"Saw and "The Grudge", truly terrifying, or just standard fare?
These 2 films were released a week apart from each other last month, and were much anticipated by most if not all horror fans. Now, it's been 5 days since "Saw" was released, and 12 since "The Grudge" hit theatres. "The Grudge" held the top spot at the box office for 2 straight weekends, and goes for it's third straight weekend this coming Friday. "Saw" came in 3rd in it's debut weekend. However, as we all know box office intake doesn't mean everyone liked the film. Me personally, I liked both movies as horror films, with a good amount of entertainment value from a horror fans point of view. But, I disliked both films from the truly frightening standpoint, which both were advertised from."The Grudge" and "Saw" were both made out to be by way of advertisement, 2 of the scariest films of all time. With language such as Truly frightening, scary, shocking, and terrifying being used by critics who saw the film beforehand. I liked both films, but I didn't find any of these qualities within either one. "The Grudge" had a creepiness factor to it, without a doubt, but there (atleast in my opinion), was nothing truly scary or extremely frightening about it.
It was actually pretty standard fare, with some creepy moments, and a paperthin story. "The Ring" was actually creepier than "The Grudge" basically because it gave us an intriguing and semi-creepy mystery along with quick scenes of Samaras victims with that shrieking ear piercing, blood curdling squeak, and of course Samara who kept popping up from time to time. "The Grudge" gave us a scary looking antagonist, who made some weird disturbing noises, yet the story was so thin, it was hard to generate any true scares or interest from the audience, me in particular. I didn't feel like I wanted to know the mystery behind this ghostly young girl, I felt like I was watching a film where a ghost was randomly attacking people in seperate scenes, and then a cheap *this is why* was tossed at me near the end of the film. "Saw" was a step above "The Grudge" in it's story which was actually interesting, it's better overall acting, and it's unique antagonist. But "The Grudge" tops it in overall creep factor. However, again, it generated zero feelings of dread or fright from me. Despite being advertised as a film which would do so. While putting yourself in the shoes of the people involved would be a scary thought, the film plays out more like a crime drama/thriller rather than an actual horror movie. Nothing truly scary or terrifying happens.The killer isn't deformed or supernatural in any way, but rather the *I like to play god* type. He doesn't come across as a killer who can get you when you're most vulnerable like Freddy or Chucky, nor does he come across as an unstoppable killing machine with supernatural ties like a Michael Myers or Jason. He comes across more as the type of killer you'd see in a Morgan Freeman&Ashley Judd thriller type film. This takes the scare factor away tremendously. Not to say the film wasn't brilliant in it's twists, use of suspense, and use of a very unique antagonist with very unique methods, but it lacked any real scares, atleast from my point of view. Both of these movies are having sequels to them fasttracked by the studios. "The Grudge" does have the definite potential for true scares there, it just needs to be brought to the forefront and tied in with a more rich storyline. A "Saw" sequel lacks any potential to be truly scary, but it will always have a strong entertainment and suspense factor due to its story and Jigsaw himself. Lets hope both films can achieve different things in their respective sequels, that they failed to achieve in their first outing.
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