My Review of The Grudge 3 (2009)

 

Written by Brad Keene

Directed by Toby Wilkins

Naoko: "If the curse is not stopped, more people will die, you must understand!"

On to the third installment into the American take of this movie franchise and it's a whole new writing and directing team for this one. I mean there's remnants of the previous movies that are still there.

For example, there's Jake (Matthew Wright) from the second movie. He's been hospitalised but he's quickly killed off by Kayako (Aiko Horiuchi) much to the horror of Dr. Sullivan (Shawnee Smith). There was no point getting attached to Sillas she also met a rather brutal demise at the hands of Kayako too.

The focus was again in Chicago at that particular apartment building. This time around, the focus pivoted on a trio of siblings - older brothers Max (Gil McKinney), New York bound middle sister Lisa (Johanna Brady) and youngest sister, Rose (Jadie Rose Hobson). Rose was ill and kept seeing Toshio (Shimba Tsuchiya) while Max was resentful of Lisa wanting to move to New York with her boyfriend, Andy (Beau Mirchoff).

There was a neighbour named Gretchen (Martina Sirtis) and Max's boss, Mr. Praski (Max McCoy) but they're mostly there to be killed off at different points in the film. There's also new neighbour, Naoko Kawamata (Emi Ikehata), who was revealed to be the sister of Kayako.

Naoko wantes to protect Lisa and her siblings and quickly revealed the horrifying childhood that both her and Kayako had to endure. It took long enough for Lisa to even entertain the idea of Naoko's help and when Naoko did help, all kind of disaster came out. Namely the presence of Kayako's abusive ghost husband, Max being possessed, Andy dead and Naoko also killed and becoming a vengeful spirit. 

The film certainly heavier into the family dynamics with Max, Lisa and Rose falling apart and Naoko doing her best to redeem her own. There's failures on both sides and the ending with Rose was effective enough.

- The next film to come out of this series would go in a completely different direction, so no resolution to that ending.

- There's archive footage and photos from the first two movies.

- Standout music: Marwood's No Trouble.

- Chronology: 2006 Chicago and Tokyo. We briefly met Naoko's husband, Daisuke (Takatsuna Mukai) near the start or the film. 

I got to admit that I found The Grudge 3 a bit better than the second one. It's by no means perfect but it was better focused and I liked the family dynamics a bit more. However, it had Shawnee Smith and could've done a lot more with her.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of The Grudge 2 (2006)

 

Written by Stephen Susco 

Directed by Takashi Shimizu 

Jake: "It's all your fault! What did you do? What did you bring here?"

Allison: "It followed me here. THEY followed me here!"

Following the success of the 2004 remake, a sequel of course had to emerge and it's one that came out within two years. Was it as good as the first movie? Not really but it did try to build on the events of said movie.

The last we saw of Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar), she was hospitalised in Tokyo and being terrorised by Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji). This of course distressed Karen's I'll mother (Joanna Cassidy) who sent Karen's younger sister, Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) to bring Karen home.

What I found interesting very early in this movie was the dynamic with the Davis women. The mother clearly favoured Karen over Aubrey and there's a sibling rivalry between the estranged sisters. Saying that, Aubrey went to Tokyo to get Karen back but the latter ended up dying early into the movie, which made Aubrey the main protagonist for this sequel.

Just like her dead sister, Aubrey found herself out of place and trying her hardest to figure out the significance behind the Grudge and how it took her sister's life. This meant talking to journalist Eason (Edison Chen) who had saved Karen's life and been investigating the Saeki murders. There was also some revelations from Kayako's mother (Kim Miyori) but Aubrey was as doomed as her sister.

Something that might not have helped this sequel was splitting the narrative. Half of this film wanted to close the Karen side of things while having Aubrey making similar mistakes. Then there was the focus on another family and a bunch of school girls, all of whom get drawn into that house with similar consequences.

The family comprised of the Kimbles in Chicago - Bill (Christopher Cousins) and Trish (Jennifer Beals) and son Jake (Matthew Knight) and older daughter Lacey (Sarah Roemer) Their apartment was acting up and it didn't end well for the family. The school girls - Allison (Arielle Kebbel), Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misako Uno) all fell victim to the curse and both stories intersected, though it could've been  handled far better.

- There's appearances of several characters from the first film to try and connect the new stories of this one.

- Amber Tamblyn previously guest starred in an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, where Sarah Michelle Gellar was the lead.

- Standout music: Hansi Kürsch's When Sorrow Sang.

- Chronology: 2004 and 2006 Pasadena, Chicago and Tokyo.

The Grudge 2 tackled too many ideas and tries to make them flow seamlessly together but doesn't quite pull it off. There's basically two movies crammed into one and in reality, both should've been done separately. 

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of The Grudge (2004)

Written by Stephen Susco 

Directed by Takashi Shimizu

Karen: "The whole time I was in that house I felt something was wrong. What happened there?"

The 2000s were the times for horror remakes and sometimes, remakes even involved the people behind them. This American version to 2002's Ju-On: The Grudge was proof of that. I still have to see the original version but I remember liking this one back in the day. I still do tbh.

Sarah Michelle Gellar didn't quite have the big career, post Buffy The Vampire Slayer that she deserved but this was undeniably the most successful film she's been attached and as the lead of. She's also unquestionably fantastic as exchange student/hospice care worker, Karen Davis.

Karen's moved to Tokyo with her boyfriend, Doug (Jason Behr) where she ended up having to look after the dementia stricken Emma Williams (Grace Zabriskie). Emma's got a son named Matthew (William Mopather), daughter named Susan (KaDee Strickland) and daughter in law named Jennifer (Clea DuVall). It's however up to Karen to take care of Emma in a haunted house.

Let's talk about the house. The opening of this film had Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji) and her son Toshio (Yuya Oseki) murdered by Kayako's jealous husband, Takeo (Takashi Matsuyama) as the latter found out that Kayako had developed feelings for her co-worker, Peter Kirk (Bill Pullman). Peter also died after encountering the ghosts in this film.

The main ghosts were both Toshio and Kayako, with the latter appearing as an onryō. Throughout the film, both restless spirits terrorised everyone they interacted with and there's some genuinely unsettling scenes to watch. It's up to Karen to try and figure things out but if you were hoping for a traditional final girl outcome, you're in for a shock.

It's not a happy outcome for Karen. Not only did she lose her boyfriend, Doug but she also lost her mind. It's a tragic ending for the character while the detective Nakagawa (Ryo Ishibashi) was the one who ended up setting that house on fire to try and end the cycle. Not that it really succeeded, considering Karen's outcome.

- Sam Raimi was a producer while his brother, Ted was cast as Alex, the director of the care centre that stationed Karen and Yoko (Yōko Maki).

- Two sequels and a sidequel were spawned from this movie and came out in 2006, 2009 and 2019 respectively.

- Standout music: Christopher Young's score is rather effective.

- Chronology: Set in Yokyo during 2001 and 2004 respectively.

While I do need to seek out the original, I'm still resolved in saying that I liked this version of The Grudge and I won't change my mind on that. It's genuinely chilling in parts and Sarah Michelle Gellar can do no wrong.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Primetime (2026)

 

Written by Ajon Singh

Directed by Lance Oppenheim

Chris Hansen: "What would've happened if I wasn't here? You see how this looks, right? At the end of the day, a man must be held accountable for the decisions that he makes. Do you agree? Do you watch television? Well, there's something you should know. I'm Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC. And you're about to be a part of television history."

I missed this in theatres, so I waited for the digital release. Was it worth the hype? Oh, I think so. There's at least three career defining performances throughout this film. Yes, I said three.

First up, there's Robert Pattinson himself. He's had a hell of a year with knockout performances in The Drama and The Odyssey and there's still Dune Part Three to come next month. Then again, he's been quite a good number of years and long may it continue.

Casting him as To Catch A Predator host Chris Hansen as part of Dateline NBC was a stroke of genius. The voice alone was nailed perfectly and the mid to late 2000s, it was one of the most talked about shows in America. Hansen made himself a figure of dread with his pursuit of child predators and this film explored both his desire to hold these sort of men to account while also being engrossed by his growing recognition too.

I like that this film explored both aspects to Hansen as a person in an attempt to give him plenty of dimensions as a person. He wasn't above extramarital affairs with his own marriage to his wife, Mary Joan (Anna Faris) barely hanging on by a thread while he struggled to connect with his own children.

The more successful that the show became, the more we saw the darker aspects of Hansen's pursuit of both justice and tv ratings. In particular, his treatment of the decoys Del Harvey (Phoebe Bridgers) and Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo) didn't exactly bring out his good side.

There's a huge focus on Dan in particular or Decoy Dan as he became known as. This might sound hyperbolic but Skyler Gisondo gave such a commanding performance, he nearly overpowered Pattinson at certain points in the film. I knew he was a good actor but his performance absolutely blew me away. One of the most captivating performances this year. 

However, it's not just Pattinson and Gisondo who stand out here. There's also another commanding from Merritt Wever as Hansen's producer, Andie Bender. She's absolutely brilliant, especially in that one scene where she went to extremes in order to get Hansen to get his shot together. These three absolutely elevate the film and deserve any award love coming their way.

- The show became so popular that NBC put it up against ABC mystery series, Lost. That worked in their favour.

- There's some strong supporting and minor performances from Matthew Maher, Alex Winter, Jonathan Lipnicki and Tony Revolori to name a few.

- Standout music: Skyler Gisondo's version of Seasons Of Love and Phoebe Bridgers On Video.

- Chronology: Mostly set in 2006.

Primetime (2026) certainly provided three of the best performances this award season. Robert Pattinson, Skyler Gisondo and Merritt Wever are absolutely exceptional throughout this film. The script's a little flawed,  so points deducted but overall, I really enjoyed this film.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Verity (2026)

 

Written by Nick Antosca

Directed by Michael Showalter

Verity: "No one is likable from the inside out."

After watching It Ends With Us, I was kind of over adaptations of Colleen Hoover books but with this cast and it's admittedly interesting premise, I had to cave in and watch this. Also, not to brag but I can now say that I've watched every 2026 release with a certain actor, so there's that too.

This semi erotic/psychological thriller focus on the writer Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway). She's the author of a successful book series that focused on the perspective of it's villains. It's a perspective that Verity was so good at writing from that it would have the worst consequences for her.

Putting it mildly, Verity ended up in a car crash, was in a somewhat catatonic state and her darling husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett) decided to hire the incredibly unpopular author in the same genre, Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) to ghost write for Verity. Needless to say, it's a job that Lowen probably should've turned down but nothing about Lowen was straightforward.

She had a dark side of her own and there was something macabre in the way her and Jeremy. It involved a death of course and death followed the pair as Lowen moved in with Jeremy and Verity and befriended the couple's son, Crew (Brady Wagner). Crew had a twin sister that drown and Verity might have been responsible for her death.

The biggest strength of this movie was getting into Verity's mind set. Having taken the advice of Amanda (K.K. Moggie), Verity kept an account og some of her darkest thoughts, making it look like she wanted to kill her own children but she actually didn't. Oh and she was faking being catatonic in fear of her husband. Unfortunately for Verity, her fears were more than justified.

Ultimately, Verity was the flawed but sympathetic figure of the three leads. This film made both Lowen and Jeremy into villains. They predictably got together and not only did Lowen tell Verity that she was going to steal her life but she did steal it with the way she got Jeremy to kill Verity. There's no getting past the fact that Lowen was the real villain of the piece.

- There's a decent supporting role for Ismael Cruz Cordova as Lowen's agent, Corey. It did seem like him and Lowen had a thing.

- Interesting use of real life podcasters Alex Cooper and Sean Evans. I am more of a fan of the latter tbh.

- Standout music: FKA Twigs Girls Feel Good and The Marias Back To Me.

- Chronology: Mostly set in New York and Vermont. A seven month time jump also revealed Lowen being pregnant with a girl.

I really liked this film. Verity was a dark thriller, delving into the dangerous prose of one woman and how her words when taken serious had the worst consequences for everyone involved. Great performances from Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett respectively.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Digger (2026)

Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu And Alexander Dinelaris Jr. And Nicolas Giacobone And Sabine Berman And Jez Butterworth

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Digger: "If we can't control the course of nature, at least we can control the narrative."

We're heading into Academy Awards season and there's going to be some movies that will be hyped for the awards that aren't going to float my boat. This was a movie I had a feeling from the trailers wasn't going to be for me and upon watching it, I was correct. I didn't dig this one.

Tom Cruise has spent the last while trying to show up the younger generation as the definitive action man with mostly that being a success in all fairness. Of course, there was going to be a point where he would want to pivot back to a role that would prove he still had the range for the award circuit. I can see what he was attempting to do here.

He's an aging oil magnate named Digger Rock Rockwell that was colluding with the US President (John Goodman) so his company could extract oil in Alaska and Greenland. This resulted in an explosion and dislodged ice shelf toward Europe. Dr. Nirav Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) tried to warn of a devastating tidal waves across the North Sea but he was mostly dismissed.

There's some focus on the Presideng having rectal cancer as well as a play called Fossil Fools that tried to satirise the disaster of the film. There's a fun performance by Cruise, who also played Curtis Markson, the actor that played Digger in the play. This subplot also gave us another good scene stealing moments from Jesse Plemons as Digger's nephew, Kenny.

Throw in some ample support from the likes of Sandra Huller as Digger's half sister, Emma, Michael Stuhlbarg as Vice President Eddie and the film itself isn't lacking in terms of great acting. It's just the story that I found myself struggling to get into. Even Digger and his family's downfall just went on a bit before reaching it's inevitable conclusion.

- There was a lot of emphasis on that dying white cat for a a fair chunk of the first act in the movie. I liked the cat.

- Tom Cruise got an entire monologue for ten minutes that was filmed in a single take.

- Standout music: Melanie's Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma.

- Chronology: Set in America as well as the offshore platform Digger and his family were sent to.

Digger just didn't do it for me. I'll give Tom Cruise credit for his physical transformation and there's a few funny moments but it's not a film I'd be in a rush to ever see again. I found it to be a bit of a slog to be honest.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Oliver! (1968)

 

Written by Vernon Harris

Directed by Carol Reed

Fagin: "If you go on the way you started, you will be the greatest man of all time. Sweet dreams, Oliver."

During the next two months, don't be shocked to see more musicals being reviewed on here. One of my favourites being this one of course. It's one that I've watched as a kid and appreciate as much as an adult too.

Victorian England was a miserable time and more so in the average Charles Dickens. This movie adaptation of the 1960 musical certainly had a time with honing in on the Misery factor with our orphaned protagonist Oliver (Mark Lester). No parents and in a workhouse, Oliver wasn't getting the best start in life.

He also had the misfortune to draw a tangled straw and ask Mr. Bumble (Harry Secombe) and Widow Corney for more gruel. That only got him sold to undertaker Mr. Sowerberry (Leonard Rossiter) where the latter's wife (Hylda Baker) and apprentice Noah Claypole (Kenneth Cranham) were especially horrible to him. 

Oliver made the right decision in getting away that lot and headed off to London. By doing that, Oliver met the Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and ended up being taken in by master pickpocket expert, Fagin (Ron Moody) himself. In some ways, Oliver probably had the least messed up family by being a member of Fagin's gang of pickpockets. Except for two obvious factors.

First of all, Oliver's pretty bad at being a pickpocket and ended up getting caught. He also ended up getting taken in by kind rich guy, Mr. Brownlow (Joseph O'Conor), who'd later in the film would turn out to be an actual relative of Oliver's, ensuring an eventual happy ending for the orphaned lad.

However the biggest obstacle to Oliver and several other characters was violent brute, Bill Sykes (Oliver Reed). It's a masterful performance in sheer villainy from Reed as Sykes was a legitimately terrifying and rather pathetic villain in his desperate need to control the world around him. His relationship with the sympathetic Nancy (Shani Wallis) gave layers to both characters as the latter was the closest to a maternal figure for Oliver before her tragic death. 

- Some versions of the movie have removed the Overture, Intermission and Entr'acte. 

- I had no idea that Oliver Reed was both Carol Reed's nephew and that he had a song that was cut from the film.

- Standout music: Food, Glorious Food, Oliver!, Where Is Love?, Consider Yourself, I'd Do Anything, As Long As He Needs Me and Oom-Pah Pah.

- Chronology: Set in Victorian times in Dunstable and London.

One of my favourite musicals of all time, Oliver! is a true classic. A brilliant adaptation of Charles Dickens classic novel. There's so many brilliant performances from the leads and so many fantastic musical numbers.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of It - Welcome To Derry: "A Story Of Derry"

 

Written by Cherie Dimaline And Jasmyne Flournoy

Directed by Tazbeh Chavez

Titles: "Generations ago, when the Kollu first preyed on our people, we left warnings for those who would come after. But we hid the truth inside a gentler tale, one our children could carry. This is the story we do not teach. This is the patent we left out." 

Just in time for Halloween (yes, I'm very much aware this is a day later), HBO thought it would be a nice thing to give us a thirty minute extra episode that was very lore driven. I'm not complaining but wasn't some of this already covered in the first season?

Set hundreds of years before the first season, the focus was on a Native American tribe. Specifically the younger characters of Necani, Kino and Manesse. They're curious about Tha Galloo in the western forest and despite being warned by Elders, the trio went into the forest to have a look for themselves.

That didn't exactly go to plan as Tha Galloo disguised itself as Englush Settlers and tried to harm the trio. Then there was the presence of the mysterious Mativ, who saved the trio but also killed his own tribe. This episode also delved into the lore of cosmic turtle Maturin and there's a gorgeous sequence that revealed the location of a certain crash too.

Yes, while we didn't see Pennywise in his normal form, he certainly delighted in taunting the tribe upon the death of a fallen member. Then there was Kino's communication with Maturin, but again, I already mentioned the beauty of that sequence.

It's an enjoyable episode for what it is but also rather slight in itself. I do think the main points here had been made in the first season. Saying that, if you wanted a deeper dive into this lore, you should be satisfied with this one.

- HBO renewed the show for a second season a while ago but literally dropped this episode as a surprise to audiences on Halloween.

- It took thirteen stone fragments to form a prison to trap Tha Galloo. 

- The writers and director are new to this show. 

- Chronology: Native America and when that ship crashed into what would be later in the town of Derry.

A Story Of Derry filled in a few gaps and provided a nice bit of origin story for the Entity as well as the introduction of Maturin. I really liked this episode overall and was intrigued by these guest characters.

Rating: 8 out of 10