release date	May 12, 2009 (2009-05-12)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$38.6 million

The Grudge 3 is a 2009 American supernatural horror film and the third installment in The Grudge franchise. Toby Wilkins, who had previously directed the successful film Splinter and the short films Tales from The Grudge, took Takashi Shimizu's place as director, while Brad Keene replaced Stephen Susco as screenwriter. The film stars Johanna Braddy, Shawnee Smith and Marina Sirtis, with a special appearance by Matthew Knight and was released on DVD on May 12, 2009.

Unlike the first two movies that were both rated PG-13, the third installment was given an R rating because of its graphic bloody violence and gore. The Grudge 3 features a linear plotline unlike its two predecessors, which used nonlinear sequences of events for their respective plots and subplots.

Plot

Jake (the only survivor from the second installment) is placed in a mental asylum after the events of the second film under the care of Dr. Francine Sullivan, his caretaker. One day Dr. Sullivan leaves Jake locked in his room as he tried to escape several times, as Jake begs her not to saying "She" will get him. While huddling on his bed, he hears Kayako in the room and begins pounding on the door to be let out. Kayako grabs Jake and begins to throw him around the room. Sullivan is quickly called by an officer, as she watches the footage on camera wondering what Jake is doing to himself (as Kayako cannot be seen on the footage). As they race to his room, they find him dead, with every bone in his body broken with his wrist slashed and blood everywhere.

The news of Jake's death reaches a young woman in Tokyo, Naoko. She is the sister of Kayako and is mocked by her co-workers because of her sister. She finds a printed paper (as an insult) about Jake's death posted on her monitor at her desk office, and believes her sister caused the death. She decides to go to the apartment building to stop the spread of the curse once and for all and tells her husband that she is traveling to Chicago.

Meanwhile, the apartment building is in the middle of renovations in an effort to draw in new tenants. The building manager Max and his two sisters Lisa and 8-year-old Rose, along with an old woman artist named Gretchen, are the few tenants who also remained in the building. Max is on the verge of being fired from his job, having to deal with Rose's breathing condition and Lisa moving to New York with her boyfriend Andy. Lisa doesn't believe Rose when she tells her that she has seen a boy running around the building, as she knows there are no tenants with a boy.

Naoko meets Max and expresses interest in moving into the building, now sure that it contains the curse. Lisa finds Dr. Sullivan taking photos of Jake's old apartment and the letter explains that Jake has died; that he told her stories of a woman with long black hair and dead white skin (along with a little boy) that killed the rest of his family. And, which she (Dr. Sullivan) believes to be a fantasy Jake made up because he couldn't deal with the truth. She also mentions that he had hallucinations about the woman and the boy, but this time the hallucination made him break every bone in his body. Lisa confirms that her sister Rose had also seen the same little boy, making Dr. Sullivan wonder if Jake's delusions were true. The next day Dr. Sullivan meets Lisa at Jake's funeral and leaves with her, unaware that Naoko was there and saw the two of them telling Lisa that she wants to show her something back at her office. The doctor tells Lisa the story about the Saeki family, the family Jake described in his (true) hallucinations, and shows Lisa a picture of them at which time Lisa confirms she's also seen the boy.

Later that evening, after Lisa leaves, Dr. Sullivan is at the hospital getting ready to leave too when she sees on a monitor a boy crouched in the hallway. When she goes to investigate the boy is gone, but when she opens a door to leave she sees Kayako's face in the window of the door. Dr. Sullivan backs up and gasps in terror as Kayako pushes her way through the opened door. She runs to another door as Kayako chases her. Finally Dr. Sullivan shuts the door on Kayako, but Kayako appears in front of her. The doctor runs to another door and is able to get through and shuts it. She then tries to open another door with her card, but for some reason it doesn't open. Kayako gets closer and Dr. Sullivan bangs on the door. She yells to a janitor named Ben to open the door but he doesn't hear her. She continues to call him and bang on the door as Kayako puts her hands around Dr. Sullivan's head. Kayako then seizes Dr. Sullivan's head and snaps her neck, as blood is splattered against the window.

Later, Andy is leaving the building after agreeing with Lisa that they should delay their move to New York (due to Rose's condition), when he spots Toshio running upstairs. He sees that the door of Jake's apartment is open and enters it. Hearing footsteps he finds the switch, but the light flickers briefly showing Kayako behind him. She grabs him as the door closes to the sound of her death rattle. Meanwhile, Gretchen finishes her painting and leaves the room. She hears a clatter and when she enters the room again, she sees her painting of Rose has been ripped and is covered in red paint. As she is looking at the painting in disbelief, Kayako's head appears and she drops the painting in shock. She runs to another room and sees a painting on the wall dripping paint and watches as it turns to a cascade of black hair, and stares in horror as Kayako crawls out of the painting. As she's backing away, she falls down, and Kayako kills her by ripping off her bottom jaw and gouging out her eyes. At the same time, Mr. Praski, Max's boss, confronts him in the basement about the building, telling him he's going to leave the management to professionals and Max is out of a job. We can see something is happening to Max as a look comes over his face and he pushes Mr. Preski to the floor (hitting his head on some bricks in the process) in anger. Mr. Praski then leaves the building and gets in his car, but it won't start because of the snow. He suddenly feels some kind of presence, revealing that Toshio sits next to him. He screams as the latter lunges toward him and kills him.

Meanwhile, Naoko tries to convince Lisa and Rose to participate in an exorcism to rid the building of the evil spirits, saying that a ju-on or curse is upon them. Lisa initially refuses to cooperate, being worried about Rose and herself, but after it is eventually revealed that her brother Max is now possessed by the spirit of Takeo Saeki the evil husband of Kayako and the source of the Grudge, she agrees to go along with the ritual and to banish the evil. During the ceremony Naoko warns that it must not be interrupted or the curse will continue. She begins the ceremony and tells Rose that she must drink Kayako's blood to contain the curse. Lisa is afraid and tells Naoko that she will not allow Rose to do this, and takes her out of the room as Max appears. Unfortunately, the ceremony is interrupted when Takeo, as Max, realizes what Naoko is attempting to accomplish. Using Max, Takeo chases Naoko through the building, breaking her leg by smashing her knee with a pipe and finally stabbing her in the throat, simultaneously breaking her neck and kills her. At the same time Lisa and Rose run to the bathroom, where they discover Andy's body in the bath tub. As Lisa holds the lifeless corpse it turns into Kayako as she's backed up against the wall. Rose runs from the room and (just as Kayako is about to kill Lisa) drinks Kayako's blood causing the curse to end and Kayako to disappear. Lisa comes out of the bathroom to see Rose having a seizure and rushes her sister back to their apartment to give her oxygen.

Max, who has been exorcized of Takeo's evil possession upon Kayako's banishment, stares in horror at the body of Naoko. He is then attacked by Naoko's ghost as her murder has caused a new curse to begin. Naoko kills him by biting out his throat. After hearing his screams Lisa discovers his body and calls the police. In the final scene the corpses are brought out of the apartment building in body bags while Lisa and Rose sit in the emergency vehicle. Rose tells Lisa she's scared and Lisa assures her she will never leave her side, embracing her. As the camera moves, we discover that Lisa is now hugging Kayako, who is now trapped within Rose's body. She stares at the camera, uttering her death rattle, as the film ends.

Cast

• Johanna Braddy as Lisa, a young woman who plans to move to New York and pursue a fashion career.
• Gil McKinney as Max, Lisa and Rose's anxious older brother, who is in charge of the apartments.
• Emi Ikehata as Naoko Kawamata, Kayako's younger sister, who holds the secret to ending the curse.
• Jadie Rose Hobson as Rose, Lisa and Max's sister, who suffers from severe asthma attacks.
• Beau Mirchoff as Andy, Lisa's boyfriend
• Marina Sirtis as Gretchen, a painter and Rose's frequent babysitter
• Matthew Knight as Jake Kimble, the traumatized young boy
• Shawnee Smith as Dr. Francine Sullivan, a doctor who works at the mental hospital and Jake's caretaker.
• Aiko Horiuchi as Kayako Saeki, a ghost who is bent on killing anyone she sees.
• Shimba Tsuchiya as Toshio Saeki, a ghost that occupies the house.
• Michael McCoy as Mr. Praski, Max's boss.
• Takatsuna Mukai as Daisuke, Naoko's husband
• Laura Giosh as Renee, a tenant who moves out with her daughter Brenda after the Kimble family deaths
• Mihaela Nankova as Brenda, the frightened daughter of Renee

Production

The Grudge 3 was announced at Comic Con 2008. Kayako and Toshio had to be recast, as Takako Fuji and Ohga Tanaka passed on the roles. The film's budget was reported as approximately US$5 million.

Release

The DVD release was originally scheduled for March 24, 2009, but was delayed until May 12, 2009, due to the Blu-ray release of the first film. It was issued in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. Two featurettes appear: "Tokyagoaria" documents how the Bulgarian location was made to look like Tokyo and Chicago, and "The Curse Continues" shows how the film ties into the previous two. Three deleted scenes also are included.

Its reported sales of 2,271,177 DVD units (approximately US$38,610,009 in sales) recouped its $5,000,000 budget. In the United Kingdom, the film's television premiere was broadcast in High Definition on Syfy Channel on Friday, 22 January 2010 at 9.40 pm. In Mexico, the film received a limited theatrical release on June 25, 2010, and a nationwide release on August 6.

Reception

Critical reaction to The Grudge 3 was generally mixed to negative. Viewers reacted positively to Shawnee Smith (known for her role of Amanda Young from the Saw franchise) being in the film but the replacement of Ohga Tanaka as Toshio was criticized as Shimba Tsuchiya was regarded as too tall for the part.

See also

• List of ghost films

External links

• The Grudge 3
• The Grudge 3 at IMDb
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› The Grudge 3 at AllMovie
• Official Trailer
• BloodyDisgusting|The Grudge 3
• ShockTillYouDrop|The Grudge 3
• The Grudge 3 at FEARnet