DEATH HOUSE

REVIEWED - THE GRUDGE: The first thing to be said about Takashi Shimizu's English-language remake of his own (young people tell me this is the phrase) J-Horror sensation is how Japanese it still seems, writes Donald Clarke.

Yes, the film is set in Shimizu's homeland - a clever move, as the American leads seem doubly disoriented - but there is more to it than that.

Shot in shades of grey, featuring cool performances and a stubbornly unresolved plotline, The Grudge has such Asian flavours that I constantly found myself wondering, as one so often does during J-H flicks, what the Hollywood remake was going to be like. Not too bad, as it transpires.

Most of the flaws of The Grudge were present in the original pictures. (Shimizu has reworked this theme several times, but this current film is derived from Ju-On: The Grudge, released here earlier this year). Telling the story of a haunted house which continues to radiate fury and aggression years after several of its inhabitants were brutally murdered, the picture comprises numerous discrete shock sequences slung together in no apparent order and with little regard to rhythm or pace. Doors creak. Hairy ghosts appear in cupboards. Long periods of silence are suddenly interrupted by phones ringing really loudly. Just about the only thing missing is a headless horseman.

Horror enthusiasts will find plenty to enjoy in these often wildly imaginative flourishes - watch out for the shower sequence in particular - while those with only a passing interest in the genre may find themselves longing for a bit more shape.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, who plays a nurse sent to care for the oldest member of the American family currently living in the benighted pile, seems a little diminished, as if her inner Buffy yearns to be allowed to kick the spectres in the head. Then again, she is supposed to be overawed by the foreign and the supernatural, so, perhaps, diminished is exactly how she should appear.