In Pasadena, Mrs. Davis (Joanna Cassidy) sends her daughter Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) to Tokyo to bring her sister Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar),who is interned in a hospital after surviving a fire, back to the USA. After their meeting, Karen dies and Aubrey decides to investigate what happened to her and gets herself cursed in the same situation, being chased by the ghost of the house. Meanwhile in Tokyo, the three high school mates Allison (Arielle Kebbel),Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misako Uno) visit the famous haunted house and are also cursed and chased by the ghost. In Chicago, Trish (Jennifer Beals) moves to the apartment of her boyfriend Bill (Christopher Cousins),who lives with his children, the teenager Lacey (Sarah Roehmer) and boy Jake (Matthew Knight). On the next door, weird things happen with their neighbor.

"The Grudge 2" has scary sound and visual effects, with the creepy woman and boy, and I have startled a couple of times while watching this movie. However, the complex screenplay with three subplots is totally confused, making the entwined story a complete mess. There are too much characters and situations, and in a certain moment I was completely lost with the disconnected and fragmented narrative. In the end, I was completely disappointed with this confused, but also spooky film. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Grito 2" ("The Scream 2")

When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage... a curse is born. The curse gathers in that place of death. Those who encounter it will be consumed by its fury.

In Tokyo, Allison (Arielle Kebbel) is a shy student in the International High School. She is lured to the haunted house by popular mean girls Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki. The girls have a scary encounter.

In Pasadena, California, Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) is asked by her mother to go to Tokyo to bring back her sister Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) suspected of starting a horrific fire. However Karen is thrown off the roof by the ghost of Kayako right in front of Aubrey and Eason. Eason is a journalist who helps Aubrey piece together what happened.

In Chicago, Trish (Jennifer Beals) moves in with Bill (Christopher Cousins) who has two kids Lacey (Sarah Roemer) and Jake (Matthew Knight). This movie already foreshadowed Trish killing Bill with a frying pan. Mr Fleming in the next apartment brings somebody mysterious.

The chronology jumble is interesting for awhile. It does make the movie not so simplistic which is a good thing. Trying to put the sequence in the right order is at least something to do which is more than the first one offered. Other than the temporal scramble, there isn't anything interesting. It's the same issue as the first movie. The movie isn't scary. It's a little disappointing to have SMG only in a cameo. I don't think that's the best option. If she's already doing the movie, she might as well do the whole movie.

Despite the presence of both the director (Takashi Shimizu) and "ghost" actress (Takako Fuji) of the Japanese originals, THE GRUDGE 2 is the weakest of the series yet. Although it doesn't follow the storyline of the Japanese GRUDGE 2, which can only be a good thing – I hate those remakes which slavishly copy the original's plot without attempting anything new, like Gus Van Sant's ill-fated PSYCHO – this is a failure through-and-through.

It begins with an unintentionally hilarious murder and goes downhill from there. The scriptwriters unwisely attempt to cram three disparate story lines into the running time, meeting with little success along the way. One storyline features Sarah Michelle Gellar cameoing from the first film and follows it on with a sub-par actress taking over. Another storyline, about a family moving into an apartment with dodgy neighbours, has little to do with the main thrust of the plot and seems tacked on (and scenes such as the girl drinking milk are once again amusing rather than frightening). The third storyline, and the most obviously inspired by the Japanese films, features three overaged schoolgirls visiting the haunted house and unsurprisingly becoming victims themselves.

The scare scenes are repetitive in the extreme, becoming almost a parody of themselves. The cast is mediocre, and when the highlight of the film is the return of the old 'peekaboo' guy from the Japanese original in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo, you know it's in trouble. Unfortunately, this wasn't the end of the series either - another sequel has since followed.