The Grudge

When I think about what kind of media has scarred me as a child, and still gives me the creeps, it is the film The Grudge (2004). This reason this film scarred me as a child was due to the appearance of the grudge and the noises she makes. First, the movie is a 1990’s Japanese horror culture film that is about a person dying in such rage or sorrow that becomes a curse and is a repeated chain of events.  When looking at the film itself, the characteristics of this grudge that I find scary are 1. How her appearance is an unnatural pale with long dark hair and eyes of horror, 2. The sounds she makes with her mouth that sounds as if she’s gurgling in a way, and the way she sounds when she moves as if all her bones are cracking, and 3. The way she moves throughout the film seems demon-like. There is a scene in which the main character is in a house and discovers where the source of the grudge is coming from and how she is holding onto the pain and sorrow. During this scene, the grudge is seen crawling out of a bag full of blood down towards the stairs, which she then reaches down and kills the main character’s boyfriend. After seeing this film, there have been numerous times in which I would get scared to go upstairs in my own home thinking the grudge might be around the corner. Another well-known scene is when the main character is in the shower, and as she is washing her hair, she feels another hand scrubbing her head! As a child, I was made even more paranoid, believing that the grudge could get me anywhere, even in the shower. The main message that the film is trying to convey is that one should not hold such anger and sorrow, and we need to learn to forgive and let go of other peoples’ transgressions without them becoming a grudge.