As the title suggests, Ju-On 2 is the direct Manga sequel to Ju-On, i.e. The Grudge. This latest tale from Takashi Shimizu takes place an unspecified length of time after the events in the original story. Actress Kyoko Harase is a well-known Japanese horror film queen whose career seems to be on the down side. She is keeping her pregnancy a secret from her agent as long as possible as she knows it will hurt her career even more.
Kyoko decides to make an appearance during a television special that is broadcasting from a supposedly haunted house…the very house where the terrifying events in the original story took place. It’s just before the show airs that strange events begin to take place. The host of the show Tomoka Miura and her husband keep hearing strange thumpings on the walls of their apartment…a corner wall that has no apartment next door. Later as the show is taking place live, strange electrical feedbacks hamper the crew. In the meantime, Kyoko is being trailed by the faint image of a little boy. When the image appears on the windshield of the car she is traveling in with her fiancé, they crash leaving her fiancé near death and causing Kyoko to lose her baby. And yet at a later trip to the doctor, he tells her that the baby is fine. Soon almost everyone connected with the TV show has either died or disappeared leading to a truly horrifying climax that makes the scene from “The Ring” where the ghost crawls out of the TV look tame by comparison.
Initially, Ju-On 2 seems to lack the atmosphere of the original and gets off to a slow start. But things really push with a head of steam in the final third of the book with some truly terrifying images. It’s definitely a worthy sequel to the original. A winner from Dark Horse Books.
– Tim Janson
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
