The Grudge « HORROR BOOM

So, we STILL cannot find one with English subtitles for the dialogue. If you’re a Ju-on/Grudge fan, though, you don’t really need to know the translation; it’s still scary as hell:

Sadly, we can also find no evidence that Takako Fuji is in the movie (as Kayako). We’re keeping our fingers crossed that she at least shows up in a flashback. She pops up in this quick teaser, though, which also sends chills down our spines…

What is this Ju-On “reboot”, you ask? Well, it has to be better than the Grudge 3. Anyway…. take it away, general press release:

The film was first announced at a press conference held at Akagi Shrine in Tokyo on February 26, 2014, following a spirit cleansing ceremony at the shrine. Filming began soon thereafter on March 4, 2014. Beginning of the End is set to premiere on June 28, 2014 in Japan.

Unlike the previous two installments, White Ghost and Black Ghost, this film focuses on the deceased Saeki family and its curse. An elementary school teacher named Yui (Nozomi Sasaki) visits the home of a boy named Toshio Saeki (Kai Kobayashi) who’s been absent from school for a long period of time. When she arrives, she re-lives the horrifying events that occurred in the Saeki household 10 years earlier.

Again, no evidence of Fuji-san, and they even replaced the long-time veteran actor Takashi Matsuyama, who played shitty, homicidal jealous husband, Takeo. They even used him in Grudge 3 (insert my own croaking noise here), while they re-cast Kayako for that one. OK, I can see not using the same Toshio, for the obvious reasons that the actor is human and therefore doesn’t look like a little boy anymore. But Kayako and Takeo?

The One and Only Takako Fuji as Kayako Saeki

OK, don’t get me started. We’re still going to see it… but if they do a stair-crawl, they better use footage of Takako Fuji from… well, there’s at least 3 to choose from.

Ok! So here’s the second Halloween 2012 treat (three more to come). I promised another Ju-On gallery, and this time– y’know, Halloween Treats and all– I’m going to focus on Kayako. It also seems fitting, since on Halloween 2004, I was first introduced to the series and to Kayako (and her family) when my mom and I went to see the movie The Grudge in the theater (in a packed house, closer to the screen than was optimal when seeing a really scary movie). By thirty minutes in, we were holding hands!

Looks like lots of people have been doing searches and landing here because they want to dress like her for Halloween. Maybe this will help you out with the make-up. There’s a couple of make-up tutorials on You Tube but it seems as though most of them don’t understand Samara from The Ring and Kayako from The Grudge/Ju-on are two different characters. Here’s the closest I got, just taking photos to use on T-shirts I’d be selling. I wanted a recognizable image yet needed to do my own to avoid copyright infringement. Well, I gave it a shot, anyway!

Ok, I lied, I bleached out color a little bit, but trust me, I used a TON of make-up.
©2011 D.D. Reinert/Horror Boom

Oh, and please note I’m going to be adding to it over the next 48 hours until it is juuuuuust right. I have over 100 images but need to start sleeping before dawn breaks. It can’t be healthy for my system to keep the sleep-cycle of an undead crack whore, so I’m making an effort to get in bed and at least TRY to fall asleep before I hear birds chirping outside. Keep checking back, as you’ll keep finding plenty of new, scary, Ju-On photos and content all the way up to Halloween night!

Overall, I really made this as a tribute to her character. I even added a little behind-the-scenes stuff on the multi-talented Takako Fuji, who has played Kayako six times in full-length features, in addition to the two short films. As far as I’m considered, The Grudge 3 doesn’t even count as part of the series, since she didn’t play Kayako in it; in fact she wisely turned it down. I’ve read a few recent interviews with Fuji-San (they needed a translator) which I purposely sought out to remind myself that the Ju-on series were only movies, and Kayako doesn’t really exist. Fuji-San said that even though she has a strong background in modern dance, her back would always hurt for a day or so after each time she filmed a staircase-crawl (that makes my back hurt just thinking about it), that she’s a smoker who would take cigarette breaks in costume as Kayako which would make anyone walking by seeing her start to laugh, that she sometimes gets asked to “do” Kayako at parties (she always does), but most of all, kept apologizing “for all the nightmares!” That helped… sort of… a bit… a little, tiny bit, anyway.

So here’s that gallery, in some different formats to mix it up. She remains one of the most frightening female horror icons of all time, even probably up in the top five for me.

The above and below are shots where the lighting is dim, but what you CAN see is clearly Kayako, just enough to know who you’re looking at and to scare the shit out of you.

mirror mirror, on the wall, who’s the scariest one of all?

Fuck!

You’re not even safe under your own bed sheets…

This is from the very first Ju-On TV movie, and the first time I’ve ever let out a shriek watching something on my TV in my own home. During daylight, no less. Almost had a goddamn heart attack when Kayako quietly said, “Kobayashi?” held still for a long moment, then suddenly SWOOPED down close to his face. And that was the last time we (or anyone) ever saw Kobayashi Dear…

Here’s some really frightening PR shots taken…

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.

More quotes from this interview later on.

More coming soon; I’ve now looked at the maximum amount of depictions of Kayako (after dark) that I can without risking nightmares. If you have requests for photos/pics, please put them in the comments below and I will do my best to accommodate them!