Ju-On: The Grudge 2 ★★★☆☆

This review contains spoilers.

Even though it’s still nonlinear this one feels a bit more focused and straightforward than the others, to start with at least. There are some sillier moments as they experiment with different ways Kayako can appear—these movies are good at building tension but never seem quite sure what to do that tension breaks and the ghost violence starts—but it does generally feel like this is trying to move the series forward when it has been stuck doing the same basic thing for three movies now. I also really enjoy how it plays with the nonlinear structure by having Chiharu herself also experiencing events out of order, building on Izumi and Toyama’s shared visions of each other in the previous movie.

The ending is silly but it at least is doing something different and it would have been interesting to see what the series could have done with that if it had continued.