The Grudge/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Toshio only mean to menace Rose, or was he making an attempt at friendship?
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Pretty much every movie's score, although special mention goes to the score of the second movie.
  • Epileptic Trees
  • Fetish Fuel: The way Kayako claims some of her victims (ie. enveloping Vanessa in her hair, amongst other examples).
  • Fridge Logic / Plot Hole: Where on Earth did Naoko get hold of Kayako's blood from? (Unless it's just a substance that represents it, or something.)
    • Seeing how Kayako is covered in blood, it's only a matter of getting close enough without being killed.
  • Hell Is That Noise: Kayako's death rattle. Enough said. Also, the sound of a cat's meow has never sounded as creepy as it does in this series. Not to mention the sound of Naoko's breathing, post-death...
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Aubrey's plotline in The Grudge 2 is often accused of this.
    • This may also be the reason why the death of Mrs. Davies was cut from the second movie - although pretty shocking in nature, it is visually a little too similar to the death of Yoko from the first movie.
  • Les Yay: There seems to be some very subtext-y moments between Allison and Vanessa in the second movie.
    • Not to mention the way Kayako seems to be all over her (usually female) victims when she kills them (Karen and Dr. Sullivan, for example - not to mention the way she clings to Karen's corpse after she kills her). A little bit of Foe Yay, perhaps?
    • Kayako/Susan is even joked about in the cast commentary for the first movie, during the scene where Kayako appears in Susan's bed.
  • Moe: Kayako herself - albeit before her death. (Most obviously in a certain deleted scene from the first movie.) She's still cute after her death, although in a rather different and disturbing sort of way.
  • Nausea Fuel: The "milk" scene from the second movie.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Kayako and Toshio can appear from and emerge from anywhere.
  • Squick: The deaths of Yoko, Gretchen and Naoko.
  • Tear Jerker: Karen mourning Doug in the first movie.
    • The scene in the second movie where Aubrey goes to Karen and Doug's apartment the day after witnessing Karen's death. Aubrey glances around the apartment, eventually looks over Karen's collection of framed photos, and breaks down sobbing as her sister's death suddenly hits her.
    • Aubrey's death is also pretty sad, especially when combined with the soundtrack.
    • Max's reaction when he finds out that, while possessed, he killed Naoko. After the possession wears off, the poor guy just looks so broken and confused... then the realisation just suddenly hits him and he starts sobbing on the floor.
  • Uncanny Valley: Kayako is given an appropriately creepy walk via a combination of stop-motion effects and Takako Fuji and Aiko Horichi's talents at performing creepy, jerky movements.
    • Also, in the third movie, Naoko has an incredibly unsettling walk after her transformation into Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl, thanks to her knee being broken prior to her death.
  • The Woobie: A good chunk of characters, but especially Allison, Jake, Aubrey and Rose.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Kayako.