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The Grudge | 2004 | PG-13 | - 4.7.1
Supernatural horror film based on the premise that anyone who is killed in a fit of rage leaves behind a curse from which others will die, and so on. Sarah Michelle Geller stars as a caregiver, who soon realizes that the house she is in while taking care of an elderly woman, is afflicted by this curse and is tormented by a spectral presence. Also with Jason Behr, Clea DuVall, Bill Pullman and Kadee Strickland. Directed by Takashi Shimizu. [1:36]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A woman in bed invites a man to join her, he does, they kiss, she climbs on top of him (they are both clothed in lounge wear), they continue to kiss, then roll over, and he begins to lift her top (we see a bit of her bare abdomen). A woman showers and we see her bare shoulders and arms. A woman wears a tight tank top that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders, a woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage, and a woman wears an off-the-shoulder top that reveals her bare shoulder. We see a nude boy a few times, with no discernable detail below the waist.
VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - References here to a "specter" are descriptions of a black mass (it looks like flowing hair) that takes the form of what sometimes looks like a woman and sometimes like a child (at those times its "face" is ashen in color, with large, wide eyes and it makes noises like crackling, croaking and hissing). A woman trudges into a darkened building, we hear squishy sounds with every step, her clothes are blood-stained, a man approaches her and slips on blood that's on the floor, he calls to her, she turns around, lifts her head (we hear pops and cracks), and we see her face missing the lower jaw, with her tongue flopping around, and the man screams. A man tips himself over a balcony and falls to the street below (we hear a crunch when he hits, we see his twisted body and blood pooling around his head). Two men walk through a house investigating the death of a woman, they open a closet, find strands of hair, they open the hatch in the ceiling of the closet, go into the attic, and find a dead man and a dead woman (they are tinged gray) and what looks like the bloody lower jaw of a human on the floor. A man hears noises in a closet, opens the door, looks up toward the attic hatch, a blood-soaked body flops down on top of him, the man runs, opens another door, we hear banging, and we see the legs of a person swinging and kicking the wall (presumably someone who was hanged). A woman tries to get out of the house, she is surrounded by specters at every turn, she tips over a container of gasoline, lights a lighter and throws it into the gas, and the flames flare up as she is approached by a specter. A woman hears strange croaking noises on her telephone, she drops the phone, screams, hides under her bed sheets, the sheets begin to billow, she lifts them to see a specter crawling toward her, and the specter pulls the woman down and they disappear. A woman hears noises in an office building, she goes to the stairwell, the lights on the floors above her begin to turn off with loud banging, she sees a specter approaching her, she panics and runs, a security guard goes to check and the woman watches as the specter seeps out from under a door and takes the form of a woman. A woman hears a noise in the house, goes to investigate, opens a hatch in the ceiling of a closet, looks around, sees a specter, we hear the woman scream, see her legs kicking and she is pulled up into the attic. We see a man who is in a rage, he grabs a cat and drowns it in a toilet, he cracks his knuckles, approaches a woman, beats her (we don't see the blows) and then drowns her. A man goes into a dark bedroom, we hear labored breathing, he turns on the light, a woman lies in the bed motionless and unable to communicate with him, a specter appears next to the bed, the man falls on the floor when it hisses loudly, the specter touches the woman, she takes her last breath, and the man backs near a closet, he looks up and the specter lunges at him hissing loudly. A specter slithers (while making croaking sounds and we hear what sounds like bones cracking) toward a man, crawls on top of him and the man dies. A man goes into a bathroom and finds a boy with his head in a bathtub full of water; the man pulls the boy out, and then the man is shoved into the water (we see an arm come toward him and hear him flailing). A man reaches into a bathtub full of water to empty it, a hand reaches out from the water and we briefly see a face and hair (the man pulls his arm out of the water and has a clump of hair in his hand). A woman reaches toward a sheet covering a dead body in a morgue, it moves, an ashen hand comes out from under the sheet, she turns around and sees a specter with a glaring eye. A woman showers and washes her hair and we see ashen fingers protrude from her scalp as she moves her hair; the woman feels something, screams and the fingers disappear. A man finds photographs with the faces of a woman cut out of every one; the faces are pinned onto a nearby wall and there are bloody finger and handprints around the pictures. A man watches a surveillance tape, sees a specter move along a hallway, the specter then covers the screen in black and two wide white eyes open causing the man to jump. A woman hears scratching coming from behind a closet door, she opens the door and finds a cat (who hisses at her) and a little boy with scratches on his face. A man sees a boy with cuts on his face slumped near a window, he goes into the house, he carries the boy to a sofa (we see the boy has a bloody bandage on his knee), and the boy opens his mouth and makes a loud noise that sounds cat-like. A woman hears a noise in the house, she sees wet footprints on the floor, she follows them, finds a cat on the stairs, sees a child pick up the cat, she follows them into a room, and the door closes behind her. A woman lies dead in a bed and another woman cowers in the corner of the room. A woman sees the reflection of a specter in a bus window and is frightened. A woman sees and hears a hand flop against a glass door; she opens the door and finds an elderly woman on the floor apparently in a state of shock. A man talks about three detectives having died mysteriously after investigating a crime, and he talks about a deadly curse. We see people at a cemetery grieving over the death of their loved ones.
LANGUAGE 1 - 2 mild obscenities, 1 religious exclamation.
SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown smoking cigarettes.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Curses, rage, death, murder, infidelity, violent death, legends, unrequited love, obsession.
MESSAGE - Uncontrollable rage and anger never go away.
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CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
The Front Room - 6.5.6
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - 3.6.5
Reagan - 1.4.3
Afraid - 4.5.5
You Gotta Believe - 2.3.3
The Forge - 1.1.1
City of Dreams - 5.8.7
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Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
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