A man named Peter Kirk (Bill Pullman) wakes up in the morning and commits suicide by jumping off the deck from his building witnessed by his wife Maria (Rosa Blasi) in Japan.
Later on a nurse from the U.S. named Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) works in the city of Tokyo.
She experiences a number of deaths and then witnesses a strange ghost to where she was living at which she is sent to the hospital.
After she awakens she tries to find out about what is causing these supernatural powers that these people are dying from as a well as getting posessed by these supernatural spirits as they are creating a chain of deaths to each resident in the Tokyo area.
She goes to the aid of Maria as she tells her that her husbands death wasn't necassarily a suicide and needs information on him.
We spot an impressive beginning that involves a husband Peter looking over his apartment while his wife Maria is getting up from her sleep in which this draws your attention that this man is about to commit suicide by how we see him react to stuff as well as a nice shot on him falling as well as Maria suddenly taken by surprise with all of this.
Also great still moments with a woman talking on her phone to someone and hears something coming up from her attic and she cautiously and slowly goes up to see on what is up there which gives you the chills big time as well as a perfect jumping moment by what we spot attacking her as this will please horror fans who enjoy getting surprised by what they spot.
Nicely done shots on Karen Davis slowly looking around a house and a mysterious child staring at her as well as Karen talking to Emma Williams and things get creepy on what goes on here which was strongly done. Plus nice special effects on a dark figure swooping towards Karen as this was a perfect add on to the story.
Great focus with a landlord planning to put his hand in a tub of water and a good close up shot on a childs hand reaching out and grabbing him as this for sure looked genuinely spooky.
Perfect moment with Jennifer Williams as if she's having a seisure in bed and her husband Matthew trying to see what's wrong and coming up closer to her as well as a perfect dark child figure rising from behind and he demands him to know who he is as well as a great close up shot on this kid opening his mouth and some neat jumping and intense moments while this happens. One of the best spooky moments in this film.
Great chilling situations when Susan is walking up some stairs going to her apartment and then gets a creepy sound from her cell phone as this adds a great horror touch and can make you scred out of your seat by having a feeling something terrifying is going to happen as well as spotting some child figure creeping up the stairs and tries to get away as well as a perfect shot on the dark looking child when she tries to slam the door on him. This moment looked perfectly effective. Perfect moment with someone buzzing her to come in and suddenly the door knocks right away as this adds more mysterious moments as well as her looking in the peephole and discovering that it's the person that buzzed her as well as her opening the door and no one is in the hall as this adds a great haunting feeling and making everything looking perfectly spooky including that strange sound on her phone again during this moment. Plus a perfect moment with her running in her bed as a child trying to hide under the covers being spooked with things that go bump in the night as well as a perfect jumping moment with an object underneath her sheets attacking which looked quite original to watch.
Perfect still moment with Doug talking to his girlfriend Karen on a bus and suddenly a reflection on a window stares at her as this is a perfect jump out of your seat moment.
Effective mysterious moment when Alex spots a resident with her head turned slowly walking down some stairs from a building and tries to get her to pay attention to him as this certainly draws you in and having a feeling that something terrifying will oucome when she shows her face and offers some nice creepy effects on what we see. Certainly can scare someone who doesn't like to see something terrifying on someone for sure.
Nicely firm moments when Karen tries to confront Maria on the suicide of her husband with the disturbed moments as well as the upsetting moments that we spot going on in this conversation.
Plus we spot some ghostly moments with Karen spotting some flashbacks that involved Peter that drove to his suicide with the creepy shostly child or deadly moments as this was all nicely shot. Plus some black and white static moments dealing with the child when he was alive as well as his pet cat which unravels the mystery as to why he made cat sounds as a ghost.
Perfectly creepy moments when Karen tries to rescue Doug from the house as well as a woman figure crawling towards her and tries to attack her as this very much looks like a scene that I saw in the special edition of the Exorcist and alot of great powerful moments and good camera shots within all of this.
Bottom line is that this is the retelling of a Japanese 2002 foreign film titled Ju-On but made in much better style and terror too which Ju-On was made on an affordable budget which didn't deliver much scares. This story makes you wonder who's behind this madness and why it's all happening. Some scenes are very disturbing too and would easily be a classic horror film.
The acting is terrific with lots of talented celebirites involved in the film as well as Japanese locals too who do well.
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Karen Davis) delivers a great action performance in her role proving she can pull off her Buffy character. She offers a good sharp attitude as well as doing greatly while reacting to her surprised reactions as well as doing a nice job getting spooked or emotional with her crying too. Definetely studied her part inside out.
Jason Behr (Doug) is wonderful portraying the boyfriend proving to be a faithful one to her. Shows a nice decency to what he does and speaks very well with what he has to say as he brings on the boy next door type of appeal to whatever he does. Also had the right clean cut looks.
Clea DuVall (Jennifer Williams) does a perfect job by acting stiff as well as having a somewhat timid type of behavior just being disturbed by certain things as well as her paranoid expressions showing off greatly. Plus really brings it on acting like she's having a seisure in a certain scene in which she shows off some perfect intense energy and really made her role effective.
KaDee Strickland (Susan Williams) shows off terrific energy in a great scene when she is being watched by an evil spirit and definetely rolls in with the punches by acting alarmed by trying to run away in a staircase to her apartment suite as well as acting natural by acting casutious or freaked out of her mind.
Grace Zabriskie (Emma Williams) lived to play somewhat a mental patient having expressionless glances as well as being stiff with her speaking and being too fearful on what to say along with doing well by freaking out. She had one of the most effective supporting roles in the film and studied her character wonderfully like the rest of the cast mentioned here.
Bill Pullman (Peter Kirk) is great as a concerned man to a child and shows alot of character to his part. Plus drew it in nicely in the beginning of the film looking depressed as he shows it off that he's feeling suicidal. Also does well with his energy in other aspects of the story when the terrors strike him.
Rosa Blasi (Maria Kirk) also acted natural in her role in which she does well acting shocked after spotting a suicide not knowing as to what to think of it. Also does well acting disturbed when someone is trying to talk to her about what had happened and shows a nice emotional basket case type of reaction to what is said to her. Does well with her upsetting words too.
Of course we have a supporting role by cult item Ted Raimi (Alex) who is humouress in his role as he usually is in shows. Shows a good seriousness at the same time with his nervous speaking and somewhat shyness too. Also does a nice job with his energy trying to talk to someone whom is walking by as well as reacting shocked which he shows off a nice hyped energy and expressions to this.
Japanese actor Ryo Ishibashi (Nakagawa) is very strong with his role as a local detecitve in the film. He draws in a good sharp seriousness to what he does with unsolved cases as well as reacting well to the terrors. Plus does a great job stressing situations too. Deserves a good pat on the back with his work on this one.
A woman's jaw is torn off her mouth.
We have terrific composing Christopher Young with his sharp violing playing and booming sounds bringing the terror for the scenery involved. Also we hear alot of great ghostly and gloomy sounds as well as perfect hissing. Plus banging noises too and the composer seemed to focus piece by piece on the ghostly characters as to what they do and thorw in creepy sounds within everything that we see on the screen. Alot of it sounds similar to the old school horror flicks that we enjoyed and yet upping it for a movie such as this one. He deserves an award for weverything that he did using many versatile types of instruments throughout all of this.
Maria Kirk: Good morning. Peter, are you okay?
[Peter looks briefly at Maria]
Peter Kirk: You're up early today.
[Peter dives off the balcony]
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