Andrew Jerome
The problem I had with this movie wasn't just the fact that there was so much of the previous film in this one. It was more that there didn't seem to be any progress in the tale. Yes, there are some great scary scenes but basically it's just the same thing:1. Person walks into the horror house 2. The ghost kills themOR1. Person walks into the horror house 2. Someone meets the first person 3. The ghost kills the first person 4. The ghost then kills the second person tooI really thought one of the characters (Kyoko) was going to at least offer some defenses against the ghost as she seemed to display some psychic abilities but no, the ghost gets her too.It's just a shame that a really creepy film with some scary scenes didn't have more depth than this.
dbborroughs
The first TV movie of Ju-on is one of the creepiest movies I've I've seen. This is considerably less so.This film begins with a half an hour of material from the first film. While its good, it slows the forward momentum of this film especially if you watched the previous film in close order.When the new material comes it picks up literally where the first leaves off and follows it to a new end. Some of this is good, but much, like the end, is good looking but rather confused and far from scary. Worse, the now linear story is too literal and doesn't leave enough to the mind.If you need to know what happens after the first film ends, then by all means pick this up for viewing, however if it were up to me I'd just leave the first film be and forget this as a well intentioned mistake.5 out of 10
HumanoidOfFlesh
"Ju-On 2" isn't definitely as good as the original.It's very bland and boring film with some occasionally scary moments."Ju-On 2" starts at the beginning of the first film,re-telling the story that started it all in the original "Ju-On",and then about half way into the film the new story picks up.The film offers some downright creepy moments,but there is not enough creepiness for my liking.There is also one scene obviously stolen from Hideo Nakata's horror hit "Ringu"(1998).So if you liked the first film you may be a bit a disappointed with this one.My rating:6 out of 10-and that's being generous.Stick with brilliant original.
Martin Wagner
Warning: The first 30 minutes of this second entry in the Ju-on series (the first two of which were released direct-to-video) repeats the last 30 minutes of the first movie. Trying to puzzle out why they did this, I can only think it must have been a (rather sleazy) decision on the producers' part to maximize profits from the video release, but putting out two movies instead of one. After all, if you merged the two films with the overlapping footage, you'd still have a feature in the 110 minute range. Jeez.(Mild spoilers follow.)Having said that, this movie continues the creepfest begun in the first to solid effect. What is so cool about the curse concept that Takashi Shimizu has come up with is that EVERY character in this story who encounters Toshio, Kayako, or the dreaded house is affected. Unlike an American horror film, where you'd get a brave hero or heroine figuring out a way at the end to save the day and lift the curse, in this movie, once you're cursed, you're cursed. Screwed. Doomed. It's cool.This is a good series, though I think its low-budget, atmosphere-based approach to frightening audiences won't probably play well to American audiences programmed to expect horror movies to be bombastic, loud, and all about special effects.
AD
