The film The Grudge was released in 2004 and was directed by Takashi Shimizu. It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and is a horror film that contains elements of drama, mystery, and suspense. The film is about an American nurse named Karen who moves to Tokyo and encounters a vengeful supernatural spirit that possesses its victims and passes its curse onto each one. It was produced by Columbia Pictures and Ghost House Pictures and uses techniques like fade to black, backlighting, loud sounds, tilt shots, and close-ups to create tension and scare the audience.

1. To use GRANITE to analyze the film

2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Date released & Certification: 5 November 2004 Director: Takashi Shimizu Studio: Ghost House Pictures Distribution: Columbia Pictures Script: Stephen Susco Budget: $ 10.000.000 Filming Location: Aoyama, Tokyo Japan Tag Line: ‘It never forgives. It never forgets’ Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr and Clea Duvall

3. GENRE It is a hybrid type of film because it contains a mixture of drama/horror/mystery/suspense, e.g. loneliness in the haunted house, the girl behind the door always in the darkness, mysterious curse known as the ‘grudge’, the main character doesn’t know for the next scene and unexpected situations come to…

4. REPRESENTATION Karen Davis is an American Nurse, moves to Tokyo and encounter a supernatural spirit who is vengeful and often possesses its victims. A series of horrifying and mysterious deaths start to occur, with the spirit passing its curse onto each victim. So Karen needs to find a way to brake the spell before she becomes the next victim This shows that the main character is actually portrayed possessed by a bad spirit from the beginning to end. The language spoken are: English and Japanese, but it’s also includes English subtitles in some of the conversations of the movie

5. AUDIENCE The film is aimed at people who are 15 and over because the classification shown in the DVD cover, due to the horror content/creepiness, blood and gore and scenes involving domestic violence and child abuse. As its aimed for young audiences they will enjoy more as it allow them to connect with taboos and scary situations which they are protected from in everyday life

6. NARRATIVE One of the scenes that creates tension and panic is when the woman left her office and walks in a corridor, heard the sounds repeatedly, keep looking back and starts to walk faster until she gets to the nearest exit. In that moment she hears more creepy sounds around her and also in the stairs, her phone rings, she picks up and hears a growling, clicking sound. In that instant, she opened the door frightened and something grabbed her before she runaway back to the office for help. By the time she got out the building she feels more calm. The part that she was in the elevator going up, and her eyes closed, a imagery of a boy is seen. In this scene the woman looks up and keeps staring with a uncomfortable feeling and creates a high impact

7. INSTITUTIONS Columbia Pictures Ghost House Pictures

8. TECHNOLOGY Some of the scenes fade away to black in a scary and dramatic moment; backlighting is used for a spooky look; sound effect are loud, e.g. the sound of a creaking door as the person walks down alone a corridor could create tension; tilt is when moving the camera up and down and also close up shots to show the feelings and reactions of the characters in the movie