I have a Grudge with The Ring

[BNguyen]

After throughly watching these few American remakes of Japanese horror films, I believe they just don't really seem to make a whole lot of sense story wise.
For instance, The Grudge
So a woman, her son, and their cat are all murdered by the husband who assumes that she cheated on him and that their family is meaningless. Why in the world does she then go on to commit a killing rampage on all these people who never even knew about the family? Is it supposed to be like those who enter the house are forced to relive their deaths? What do you think?

As for the Ring, a young woman has a child and tries to kill it, but it gets adopted by a family and for some reason the mother and animals suddenly act strange and kill themselves. But before the mother dies, she throws the child down a well and seals it over. Why all of a sudden does the girl come back to kill anyone who sees the video tapes?
And in the second one the girl goes after the woman because she wants her as a mother?

On another note, I recently watched the movie Dead Silence, and this is basically what I got out of it.
First of all the old ventriloquist does a show and she gets heckled by the boy, then later she kills him for mocking her. To get revenge, the townspeople kill her. She Mary Shaw then returns from the dead seeking revenge upon the family of the boy she killed. What? She wants revenge after she threw the first stone? Most of these new horror movie stories just don't seem to flow together for me.
What is your opinion of these kinds of movies?

 

[meatloaf231]

Cheap jump scares > plot continuity in most horror films.

 

[RebelRising]

Watch older ones. They are almost unanimously better, even the ones that are obviously cheap or satirical.

 

[Delicious]

As far as making sense goes, I'd be more worried about the fact that things are coming back from the dead rather than their intentions for doing so.

 

[Citrus]

I remember that the little Alma-girl in the Ring just wanted people to make copies of the tape so that more people could see her death, or something. She was really bitter about the whole "dying in a well" thing and wanted people to see what a ***** her mom was.

I dunno, most people don't watch horror movies for the story. It's probably best that way, since the stories in most horror films leave much to be desired.

 

[TheBluesader]

I prefer non-American horror movies primarily because they don't get bogged down in pointless story. Sometimes they go too far in that direction, but given the genre, I'll still take that over the reverse.

And the only reason they still make American vampire movies is to make me laugh. I realized I needed to change my POV the first time I watched the anime Hellsing, and it nailed European vampires more true-to-form than probably any Anglo-American vampire pile ever made.

On that note, see Let the Right One In. It's too long and creepy in all the wrong ways, but it's the only cure for Twilight out there.

 

[BNguyen]

On a second note, every last one of the ghosts seems to be a woman or girl with black hair. It could be scary at times but at least give a little more variety.
For instance in the Grudge movie, 3 people were killed and the cops found their bodies in the attic, but even though there were bodies of 2 men, only the girl's body was used.
And the scene with the boy and the elevator just seems like an obsessed stalker.

 

[Shade Jackrabbit]

I'm not really a watcher of horror movies (they're practically restricted in my household, actually) but I've spent a lot of time reading horror movie plots and watching people play survival horror games, and really I see your issue here. I think it could best be put that it tries too hard to be horror and forgets to be scary.

Like, the main thing in fear is that you get scared when you feel you are threatened. And a lot of film-makers don't realize that a well-thought-out plot can help the scare-factor more than surprises jumping out and whatever twisted and perverse imagery they can throw at you. (Not to say those don't work, just they're not as important.)

The only examples I can really think up are a few Adventure Games like Scratches and Barrow Hill. In both of those, the antagonist force was well-documented and it was clear what it could do.

Spoiler: What happened in Scratches

In Scratches it was an African mask that caused people to become insane and cannibalistic, and you were "alone" with it in an old Victorian house. Except it seems like you aren't alone, and you don't know where this other being is, just that he's somewhere in the house with you, and it's implied that the mask has affected him. The fear comes from the fact that you know what your enemy is and that you cannot fight against the dark deity of the mask without completing this amulet, which you can't do immediately anyways. And all the while there's a cannibal hidden somewhere in your house.

Spoiler: What happened in Barrow Hill

And in Barrow Hill you were being chased by a giant rock that melts people. The rock was serving some old druidic evil, and you had to collect specific items to counter-act this evil's power. The fear here is from the fact that you're being stalked by an unstoppable, 8-foot glowing rock that's out for blood. Oh yes, and it can break through solid brick walls. If it wants to.

Course in neither of those examples can I really explain the full back-story because that's one of the fun parts of the games.

Uhm, as for movies, I've only watched the "jump out and scare you" type. Which were scary but that's expected from a pansy like me. They certainly weren't otherwise intriguing though. =/

 

[FinalGamer]

The fact most of these Japanese horror movies are all based on THE SAME STORY probably are reason for their similarity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuya_Kaidan - hell even a few games borrow from it from Silent Hill which does a bit, to Fatal Frame which could be sued for plagiarism if they could with folk tales.

I enjoy Japanese horror though because ghosts scare the shit out of me.

 

[jockslap]

most horror movies suck, so ive resigned myself to watching romances because at least they make sense

 

[Vanilla Gorilla]

I never understood in the Ring why no one just made sure the closest TV to them after 7 days was an 80's style portable affair. A creepy drowned girl is less scary when she's 2 inches tall. You could just keep her in a hamster cage...

 

[atv_chic_18]

The Japanese versions are much better from what I have heard. I've never saw them personally. However, I do hope they are right because I thought the Ring was horrible and the Grudge was horrible as well. The Grudge 2 was worse than the first.

 

[pieeater911]

I found them all very boring and not scary in the slightest.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

I've never been into horrors. They all concentrate on scaring the audience rather than on storyline, so there's really no enjoyment for me to get out of them.
Blasted lack of fear...