The Grudge 3 Information

The Grudge 3 is a 2009 American horror film and the third installment in The Grudge series. Toby Wilkins, who had previously directed the successful Splinter and the shorts Tales from The Grudge, took Takashi Shimizu's place as director while Brad Keene replaced Stephen Susco as screenwriter. The film stars Johanna Braddy, Shawnee Smith and Marina Sirtis, with a special appearance by Matthew Knight, and was released on May 12, 2009. It was primarily released directly to video but was given a theatrical release in Mexico. Unlike the first two movies that were both rated PG-13, the third installment was given an R rating. The Grudge 3 features a linear plotline unlike its two predecessors, which used nonlinear segments for their respective plots.

Plot

Jake (the only survivor from the second installment) is placed in a mental asylum after the events of the movie under the care of Dr. Sullivan, his caretaker. One day, Dr. Francine Sullivan leaves Jake locked in his room, as he tried to escape several times, but Kayako grabs Jake and pushes him against the wall several times. Sullivan is quickly called by an officer, and she watches the footage, wondering what he is doing to himself (Kayako can't be seen on the footage). As they race to his room, they found him dead, with every bone broken in his body.

The news of Jake's death reaches a young woman in Tokyo, Naoko. Naoko, who is the sister of Kayako, is mocked by her co-workers because of her sister. She finds the print paper (as an insult) of Jake's death pasted on her monitor at her desk office, and believes her sister caused the death. She decides to go to the apartment building to stop the spread of the curse once and for all, and asks her husband to travel to Chicago, who agrees.

Meanwhile, the apartment building is in the middle of renovations in an effort to draw in new tenants. The landlord as specified in the movie Max and his two sisters Lisa and 8-year old Rose, along with a old woman artist named Gretchen, are the few tenants who remained in the building. Max is on the verge of being fired from his job, while dealing with Rose's breathing condition and Lisa moving to New York with her boyfriend Andy. Lisa doesn't believe Rose when she tells her that she has seen a dead boy running around the building.

Eventually, Naoko moves into the building, now sure that it contains the curse. Lisa finds Dr. Francine Sullivan taking photos of Jake's old apartment. She explains that Jake has died and that he told her stories of a woman with long black hair and dead white skin, along with a little boy that killed the rest of his family, which she believes to be a fantasy Jake made up because he couldn't deal with the facts. She also mentions that he had hallucinations about her and the boy, but this time hallucination broke every bone in his body. Lisa confirms that her sister has also seen the same little boy, making Dr. Sullivan finally believe that Jake's delusions were true. The next day, Dr. Sullivan leaves with Lisa on Jake's funeral and back to her office, where she tells her a story about The Saeki Family, the family Jake described in his (true) hallucinations.

Later that evening, after Lisa leaves, Dr. Sullivan is at the hospital getting ready to leave. When she opens a door, she sees Kayako's pale arm. Dr. Sullivan backs up and gasps in terror. She runs to another door as Kayako chases her. Finally, Dr. Sullivan shuts the door on Kayako, but Kayako appears next to Dr. Sullivan. She opens another door and shuts it. Dr. Sullivan tries to open another door with her card, but for some reason it doesn't open. Kayako gets closer and Dr. Sullivan bangs on the door. She yells to a janitor named Ben to open the door, but he doesn't hear her. She continues to call him and bang on the door as Kayako puts her hands around Dr. Sullivan's head. Kayako then seizes Dr. Sullivan's head and breaks her neck, splattering blood against the window.

Later on, Andy is looking for Lisa, and he spots Kayako running upstairs. He sees that the door (of Jake's apartment) is opening and enters it. He hears footsteps and finds the switch, but the light flickers, seeing him and Kayako behind him, grabbing him as the door closes to the sound of her death rattle. Meanwhile, Gretchen finishes her painting, but the painting starts to lose and drain colors. Gretchen gets closer to the painting, when Kayako's head shows up and she exits the painting, with Gretchen in shock. She tries to run, but she stumbles on Kayako and falls down, with Kayako killing her by ripping off her bottom jaw and gouging out her eyes. At the same time, Mr. Praski, Max's boss, confronts him about the building in the basement, telling him to sell the building and leave it to professionals, but Max refuses. Mr. Praski leaves the building and gets in his car, but it won't start because of the snow. He suddenly feels some kind of presence, revealing that Toshio sits next to him. He screams as he lunges toward him and kills him.

Meanwhile, Naoko tries to convince Lisa and Rose to participate in an exorcism to rid the building of the evil spirits. Lisa initially refuses to cooperate, being worried about Rose and herself, but after it is eventually revealed that her brother Max is possessed by the spirit of Takeo Saeki, the evil husband of Kayako and the source of the Grudge, she agrees to go along with the ritual and banish the evil. During the ceremony, Naoko warns that it must not be interrupted or the curse will continue. She begins the ceremony and tells Rose that she must drink Kayako's blood to contain the curse. Lisa is afraid and tells Naoko that she will not allow Rose to do this. Unfortunately, the ceremony is interrupted when Takeo, as Max, realizes what Naoko is attempting to accomplish. Using Max, Takeo chases Naoko through the building, breaking her leg by smashing her knee with a pipe, and finally stabbing her in the throat, simultaneously breaking her neck and killing her. At the same time, Lisa is chased by Kayako and trapped in the bathroom, where she discovers Andy. As she holds the lifeless corpse, it turns into Kayako and she is backed against the wall. Rose hears her sister's screams, and just as Kayako is about to kill Lisa, Rose drinks Kayako's blood, causing Kayako's curse to disappear. Lisa rushes to her sister's aid bringing her back to their apartment to give her oxygen.

Max - who has been exorcized of Takeo's evil possession upon the Kayako's banishment - stares in horror at the body of Naoko. He is then attacked by Naoko's ghost as her murder has caused a new curse to begin. Naoko kills him by biting out his throat. After hearing his screams, Lisa discovers his body and calls the police. In the final scene, the corpses are brought out of the apartment building in body bags while Lisa and Rose sit in the emergency vehicle. Rose asks Lisa if they will be safe and Lisa assures her that they will be, embracing her. As the camera moves, we discover that Lisa is now hugging Kayako, who is now trapped within Rose's body. She stares at the camera, croaking, and the film ends.

Cast

• Johanna Braddy as Lisa, a young woman who plans to move to New York to save Rose
• Gil McKinney as Max, Lisa and Rose's anxious older brother, who is in charge of the apartments.
• Emi Ikehata as Naoko Kawamata, Kayako's younger sister, who holds the secret to ending the curse.
• Jadie Rose Hobson as Rose, Lisa and Max's sister, who suffers from severe asthma attacks.
• Aiko Horiuchi as Kayako Saeki, an onryo who is bent on killing anyone she sees.
• Beau Mirchoff as Andy, Lisa's boyfriend
• Shawnee Smith as Dr. Francine Sullivan, a doctor who works at the mental hospital and is Jake's caretaker.
• Marina Sirtis as Gretchen, a painter and Rose's frequent babysitter
• Shimba Tsuchiya as Toshio Saeki, a ghost that occupies the house.
• Michael McCoy as Mr. Praski, Max's boss.
• Matthew Knight as Jake Kimble, the traumatized young boy
• Takatsuma Mukai as Daisuke, Naoko's husband
• Laura Giosh as Renee, a tenant who moves out with her daughter Brenda after the Kimble family deaths
• Mihaela Nankova as Brenda, the frightened daughter of Renee

Production

The Grudge 3 was announced at Comic Con 2008. Kayako and Toshio had to be recast, as Takako Fuji and Ohga Tanaka passed on the roles. The film's budget was reported as approximately 5 million USD.

Release

The DVD release was originally scheduled for March 24, 2009, but was delayed until May 12, 2009 due to the Blu-ray release of the first film. It was issued in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. Two featurettes appear: "Tokyagoaria" documents how the Bulgarian location was made to look like Tokyo and Chicago, and "The Curse Continues" shows how the film ties into the previous two. Three deleted scenes also are included.

Its reported sales of 2,271,177 DVD units (approx. $38,610,009 USD in sales) recouped its $5,000,000 budget. In the United Kingdom, the film's television premiere was broadcast in High Definition on Syfy Channel on Friday, 22 January 2010 at 9.40 pm. In Mexico, the film received a limited theatrical release on June 25, 2010 and a nationwide release on August 6.

Reception

Critical reaction to The Grudge 3 was generally negative. Viewers felt that Aiko Horiuchi looked appropriately sinister as Kayako, more so than did Takako Fuji, but the replacement of Ohga Tanaka as Toshio was criticized as Shimba Tsuchiya was regarded as too tall for the part.