Ju-on: The Grudge White And Black Ghost Movie Review

 Bring it on, Ju-On...

 Two new films for the tenth anniversary of the Grudge saga...

Several sequels later, from both Japan and America, comes another Japanese sequel 

''Ju-On: White Ghost & Ju-On: Black Ghost''

 ''White Ghost'' 

 The movie starts off with the story of the White Ghost, written and directed by Ryuta Miyake, stars Akina Minami as a high school girl with a 6th sense named Akane who starts having disturbing visions of a childhood best friend who recently died in a family murder-suicide.

It tries too hard and too often to make us jump, resulting in a series of hit and miss scares. The new 'face' of the grudge verges on the humorous because she keeps popping up repeatedly... and she's aways carrying a basketball for some reason.

  ''Black Ghost'' 

The second movie, of the Black Ghost, written and directed by Mari Asato, stars Ai Kago as a nurse named Yuko who cares for a young girl who has a strange cyst inside her body. The cyst turns out to be the leftover grudge of an unborn baby and begins to spread to the people around them, driving them mad.
 

 This movie is somewhat more straightforward and focused, and is less effective as a result, with its unborn twin plot being overly familiar.

This having been said, it still holds the interest, and performs far better than the similarly themed recent Hollywood effort “The Unborn”, with a satisfyingly grim ending and a winningly eerie feel.

The two directors both make good use of the short film format, keeping things moving at a fast pace and packing in plenty of scares along the way. 
 

Of the two, “White Ghost” is the stronger outing, with a more engaging and wide-reaching plot and an unsettling air of perversity.


Although the makeup effects for the titular spirit are a touch odd, this does make for some sinister scenes, not least since Ryuta also throws in a few visceral touches and some splashes of gore.

 

(Here's the trailer for both movies, enjoy...)