In 2004 the original (a remake of the Japanese horror flick Ju-On) managed to earn a spot on my "worst of" list for that year. The Sarah Michelle Gellar starrer just didn't have it, as it was more concerned with "boo" moments than an actual real story. And here we are two years later with a sequel plunking down on our doorstep - and while it's slightly better than its predecessor, it still suffers from problems that dragged the first one down.

It seems that writer Stephen Susco is trying too hard to have a broad, complicated story when the premise is so simple it should've stayed that way - one or two characters drift in-and-out of the movie to try and propel story forward only managing to leave bigger plot holes on top of the ones that were already there, while some characters are just on hand to be victims of Kayako in weak, toned down attack scenes.

After an opening scene where a woman pours hot bacon grease on her husband's head before killing him (an event that seems pointless, but does have some purpose later), we're introduced to a few schoolgirls attending an International High School in Tokyo. Two of the more popular ones decide to befriend the mousy Allison (Arielle Kebbel, who does well with her limited role) and drag her off to the house where the first movie's events took place.

They go into the burnt-out house and, in order to play a trick on Allison, spin a ghost tale to scare her before trapping her in a closet - the same closet where Kayako and her young son's ghosts just happen to dwell.

From here scripter Susco continues to occasionally flip back to these girls as they end-up being cursed by the spirits while he also introduces Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn, daughter of familiar B-movie face Russ), the sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar's Karen from the first film.

Asked by her sick mother to go to Tokyo in order to check on her hospitalized sister, Aubrey is freaked-out by her sister's insistence that a vengeful spirit is loose and tries to unravel the claims after her sister dies under mysterious circumstances. So it's a good thing that a reporter (Edison Chen) is also looking into the case and wants to help out.

And as if these two sub-plots wasn't enough, we also get to follow Chicago pre-teen Jake (Matthew Knight) as he has to try and figure out why all sorts of weird things are happening in his apartment building - including why his dad's girlfriend (Jennifer Beals, who is only looking better with age) starts acting strangely.

It's this unfocused storytelling that Susco brings to The Grudge 2 that ultimately brings it down. You'd think that Aubrey, since the character is the sibling of the first film's heroine, would be the main focus but even she seems shoved to the background as his script tries too hard to be complex (although at least we finally learn why Kayako makes that guttural "ahhhhhh" sound).

Director Takashi Shimizu (who made the original two Ju-On movies and the remake) shows he has a good grasp of visuals, and there's a few striking shots, but when the script is so messy and incoherent it hardly matters. Shimizu wrote the scripts for the Japanese movies and perhaps he should've written the American versions as well.

While The Grudge 2 is more watchable than the first, Sam Raimi and Ghost House strike out again making them 0-for-3 as a production house - but at least their next effort, the Pang Brother's The Messengers looks to have promise (if it's not PG-13).

Suffice it to say if the white skinned, black eyed little ghost boy from the first scared you, you might find something to like here, but otherwise there's a lot better supernatural horror flicks out there, and there's even better American versions of Japanese horror films too (2002's The Ring, which really started the trend of bring J-horror overseas, for example). (Chris Hartley, 10/21/06)

Directed By: Takashi Shimizu.
Written By: Stephen Susco.

Starring: Amber Tamblyn, Edison Chen, Arielle Kebbel, Jennifer Beals.