The Grudge (2004) - 7 questions

Question: It is said in the movie that Japanese legend claims that when someone dies violently their spirit haunts the place where they died and kill anyone who enters that place (or something like that). Was this made up for the purpose of the movie or is this an actual Japanese legend? If so, is there a place on the Internet where I can read about the legend?

Answer: A bit of both. A variation on a traditional legend. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onryou.

Question: How come Karen goes into the past to see the husband kill his wife and son?

Answer: I don't think she actually went back into the past, I think it was just the house showing her what happened, or at least a type of visual echo of what happened. After all, some pretty strange stuff was happening in that house.

Question: Was the spirit of Peter Kirk aware that Karen was in the same house as him? I noticed twice that when the little boy looked at her so did Peter. Karen and Peter also bumped arms when he dropped something.

Answer: No, Peter was not aware of Karen. Toshio is the only one who sees her because he is dead. Peter looks when Toshio does because he's trying to see what Toshio is looking at, but sees nothing. When Karen and Peter bump arms, he still doesn't see her even though he feels a weird feeling.

Question: I don't understand why we hear a very high pitched ringing sound sometimes (like when the detectives find the bodies in the attic, or when Karen sees what really happened in the house).

Answer: That ringing sound is the sound the girl makes when she is getting ready to kill someone.

Question: How exactly did they make Kayako's croaking noise for the movie?

Answer: Someone - not specified so I assume a Foley artist - made the croaking noise. If you listen to the commentary Jason Behr talks about how he phoned his sister after she has seen the movie and made the croaking sound in his throat and freaked his sister out so that she wouldn't answer the phone.

Question: what is going on in the room where the professor left the little boy after he found the dead body and 'karen' goes into the room and all you hear is a thumping sound?

Answer: Its the thumping of the husband's legs against the wall from hanging himself.

Question: How exactly does the father kill the wife? I noticed when she comes down the stairs she comes out of a bloody bag. So how is she killed?

Answer: Well, in the Japanese original (Ju-On: The Grudge), it shows that Takeo, the father, killed his wife but shoving a knife down her throat or something similar to that. When he was killing her, she tried to scream, except her scream came out all messed up (because the knife hit the vocal chords), which explains the horrible croaking noise. There's no doubt about it that it's the way she was killed in this version.