Grudging Siren. Spoilers for the Grudge, warning!

The Core RPGC Main Forum
1

K, I just finished watching the movie The Grudge, and I must say, it’s pretty awesome. I did notice a few similarities to the not-so-known PS2 game, Siren. In the movie, there was a tragedy, which sparked a curse that haunts the different characters of the film. Similar to Siren, there was also a tragedy, which sparked a catastrophe that ended up in a small Hanudan town disappearing from the face of existance.

As you progress through the film, you notice the ‘enemy’, if you will. The enemy has blue skin, a bleeding face, and usually long black hair. Makes a screeching shrill as you encounter one. In Siren, you encounter Shibito, which is Japanese for dead husks I believe. The Shibito also have blue skin, bleeding faces, and most of them, long black hair. And, when you see one, it makes a shrilling noise.

In the scene where that guy, name unsure, sees Yoko in the community centre, he notices she is leaving a trail of water… but the water is red. Not sure if it was blood, however. In Siren, when people, normal people, went into a body of water, which I will get into later, they turn into Shibito.

Did I mention both take place in Japan? Not sure if Siren took place in Japan. It’s either Taiwan, Japan, or China. But, for the sake of argument, it took place in Japan.

About the water thing. In the film, as I stated earlier, you notice Yoko walking in a trail of red water. In Siren, after the wierd occurances (trying not to spoil such a magnificant game) the lake in the middle of the town of Hanuda, turns right to crimson. And, once a human touches the water, they turn into Shibito. I find this relation quite striking.

I find that a lot of movies, and movies to come spawn off of this video-game, or vice-versa. Take The Ring for example. Same story, and similar creatures. After thoroughly enjoying Siren, I’d expect to like these rip-offs, but most of them turn out bad. Or don’t stay true to the story. Meaning that they are individual movies. I’m just ranting about this, 'cause I’m a major Siren fanatic.

If you happen to see Siren for a low price (35.99$ CDN) I suggest picking it up. It’s a marvelous game, mixing elements of survival horror, with psychological horror, and even stealth action. So if you’re very enthusiastic about trying something new, then I suggest you consider this game. It’s a fairly long game too, spanning 70+ missions, most of them you have to replay to continue. Took me 31 hours, but I liked to play through things over and over.

So yeah, anyone else notice the relation to the movie and the game?

2

I noticed a lot of parallels between The Grudge and Clock Tower 3. I’m sure that the parallels probably are probably because these games and the movie both take inspiration from Japanese legends and folklore. The fact that they have so many similarities is probably due to the designers and script writers integrating scary stories from when they were kids into their work - similar to how American movies and games might have zombies.

3

Well, isn’t The Grudge another one of those movies that’s based on a Japanese movie? Like The Ring or A Fistful of Dollars? If so, then, as GM said, it could be part of a Japanese folk legend. Or the Japanese Grudge ripped of Siren or vice versa.

4

I picked SH4 over siren, and I’ve seen siren for 24.99$ new. I’ll get it once I finish SH4… which I haven’t had time to do yet.

:kissy:

5

I’m just watching some special features on the DVD, which explains some of the movie. And yes, it’s based on legend. It’s quite interesting, really.

It’s truly magnificant. It’s a cross between Metal Gear and Silent Hill… just longer than both.

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I have a question about the movie: do they explain WHY the haunting happens? No, not the tragedy. I mean, the supernatural forces. One thing that has always bugged me in horror stories, is that they often just say, “So and so died full of hate, so his/her soul comes back for revenge.” But if hate alone were enough for a haunting, why isn’t the whole world full of hauntings?? Oh, and why do the spirits attack people who have NOTHING to do with their situation?

Yes, I know the reason OUTSIDE the story: because it’s unexpected and unfair, and therefore scary. But WITHIN the story, I wish there were logical explanations for what happens, like the murdered person having latent mystic powers, or being buried in cursed land, or something. A well-explained story can STILL be scary as hell.

7

People are lazy, duh.

8

I thought the Japanese version was much better. I really liked how the scenes in the japanese version were not in chronological order, thus making the experience more surreal.

9

If it’s anything like the Japanese original of the Ring, I’ll skip it :stuck_out_tongue: It’s not that I don’t appreciate Japanese surrealism in films, but Ringu was just . . . laughable. It barely held my attention, and came nowhere near scaring me.

I loved the Grudge. A kick-arse horror movie, it really had me on the edge of my seat. Everything from the visuals to the washed-out feel of the cinematics and the gritty sound effects I found really striking. I also really admired the way it threw the general ‘safe’ rules of horror out of the window, like having one victim in another country being pursued, hide in her bed, and then the ghost come out of the covers. I mean, bedcovers are the safest place in the world :stuck_out_tongue:

WM: Don’t forget that the circumstances surrounding Kayako’s death were extremely tangled and weird, what with her obsessing over the doctor and repressed by a jealous husband who eventually kills her ~and~ her child. It’s just a stretch of the imagination to envisage that such strong emotions could keep a person here after death. There are, so people claim, lots of hauntings - just not many are quite as violent as the family in the Grudge XD

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The hate of the man who killed his family, and committed suicide sort of made a mark on that house that all the people who die, actually go in. So, they’re in the wrong place, and at the wrong time. They are all innocent, but since they entered the tainted house, they are ‘cursed with death’.

In the American version, it was also not in chronological order. Which is something I forgot to mention in my first post. In the movie, they show scenes in a non-linear format. I think it made the movie much more understandable. In Siren, you do one mission, at a certain time in the game (they actually set times, such as Mission at 1:00, Mission at 2:00 et cetera), then the next mission you do, could be at some other time. Sometimes even different characters. Also similar to The Grudge, each scene revolved around a certain character. In the game, there are 16 different characters. I believe only 10 are playable, however. You’d do one mission for let’s say, Kyoya Suda, at 12:00 PM on Day 1… the next mission could be Kei Makino, at 6:30 AM on Day 2. Then it could shift back to Kyoya Suda, but perhaps at 1:30 AM on Day 1. The selection is random; which is the game’s most innovative quality.

The resemblances between the movie, and Siren keep coming and coming. :stuck_out_tongue: