Or how to remake "The Ring" without remaking "The Ring"
I've got a confession to make.
I'm in love with Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Well, maybe not "with" per se because it's very much unrequieted at this moment. That is to say that I firmly doubt Sarah Michelle Gellar returns my feelings of amorous infatuation.
Whatever. To make a long story short: I think she's frikkin' hot. What? Don't look at me that way. 
This is not why I went to see "The Grudge," though.
I went to see "The Grudge" because, well, the previews looked interesting. I went to see Sky Captain (see review elsewhere) because of this reason too. I expected "The Grudge" to be some sort of weird ghost movie. Which it basically was, but with a Japanese flair to it. "The Grudge" is a perfect example of a movie that came very close to being "The Ring" without actually being "The Ring." Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't like it or that it was derivative. It's just that the whole putting a curse on something because of someone dying in a certain way thing has been done before. Fortunately for us, Takashi Shimizu is such a brilliant director that he can scare the crap out of you and make you forget you're watching something with this plotline. There's a lot more to "The Grudge" than your garden-variety ghost story, too. It provides insight into Japanese culture, superstition, and mythology. It's a short, short movie though: only 91 minutes.
To sum up, it ain't the best horror flick I've ever seen. But it certainly is better than most of the crap that I've seen. Way better in fact. And don't think I'm saying this just because of Sarah Michelle Gellar. She's barely even in the film.