Netflix’s ‘Ju-On: Origins’ is a terrifying prequel of the horror flick ‘The Grudge’
Horror movies are not everyone’s cup of tea. The recent addition of a new horror series on Netflix, Ju-On: Origins is a terrifying prequel of the horror flick ‘The Grudge’ and a must-watch for scary movie lovers.
But be warned the violence may be too much for some!
This Japanese series available with English subtitles and dubbing is a must-watch for those who have watched the original films of popular “Grudge” franchise.
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Directed by Sho Miyake and written by Hiroshi Takahashi and Takashige Ichise, JU-ON: Origins focuses on the events that inspired Takashi Shimizu’s original story.
The series is set several years before the events of the first “Grudge” film (which premiered in its native Japan in 2002), “Ju On: Origins” seeks to explain more about the now-legendary characters of the franchise, including the terrifying ghost Kayako.
Ju-On, “Curse Grudge”, also known as The Grudge, means when a person dies with a deep and powerful rage, a curse is born and this is what this latest series comprising of 6 episodes tries to unfold.
Each episode is interwoven and connecting the dots about the mysterious events that have occurred during different years.
The events and people are shown to be experiencing terrifying activities that are connected together with an unidentified mysterious house. All the people affected at some point have visite the cursed house that has brought the curse on them.
The story begins with Haruka, a young woman who after hearing strange sounds in her house, calls upon a psychic researcher to investigate the problem. It was Haruka’s boyfriend who unknowingly had visited the cursed house and brought the ghost along with him.
The ghost from that particular house follows the people who have visited it and results in their mysterious deaths. It is not till episode 4, that the plot clearly builds up and the connection of events is clarified.
The psychic researcher keeps digging into the strange stories and ultimately finds out the house that is cursed by the tragic death of a woman, whose ghost seeks to find her missing newborn child and wants to get buried with it.
With each episode, the magic of Takahashi and Ichise’s storytelling comes to life, spinning horror into every scene. If you are familiar with Japanese horror films, you will get the idea of what does it mean.
Well, trying to write a spoiler-free review is the most difficult task, without revealing the story just unfolding the plot!
The first three episodes should come with a large trigger warning. As in episode 2, one of the characters that the story will develop over is raped.
In a later scene, a child of the same character is probably beaten to death. While these scenes come early on in the series, the director trickly takes his time to only show the beginning of the act or the end, allowing the camera to cut away.
The events unfold the mystery of terrifying ghost Kayako. Everything happening the people who have visited the house is linked with a spirit that has been transformed by its violent death and influenced by powerful emotions like hatred, sorrow, love. And that explains every act of violence in JU-ON: Origins, having a purpose and each of them gets increasingly emotional.
But for the last, episode it was a bit disappointing for relying on CGI special effects that don’t fit the sentiments of the story beforehand. The major part of the series, it is executed in practical effects, the use of darkness, a few jump-scares, and traditional J-horror imagery.
Altogether, it is a good watch for a person like me who enjoys decent horror items.
The series though has left wondering what does the song in the end credits means, with a very catchy beat, showing a dark part of the forest.
