The Grudge

Yesterday was crazy busy. And I’m not complaining, because most of the crazy busy involved a nearly nine-hour day of paid labor and a very pleasant networking occasion with the folks I wish would hire me full-time.

However, there came this moment when I was suddenly overwhelmed by all of the different tugs on my attention and I made a decision. The decision was to let someone else plan my evening for me.

Having made vague plans to get together with Jennifer and Chris last night I wasn’t surprised when my phone started vibrating on my hip at straight-up 5 o’clock. First Jen, then Tanya. Then my project manager started telling me how happy they were to have me on the team and what a great decision they’d made in contracting with me and would I please come upstairs and join them all for a beer during their halloween party. This was at the conclusion of a three-hour meeting.

So, realizing that I couldn’t possibly give my attention to the party and make plans with Jen for the evening, I called Tanya and said, “Call my sister and figure out what we’re doing tonight.” Thankfully, after only a few, “what do you want to…I don’t care” exchanges, Tanya realized that what I was saying was “Please do this and don’t ask me anymore questions because I can’t think about it right now.” And so, they did.

As a result (and again, I’m really not complaining about this because they did exactly what I asked them to do, and if either one of them took any joy out of using the situation to make me do something I would not normally choose to do, then so be it) we ended up grabbing a quick dinner at a bar in the Mall (capital Mall for this location) and lining up to see The Grudge.

If they’d bought tickets for Saw I would have excused myself and gone home. Tanya probably knew that and hedged her bets with the Sarah Michelle Gellar scare-fest. I can handle scary, usually. I cannot handle gore to any great extent. Anyway, we ended up with The Grudge and that’s what I’m trying to write about anyway.

When I saw Halloween H2O in the theater with some of the St. Pete Geeks it was my first foray into a theater for a horror franchise film. I’m not a big fan of the genre. That movie actually surprised me by being both scary, and wickedly funny. And so I began a tentative appreciation for horror films of the kind, by recognizing the delicate balance between fear and camp that makes the best ones so popular and the worst ones so craptastic.

In this regard, The Grudge was craptastic. It is the number one hit at the box office right now but as far as I’m concerned, it’s total trash. This is not to say I won’t watch it again. The same way I watch all kinds of amusing garbage that comes on cable on a Saturday afternoon. This movie deserves a spot at B-Fest. I laughed from beginning to end. I actually cackled at how stupid it was. But I was never, ever scared.

Tanya and Jennifer liked it a lot and both of them were scared. Chris and I both wished we’d bought a beer in the lobby so at least it would have been time well spent in consumption of potables.

And I wonder how the original Japanese version of this movie compares. I understand that for Japanese film makers, getting a Hollywood studio to work with you to remake one of your films means a lot of money and a lot of national recognition and thus, more opportunities, but I have to imagine that the original version was darker and probably more frightening. But I don’t know, maybe not. I have to rely on people like Scott to tell me these things.

But I do know that if I’m going to let someone else plan my evening I have to take what I get. And maybe now that they’ve had a taste of power the two of them will start doing this on a regular basis. At the end of the day I’ll probably be a more well-rounded person as a result. But I still won’t go see Saw.