THE GRUDGE 3

Director: Toby Wilkins

Stars: Gil McKinney, Johanna Braddy, Matthew Knight, Emi Ikehata, Shawnee Smith, Beau Mirchoff

Year: 2009

Rating: R

Well, you sort of know you're in trouble with a sequel when it's released directly to DVD. Worse, when most of the original cast members and even the original director didn't come back for the latest installment.

That said, The Grudge 3 - the direct-to-DVD release of the third installment in the HIGHLY Americanized version of a popular Japanese horror film series - could have been a lot worse. Sadly, it also could have been infinitely better.

The film opens with the sole surviving member from the Chicago apartment house setting from part two - Jake (Matthew Knight). Jake's entire family was killed off in the second installment - all except his stepmother, who police think did the murders but was really possessed by the ghost of Kayako - and the shock has left the young boy so unhinged and in fear of his life (he knows the supernatural is at work, here), he's been confined to a padded cell by Dr. Sullivan (Shawnee Smith of the ever-growing Saw franchise), the psychiatrist attached to his case. Jake has been put away for his own good, to alleviate his fears - but the kid saw too much of what's going on to believe he's anywhere near safe, and begs to be released ... a wish Dr. Sullivan doesn't grant, much to her regret early on in the film.

Meanwhile, back at the apartment house, the deaths (and weird occurrences in general) have tenants moving out left and right - which leaves the building's manager, Max (Gil McKinney, doing the best he can here, with what he's given to work with, script-wise), stressing over losing his job. His younger sister Lisa (Johanna Braddy), about to move to New York City with her boyfriend (Beau Mirchoff), he's not so worried about ... but the parent-less siblings also have a young sister named Rose, and Rose has some severe breathing/health problems. Max feels Rose is his responsibility, and he can't let anything jeopardize that.

Add into the mix Naoko (Emi Ikehata) - a young, somewhat mysterious Japanese woman who, we learn early on, may hold the key to curing the curse for good - and what's supposed to unfold is a suspenseful and scary thriller that pits the long Japanese woman against one funky pair of mother-son ghosts ... ghosts who are slowly devouring anyone and everyone in the apartment building touched by their rage.

Anyway, that's what is supposed to unfold. But in reality, the suspense is barely suspenseful - and the death scenes are all shot either too dark or too fast, and with (often, but not always) cheesy special effects; it's as if the budget just wasn't there for elaborate gross out-ery (with the possible exception of one fairly interesting sequence featuring Marina Sirtis from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," who plays Rose's babysitter), so the director just used quick cuts and dark lighting to cover the cheese. Worse still, the actors playing both ghosts - the stair-crawling Kayoko, and her cat-boy son Toshio - are not the same as in the first two films, and it shows; hell, the boy playing Toshio, who's supposed to be 8-10 years old, looks at least fifteen in part three - when first seen, seated and with his legs folded into his chest on a stairwell, it's almost laughable how wrong the actor is for the part. Even the makeup on both ghosts is just plain silly - both actors look like they've been dipped in flour, and you can even spot Kayako actually wearing a wife beater (white tanktop) in one "death scene."

Characters doing things that don't make sense, plot logic is thrown out the window in several places, and the death scenes - both in originality and style - pale in comparison to the first two films in this American series (I still say if you want the best versions, see the Japanese originals). Even the ending - which Gil McKinney's performance barely manages to hold together - is still, by the time the credits roll, both ambiguous and silly ... setting up the possibility for a part four that really doesn't need to be made.

Not a horrible film - but surely not a good one. Probably for completist fans of the series only, who need to see it just because they've seen the others and want to know how it all plays out. Other than that - only silly, low budget chills (at best) await. ** - Reel Mediocre