The Grudge Continues On DVD

It’s been five years and this grudge still hasn’t been forgiven. On May 12th, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release The Grudge 3 on DVD.

The third installment picks up a few months after The Grudge 2. Jake (Matthew Knight) is holed up in a mental institution after his entire family is murdered. Jake tries to explain the eerie occurrences to Dr. Sullivan (Shawnee Smith), but she remains skeptical of the incidents he recounts. It isn’t until a security camera captures an invisible force terrorizing Jake and leaving him in a pool of blood that the doctor realizes he had been telling the truth. Dr. Sullivan’s only hope of vanquishing the curse is a Japanese woman, Naoko Kawamata (Emi Ikehata), who is Kayako’s sister and knows what needs to be done.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the series, the original film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar was a remake of the Japanese film Ju-On: The Grudge. The film’s title refers to a curse that comes from a death filled with sorrow and rage. When this curse affects a person, that individual is sentenced to die. The curse doesn’t end there; it is repeatedly reborn and continues killing whoever it comes in contact with. The curse that the characters of this franchise suffer from, comes from a young Japanese woman unhappy with her marriage named Kayako. When her husband reads her diary and discovers she has feelings for another man, he kills her. Oh, and that creepy little boy, he’s her son who witnesses the murder and is subsequently killed by his father.

Now that you’ve been through The Grudge 101, do you dare continue on to The Grudge 3? I’m down. I found the first film very enjoyable and, despite being panned by critics, I thought the second was worthy of a single sitting. While I may not be jumping for joy to spend the $24.96 to add The Grudge 3 to my library, I would like to see it at least once. If you buy it, can I borrow yours? Shawnee Smith is cool and all, but she’s no Sarah Michelle Gellar or Amber Tamblyn.

If you do decide to drop the cash for this one, you’ll also get some deleted scenes and two featurettes. The first is called “Tokyagoaria” and the second “The Curse Continues.”