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'Grudge' groans

We just expect more from our horror movies nowadays.

Something must be lost in translation in Takashi Shimizu's The Grudge, an American adaptation of his Japanese hit, Ju-On: The Grudge. It's reported that the original is a nifty little creepshow. The remake, even with Shimuzu running the show, certainly isn't.

What we have here is a run-of-the-kill haunted house yarn, time-shuffled a bit to hope for more resonance and finding none. The house in question was the scene of a double murder and suicide, and anyone who enters is either killed or, in the case of a college professor (Bill Pullman), commits suicide. Nothing special about the premise, although Shimizu plays sonic tricks and uses enough hoary cliches (a cat jumping out of the shadows) to possibly satisfy some horror fans.

Throughout the film, however, nagging distractions constantly interfere with any accumulation of terror. Some are structural; a few too many victims to explain and redundant terror. Others are logical: Why set the movie in Tokyo and then focus almost entirely upon Americans living there? Why do people in half-baked horror movies continue to explore dark places where things bump and moan? What happens to a couple of side characters who enter the house and apparently come out okay? A better movie wouldn't allow time to think of such things.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is nothing special as Karen, a nursing student drawn into the house by a job assignment, and staying for no good reason. It's your typical open-mouthed, wide-eyed performance. Pullman drops out of the picture quickly, only to re-emerge in Shimizu's plot (adapted by Stephen Susco) as a dull link between deaths. Nobody else creates any bond with viewers to make them missed.

The Grudge is merely a half-hearted effort to cash in on the success of another Japanese translation, The Ring, a much scarier and more ingeniously constructed film. Tossing in a few croaking ghosts - call it Kabuki macabre - isn't enough to create suspense, only knee-jerk reactions. The movie looks creepy on some occasions and sounds creepy every chance that Shimizu gets. But what it looks and sounds like isn't what it is.

Grade: C-

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bill Pullman, Jason Behr, Clea DuVall, Grace Zabriskie, William Mapother

Screenplay: Stephen Susco, based on the screenplay for Ju-On: The Grudge by Takashi Shimizu

Rating: PG-13; scary images, brief violence, profanity and sensuality

Running time: 89 min.