Day 2 of Octoberfest here at Happy Horror and we’ve got the sequel to the original Japanese Ju-On (previously reviewed), titled, not surprisingly, Ju-On 2 (which you can get from a source besides mine, now). We get a larger dose of Toshio creepiness (that kid pops up everywhere!) as well as the usual croaking Kayako and a surprising absense of the patriarch of the ghostly group.
The movie opens, after the traditional run-down of the curse, on a young couple (Kyoko and Masashi) seen down a long, freeway-style road talking, when the radio starts acting up. She seems a little shaken up and upset, as she’s come from a shoot on a show about ghosts, wondering who called her the "horror queen". Her fiance soothes her by telling her his mother’s checking out all of her movies, proud that her son’s soon-to-be-wife is in movies and TV. As they drive along the subject turns to her being pregnant. Then the car hits something. He finds a black cat laying on the road and starts hurrying back, while she sees a pair of pale legs run out towards the cat. As they drive off, the cat disappears from where it was laying.
They continue on their way and Kyoko starts panicking as she looks down below the steering wheel. Masashi looks and sees a little boy staring up at him, gripping the wheel so he can’t turn it. They crash off the road, knocking Masashi unconscious. Kyoko opens her eyes and sees handprints appear up the windshield, as if someone were walking up it. She sees Masashi and then realizes that the car accident has caused her to miscarriage.
Later, in the hospital, as Kyoko goes to see their families in the room outside Masashi’s ICU, Masashi’s father apologizes to her mother for his son bringing the trouble upon Kyoko. As the families leave she looks in on him and we see the reflection of the little boy pop up behind his bed. As she opens the door to rush inside, Toshio runs up to her and places his hand on her stomach for a split second, then disappears as Kyoko passes out. A new cycle of events has started…
The first time I found out about this movie was when I got my first catalog from Video Daikaiju. Along with the catalog, there were also several actual Japanese advertisements for different movies, full color pamphlets and one of them was for Ju-On 2. When I first saw it, I thought it was for the first one, of course, until I saw the big 2 below the words. Ju-On 2 wasn’t in my first order, of course, but I DID order it from there and have never regretted the purchase.
On the acting front we again get some good, solid performances from the cast. Noriko Sakai plays Kyoko and went on from here to play in Premonition, another excellent movie that I hope to feature on the site in the near future. Ayumu Saito plays Masashi, and while he isn’t given much to do (his portrayal is restricted to a wheelchair once he wakes from his coma), he does well with what he’s given. Kei Horie, who played Gao Yellow in the Gaorangers Sentai series and movies, plays Noritaka. Shingo Katsurayama, from Kamen Rider Kuuga and Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (short title) plays Keisuke. For the characters returning from the first movie, we of course have Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) and Kayako (Takako Fuji) as our antagonists, playing some pretty neat tricks on those they’re about to do away with. Also returning from Ju-On is Yui Ichikawa, who plays Chiharu. In the first movie, Chiharu was a friend of Izumi, a girl who’d gone into the house and warned her not to. Also on the horror front, Yui went on to play in the movie version of Siren.
Storyline-wise, the movie was excellent. We get several different ways for people to die, thanks to Kayako (including one that made it into the director’s cut of The Grudge). There is one discrepancy between the first and second Ju-Ons, though. In the first one, at least from the ending, it seemed like Kayako was almost trying to warn or protect those who were affected by the curse, as if she were trying to get them away from her husband who was repeating the treatment he gave her on whoever was affected. In this movie though, with the lack of her husband’s spirit, she’s in the driver’s seat herself. Maybe the upcoming Ju-On 3 will provide a few more answers.
All in all, a sequel that’s as good as the original and a movie that I don’t hesitate to give a 5 out of 5. If you can acquire this movie (either through Video Daikaiju, through other export services or if an American company makes it available when The Grudge 2 comes out), I highly recommend it. That’s all for this Octoberfest entry. Tune in tomorrow, where we take our final look, at least for now, at the ghostly Saeki family. Until then, this is Red Hawk signing off!
Originally published: October 1, 2006 @ 5:56am PST
Please stop tormenting me.
- Mrs. Sachie from Ju-On
First off, I would like to apologize to the Happy Horror faithful. I didn’t mean to take such a long hiatus and had several plans to come back earlier, but they didn’t quite work out. With Octoberfest, though, I hope to make up for the lack of updates. So please, stay tuned to the site! Hopefully we’ll have something you like!
After seeing the American version of this movie, called The Grudge, I was pleasantly surprised to find Ju-On available at the local video store to rent. My neighbor at the time also enjoyed the American movie so I decided to rent it to not only see it myself, but also show it to her. So the question is: how does it compare to the American version?
The movie opens with a rundown of the curse, explaining how it works and what starts it. Then, we go to a social welfare office where our main character, Rika, works as a volunteer. Her boss approaches her about checking on one of their patients since the patient’s son is unavailable at the time. Rika gets fairly well forced into checking on her, but goes anyway. As she rounds the corner to the house, she stops as if she might sense something wrong about it, but then continues to the door despite her apparent intuition. She knocks, but there’s no answer so she tries the door and it opens. As she looks inside she sees… an incredible mess. Papers and garbage are strewn all over the floor and up the stairs. Entering, she hears a scraping sound coming from Mrs. Sachie’s room. As Rika opens the sliding door she finds Sachie on the floor, her hands clawing and scraping at the door.
Outside, Rika washes Mrs. Sachie’s bedding and tries to have a conversation with her, but all Sachie does is stare into space. After washing Sachie and putting her back to bed, Rika does some cleaning. In the midst of this, she hears a scratching noise in an upstairs room. Going into the room, she finds a closet with duct tape covering it. After some slight hesitation she opens it to find… a black cat laying on some bedding. Looking relieved at first, she looks a little more to the right and finds a little boy who appears to be in a catatonic state. She runs downstairs to ask Sachie who he is, but Sachie doesn’t say a word. Finally, after calling about him, she asks him his name and he says, "Toshio." As she’s about to tell him her name they hear a noise from Sachie’s room so she rushes over to find her sitting and mumbling to herself, saying that she told her sister-in-law over and over. Finally she says, "Please stop tormenting me." She calms down for a split second, then a look of terror comes over her face. Rika looks to her left and sees a shadowy form floating over Sachie… a form that turns its face towards her and opens its bloodshot eyes as a horrible clicking, croaking sound comes. Rika passes out as the screen fades to black…
This version of Ju-On was made in 2003, and follows two TV movies that give a bit more in-depth look at the background of the resident ghosts, who are Toshio, Kayako and Takeo. Reprising the roles of the resident ghosts are Takako Fuji as Kayako and Takashi Matsuyama as Takeo, with newcomer Yuya Ozeki taking on the role of Toshio. Playing Rika is Megumi Okina. Playing Sachie, the disturbed old lady, was Chikako Isomura, who did a REALLY good job in her role. Daisuke Honda plays Detective Igarashi, who went on to play in one of the most recent entries in the Tomie series. Finally, one of my personal favorite actors in this movie was Isao Yatsu, who shows up near the end as an old man who plays "peekaboo" with an invisible Toshio. Mr. Yatsu seems to have made a name for himself in his short career in acting by playing mostly bit parts in scary movies: his first role was in 1999’s Ringu 2 as a taxi driver; in 2002, he played the apartment manager in the Japanese Dark Water; and in 2004, he played a patient in the hospital from the movie Infection.
Story-wise the movie’s great. Some of the scenes were shot differently from the American version later, even in similar scenes. For example, when Sachie’s son finds his wife lying in bed and is searching for a phone to call a hospital, rather than just going to the scene where Toshio appears beside the bed growling, he actually wanders by in the background for a couple of shots (similar to his appearance on the staircase inThe Grudge). There are also some scenes that didn’t make it into the American version such as a whole sequence with Izumi, the daughter of a former investigator who retired after the Sakae case.
Of course, one thing that was diluted from the original was the fact that you didn’t have to enter the house to become cursed. Originally, it was anyone who entered or anyone they touched, would carry the curse and become susceptible to the wrath of the ghosts. This led to others, unrelated to the house, encountering the ghosts. Also, in this movie, we see that not just the three ghosts come after people, but sometimes those who were killed by them, as well.
So with all of this behind the movie, I’ll be giving it a 5 out of 5. It’s a lot of good, clean, mysterious, croaking ghostly fun. Be warned, though, that many people have considered the series one of the scariest ever. Stay tuned tomorrow, when we unveil part two of Octoberfest and continue our tribute to croaking phantasms. Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
Welcome to another installment of the Fatal Frame! It’s been a little over a week since my last entry, but I should be able to get the next one after this finished a lot sooner. I’ll be focusing on another single ghost this time, the lovely Tomoe Hirasaka. She’s the assistant to Junsei Takamine and the second boss ghost you fight on the first night. Let’s see what she’s made of!
Ghost #6: Assistant’s
Again, a very descriptive name given to a special ghost. As mentioned above, she was Takamine’s assistant, only going along with him out of a sense of duty… despite her misgivings and her sixth sense of danger. She took a picture of Koji which seemed to be the start of the appearances of the rope marks on his limbs (though that might just be coincidental with Kirie’s curse). When Koji disappeared, she and Takamine went looking for him and found his body in the closet where Kirie had found him previously. Tomoe tried to find a way to fight the curse, even discovering the broken mirror reference during her research in the mansion. However, by then it was took late. Kirie got to her in the Abyss area of the Himuro Mansion, right next to the waterwheel. The ropemarks appeared around her neck, wrists and (presumably) ankles and she saw Kirie right before she died… right in front of Takamine… who we’ll get to in our next installment.
Gamewise, she’s rather difficult, especially compared to some of the ghosts you’ve seen before her. The only ghost that really compares thus far to her is the Long-Armed Man. When fighting her, she bends low and floats, either towards you or to one of the sides. She also tends to teleport, which can lead to some rather close encounters from behind. When fighting her, she took me down to the very least amount possible before dying; then she hit me again (I was very grateful for the stone mirror in the game at that point!). She seemed to have two Zero Shot attacks, one for when she floated close to you and another for when she floated somewhat low to the ground… she’d charge up and zoom right at me, grabbing me before I could get a shot off (or I got a shot off but missed). You fight her in two locations: the Fishtank Room and the Backyard area. When you finally defeat her, she tells you, "Tell Mr. Takamine… the mirror… the mirror!"
BONUS: To make up for a lack of pictures, I’d like to include this YouTube video. The video features several cutscenes from the Fatal Frame game, including several death scenes… the first death being that of our lovely lady here. So, please, check it out!
That’s all for this installment of the Ghost Gallery. Tune in next time when I bring you Mafuyu’s good friend and mentor, Junsei Takamine! Then, we’ll be going back to the double-ghost articles, with another special coming up all about the three children ghosts you have to fight on Night Two. Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out! Take care!
"You can keep the baby or you can put it in the street."
- a real orphanage note shown in Children of the Grave
Quite a shame that in order to type this review I’ve got to have the lights on due to the fact that I take the notes for my reviews by hand. It’d be far more eerily appropriate in the dark.
Children of the Grave presents a crisp, spooky documentary that’s quite unlike anything I’ve covered on Happy Horror before. However, when I saw the channel guide showing this documentary I couldn’t resist reviewing it for you, Merry Readers. That being said, I do warn you that this film is heavier than your typical horror movie.
As the opening scenes began to unfold, I saw that the show was a Spooked Television Releasing – a Booth Brothers film. Just who are these Booth Brothers? Well, according to their website (which I’ve linked to above) they are Philip Adrian and Christopher Saint Booth, brothers. Twin brothers, even. Philip’s the director of the pair, having done work for the music videos, the Sci Fi Channel and even the TV shows Xena Warrior Princess and Hercules The Legendary Journeys. Christopher’s the producer, also a songwriter and marketer among his other talents. Together with their crew they make documentaries of the supernatural using local lore, psychic mediums and high tech equipment.
You can tell right away that Children of the Grave received a great deal of passion from its filmmakers. It’s all put together sanely with an attention to artistic sensibilities. Simply put, I rarely see documentaries on supernatural subjects exhibit such lovingly crafted cinematography. The whole show’s totally gorgeous from start to finish. And don’t think this is all auteur silliness and hearsay, these guys actually suffer for their art. While scouting the shooting location for their documentary Death Tunnel, Christopher Saint Booth became mysteriously ill – but when he came back he had some incredible photographs that only further the pair’s notion (and my own!) that the ghosts do indeed exist.
To start with we see what they call the Paranormal Task Force going out to Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana. Here there’s a section of graves bearing only numbers – 699 of them unmarked. These are the graves of children. Orphans, in fact. From what I understand, back in the early 1900’s, formaldehyde in milk was not uncommon because it was considered a cheaper means of pasteurization. As a result, many children – especially those in orphanages – died of poisoning.
Obviously, that’s going to tug at your heart strings. Investigators actually go through these cemeteries and orphanages asking "Are you lost and looking for your mommy or daddy?" They ask many questions to the spirits said to be there and sometimes they got EVPs, which stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon, something first noticed by Thomas Edison himself in the 1920’s. He also wanted to talk with the dead.
Now in a documentary of this nature it’s fairly commonplace for the creators to sensationalize the story and trump up the talk of evidence rather than let you see or hear it. The Booth Brothers don’t play games. They offer their own observations, witness reports and then they play those EVPs and images from thermal cameras. They don’t dilly dally around trying to get your pity, they simply tell you the stories and what they’re saying exists in public records.
We get to see Bartonville Asylumn in Peoria, Illinois. At a State Mental Hospital such as this one, many patients come in without names. This means they go to their graves the same way, too. If I remember correctly, at the asylum there’s a cemetary with 4,000 graves and only 1,500 of those mark people with currently known identities. A place like that’s clearly going to be ripe for hauntings and restless spirits. I won’t tell you what all they experience in Bartonville, but I’ll tell you it’s genuinely unnerving.
There’s also an excursion into the Pythian Castle, located in Springfield, Missouri. This place started out as an orphanage run by the Knights of Pythias but since there weren’t too many young ‘uns, it was sold to the US Military during World War II and turned into a Service Club. In other words, a recreational facility. Today it’s still standing, but being rennovated for hosting murder mysteries and ballroom dances.
I found this particular segment exceptionally creepy because for one, the Ozarks are what I consider to be America’s Transylvania ™. Anything set in that region’s bound to be freaky. Afterall, that’s where Wal-Mart sprang from, ya know? In this bit there’s some rumor of a bad guy who may’ve done nasty things to children. (No, not Sam Walton ya weirdos!) Using heat signature imaging technology, they actually pick up what looks to be a large man’s hands. Then one of the guys actually goes down into the laundry tunnel where this spirit’s known to be and starts calling him out! Suffice it to say that things turn freaky and we close that segment with this quote:
"True evil exists both in life and in death – we know because we have seen it"
- the filmmakers of Children of the Grave
Before I wrap this article up, I’ve got to dive into one last bit of Missouri lore covered in the show. It’s called Zombie Road and this place gives me a serious case of ye olde heebie jeebies! Apparently, during the misspent decades of the 1960’s and 70’s, Zombie Road served as a route for drug traffickers. Alot of real terrible shizz went down out in those woods, the local law enforcement says. So, naturally the Booth Brothers want a slice of that action. I mean, locals call the forest there the Devil’s Woods so how could they resist?
The Zombie Road actually dead ends into the Meramac River and we’re told ‘Meramac’ is a Native American phrase meaning "River of Death". Indeed, quite a few drownings happened in that river, as well. All sorts of craziness scurries afoot during this segment of the show. Tales of a quarter mile of dismembered animals (we’re not told what species) and other craziness attributed to Satanic groups.
Here’s where things get really weird. See, there’s local lore about "shadow people" that inhabit the woods. I’ve heard of this type of apparition being common among speed freaks, too. To try and film the shadow people, the crew sets up laser grids that in the past have slowed down dark masses caught on film. It’s all really wild stuff and as these events are going in, the locals decide to play a The Hills Have Eyes style prank. On the road they spray paint DEAD PEOPLE to try and scare the crew. What ends up being the biggest freakout is the guys hearing "You know too much" and getting shots of dozens of shadow figures standing out in the woods.
Oh, and during the credits I noticed the names Dylan, Devin and Dakota Vorhees. You know, like Jason Vorhees? No relation, though. They’re child actors we’ll be seeing more of in the years to come, but that chilled me a touch, I must admit.
I have to say Children of the Grave does a superb job delivering not only creepy tales, but solid historical and folkloric information at the same time. If you chance upon the show either being aired or you buy the DVD you’ll definitely be in for a hair-raising ride!
I easily give this one 5 out of 5 and I came away with a solid respect for the Booth Brothers. I’ll be reviewing more of their work as soon as I can get my lil paws on it, you can count on that!
Until next I speak of the dead, Merry Readers, this is GlowStormLion heading out into the Ozarks to party it up with some shadow spooks!
Just kidding – I’d never do that.
Or would I?
OH!
Bonus Feature: Check out this video of the Children of the Grave’s trailer!
says the Gatekeeper from Nightmare, the VHS board game
This week’s Monster of the Week may not seem like a monster, really. He looks human, in a way. He’s probably not as scary as Jason or Freddy or any number of other movie villains. He’s the host of a series of games called Nightmare and Atmosfear. The games are played using a VHS tape or, most recently, a DVD. The game will take up to an hour (times vary depending on the game you’re playing), with the tape/DVD acting as the timer.
Sounds easy, you say? Not so fast, not with the Gatekeeper…
"Wave to me, precious. I’m waving to you. I’m waving you good-byyyye. You’re banished."
- The Gatekeeper from VHS board game Atmosfear: The Harbingers
The first game, Nightmare (released as Atmosfear outside the United States) introduced us to the Gatekeeper, who looked relatively normal. As the game progressed, though, he started looking stranger and stranger, until, by the end, he was blacklit, purple-faced and green-eyed. This is very similar to how he appears in the first American Atmosfear game. During the game, he’ll give out commands, ask the players questions, banish people to Black Holes (and release them at certain intervals), and generally do everything he can to prevent any players from winning the game. The DVD game, released last year, introduced a random element to the game. Before, when playing the game multiple times, you could pretty much memorize what would happen when. In the new DVD version he randomly hits you with different commands, making every game played different from the last.
"I’m just trying to picture you with a personality… nope, can’t see it."
- Gatekeeper from the DVD board game Atmosfear: the Gatekeeper
The story behind the Gatekeeper is this: He’s the one that keeps the Harbingers powers in check and keeps them out of our world. If one of these Harbingers… the Vampire, Zombie, Werewolf, Mummy, Witch or Poltergeist… were to escape their terror-tory and enter our world, they would wreak havoc upon us. However, since he’s immortal, it can get pretty boring so he gives the Harbingers a chance to escape… if they can beat him at his own game. So far, at least in the games I’ve played, he’s never lost.
The Atmosfear series of games is really fun and I hope to cover a game of it in a future article for this site. Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
Looking for the first parts of the Ghost List? Click these: PART ONE or PART TWO
Pictured: Koji Behind Miku in Fatal Frame for the PS2
Welcome to another installment of the Ghost List for Fatal Frame! I hope that everyone viewing these enjoys them, as I plan on covering all the ghosts in all three of the games by the time we’re done here. But, that’s for the future! We’re up to ghost number 5 on our list, and he’s one of the first night’s three story-centered ghosts. So, let’s take a look at our friend!
Ghost # 5: Editor’s
Yes, according to the in-game ghost list and pics you take of him in battle, the ghost is "Editor’s", but his real name is Koji Ogata. When Takamine first decided to write a book about the Himuro Mansion, he had Koji do research on the mansion – but he couldn’t find very much. When they first went into the Mansion, Koji was the first to fall victim to the curse, seeing rope marks appear on his arms, legs and neck. As his time in the mansion continued, his sanity slipped increasely further, to the point where he was seeing more and more ropes. Finally, when Kirie came after him, he ran and hid in the closet in the Library where she found him. When Miku comes to the house, he’s the first spirt she encounters, originally peeking at her from behind a screen and watching her from the rafters in the rope hallway. It’s his spirit she sees in the Library closet, grabbing her arm when she reaches for the tape recorder and she sees what happened to him through her sixth sense. In the next room, when she approaches the tape laying on the ground, she hears a voice say "Hey" and turns, but doesn’t see anything… then, when she starts to run for the door again, he appears in front of her. She has to fight him three times before he’s finally exorcised, his last words:
"Please… please… let me out of this mansion!"
There are a few scenes with Koji that still make me jump, even after playing through the game a few times and knowing what to expect. He appears in front of you when you open the door to the Library the second time, then appears behind you when you find his photograph inside the drawer in the Kimono Room, where you first fought him. The first fight against him is generally easy. I was able to take him out with one powered-up shot of the basic camera, but he’s a bit more difficult the other two times you face him. Koji is also the initial ghost that you have to deal with when you first go into Battle Mode. All in all, a pretty good introduction to the battle system for the game’s main character.
