The Grudge (2002)

The Grudge reminds me of why I don't watch too many horror movies. The reason: very few "horror movies" have anything interesting to say about fear. I can mention a few that do (The Shining) but mostly these films don't belong to the horror movie "genre". The Grudge works with very traditional themes: the haunted house. The aesthetic is also very traditional: the viewer is to a series of stripped-to-the-bones scenes, almost all of them punctuated by a horrendous frame at the very end. And even though this film can boast two or three frightening images, the fear never goes deep. By the way: most of the effects in this movie (and other films of similar style) rely on eerie or sudden camera movements. It's not really about what we end up seeing, but rather the visual confusion or suddenness involved in seeing it.