Tagline: The curse continues.
The Grudge 3 begins in a mental hospital, where Jake Kimble (Matthew Knight) is in a cell. He complains to his doctor, Ann Sullivan (Shawnee Smith) that if she leaves him alone, then She (Kayako) will get him. Sullivan tells him that he is there for his own protection, and that he will be safe there. She apologises to him and leaves, telling him she will be back later. Jake bangs on the door, but Kayako (Aiko Horiuchi) appears behind him, and breaks his bones, killing him. Sullivan arrives back to find Jake lying dead on the floor and begins to think he was right all along.
Kayako’s sister, Naoko (Emi Ikehata), is a young Japanese woman who hears of Jake’s death through the newspaper and becomes worried. Naoko knows how to stop the grudge and travels to America, more specifically to Chicago where the last incident linked with Kayako occurred. She is introduced to the Chicago apartment by Max, (Gil McKinney) the landlord, and immediately begins to feel her sister’s presence.
She meets Max’s little sister, Rose, and she somehow knows that Rose is in touch with the dead and can communicate with Toshio, Naoko’s nephew. She also meets Lisa (Johanna Braddy) and they quickly become friends, and they meet other residents of the apartment, including Gretchen, (Marina Sirtis) who is an artist. Lisa begins to grow frightened when she realizes her younger sister Rose is seeing a dead boy all around the apartment.
The Grudge 3 is an American horror film and the third installment in The Grudge franchise. Toby Wilkins, who had previously directed the successful film Splinter and the short films Tales from The Grudge, took Takashi Shimizu’s place as director, while Brad Keene replaced Stephen Susco as screenwriter. The film stars Johanna Braddy, Shawnee Smith and Marina Sirtis, with a special appearance by Matthew Knight and was released on DVD on May 12, 2009.
Unlike the first two movies that were both rated PG-13, the third installment was given an R rating because of its graphic bloody violence and gore. The Grudge 3 features a linear plotline unlike its two predecessors, which used nonlinear sequences of events for their respective plots and subplots.
About the Story
Jake (the only survivor from the second installment) is placed in a mental asylum after the events of the second film under the care of Dr. Francine Sullivan, his caretaker. One day Dr. Sullivan leaves Jake locked in his room as he tried to escape several times, as Jake begs her not to saying “She” will get him. While huddling on his bed, he hears Kayako in the room and begins pounding on the door to be let out. Kayako grabs Jake and begins to throw him around the room. Sullivan is quickly called by an officer, as she watches the footage on camera wondering what Jake is doing to himself (as Kayako cannot be seen on the footage). As they race to his room, they find him dead, with every bone in his body broken with his wrist slashed and blood everywhere.
The news of Jake’s death reaches a young woman in Tokyo, Naoko. Naoko is the sister of Kayako, who is mocked by her co-workers because of her sister. She finds a printed paper (as an insult) about Jake’s death pasted on her monitor at her desk office, and believes her sister caused the death. She decides to go to the apartment building to stop the spread of the curse once and for all and tells her husband that she is traveling to Chicago.
Meanwhile, the apartment building is in the middle of renovations in an effort to draw in new tenants. The building manager Max and his two sisters Lisa and 8-year-old Rose, along with an old woman artist named Gretchen, are the few tenants who also remained in the building. Max is on the verge of being fired from his job, having to deal with Rose’s breathing condition and Lisa moving to New York with her boyfriend Andy. Lisa doesn’t believe Rose when she tells her that she has seen a boy running around the building, as she knows there are no tenants with a boy.
Naoko meets Max expressing interest in moving into the building, now sure that it contains the curse. Lisa finds Dr. Sullivan taking photos of Jake’s old apartment and explains that Jake has died and that he told her stories of a woman with long black hair and dead white skin along with a little boy that killed the rest of his family, which she believes to be a fantasy Jake made up because he couldn’t deal with the truth. She also mentions that he had hallucinations about the woman and the boy, but this time the hallucination broke every bone in his body. Lisa confirms that her sister Rose had also seen the same little boy, making Dr. Sullivan wonder if Jake’s delusions were true.
The next day Dr. Sullivan meets Lisa at Jake’s funeral and leaves with her, unaware that Naoko was there and saw the two of them telling Lisa that she wants to show her something back at her office. The doctor tells Lisa the story about the Saeki family, the family Jake described in his (true) hallucinations, and shows Lisa a picture of them at which time Lisa confirms she’s also seen the boy.
Later that evening after Lisa leaves Dr. Sullivan is at the hospital getting ready to leave too when she sees on a monitor a boy crouched in the hallway. When she goes to investigate the boy is gone, but when she opens a door to leave she sees Kayako’s face in the window of the door. Dr. Sullivan backs up and gasps in terror as Kayako pushes her way through the opened door. She runs to another door as Kayako chases her.
Finally Dr. Sullivan shuts the door on Kayako, but Kayako appears in front of her. The doctor runs to another door and is able to get through and shuts it. She then tries to open another door with her card, but for some reason it doesn’t open. Kayako gets closer and Dr. Sullivan bangs on the door. She yells to a janitor named Ben to open the door but he doesn’t hear her. She continues to call him and bang on the door as Kayako puts her hands around Dr. Sullivan’s head. Kayako then seizes Dr. Sullivan’s head and snaps her neck, as blood splattered against the window.
Later, Andy is leaving the building after agreeing with Lisa that they should delay their move to New York (due to Rose’s condition), when he spots Toshio running upstairs. He sees that the door of Jake’s apartment is open and enters it. Hearing footsteps he finds the switch, but the light flickers briefly showing Kayako behind him. She grabs him as the door closes to the sound of her death rattle. Meanwhile, Gretchen finishes her painting and leaves the room. She hears a clatter and when she enters the room again and she sees her painting of Rose has been ripped and is covered in red paint. As she is looking at the painting in disbelief, Kayako’s head appears and she drops the painting in shock.
The Grudge 3 (2009)
Directed by: Toby Wilkins
Starring: Johanna Braddy, Gil McKinney, Shawnee Smith, Emi Ikehata, Jadie Hobson, Beau Mirchoff, Marina Sirtis, Matthew Knight, Johanna Braddy, Jadie Rose Hobson, Mihaela Nankova, Michael McCoy
Screenplay by: Brad Keene
Production Design by: Bobby Michaels
Cinematography by: Anton Bakarski
Film Editing by: John Quinn
Costume Design by: Maria Mladenova
Set Decoration by: Svilen Kratunkov
Art Direction by: Ivelina Mineva
Music by: Sean McMahon
MPAA Rating: R for violence, disturbing images and language.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: May 12, 2009
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