The Grudge 3

The Grudge 3 is the direct-to-DVD sequel to the American horror films The Grudge and its sequel, The Grudge 2. The film was directed by Toby Wilkins taking Takashi Shimizu's place. According to IMDb, filming took place in March 2008. The film was released on May 12, 2009.

The events of The Grudge 3 occur several days after the Chicago vignette of The Grudge 2. Jake Kimble, (Matthew Knight) the sole survivor, is now institutionalized after the gruesome murder of his family. His caretaker is Dr. Sullivan, who is skeptical of Jake's stories describing a woman with long black hair covered in blood as the murderer. Dr. Sullivan has to leave Jake in his room as she has to take care of the other patients. She reassures Jake by telling him that there is a security camera that will always be watching him. When she leaves, the lights start flickering, and Jake realizes that Kayako has come. He screams for help, but the security guard is too late as he sees Jake being flung around the room by an invisible force. When they arrive in the room, Jake is lying in a pool of blood. He has broken almost every bone in his body.

Kayako's sister, Naoko Kawamata, is a young Japanese woman who hears of Jake's death through the newspaper and becomes worried. Naoko knows how to end the curse and travels to Chicago, where the last incident linked with Kayako occurred. She is introduced to the Chicago apartment by Max, (Gil McKinney) the landlord, and immediately begins to feel her sister's presence. She meets Max's little sister, Rose, and she somehow knows that Rose is in touch with the dead and can communicate with Toshio, Naoko's nephew. She also meets Lisa (Johanna Braddy) and they quickly become friends, and they meet other residents of the apartment, including Gretchen, (Marina Sirtis) who is an artist. Lisa gets frightened when she realizes her younger sister Rose is seeing Toshio ,a dead boy all around the apartment. Later that day, Lisa encounters Toshio, who makes her jump. When asking him what he is doing in the apartment, Toshio vanishes leaving Lisa bewildered. A girl, who just moved away from the apartment complex due to the murders is pulled into her bathtub by Toshio and is drowned by the evil spirit of Takeo Saeki. At night, Gretchen is painting a beautiful picture of Rose but when she turns away she finds it almost shredded and in a pool of red paint. Whilst examining the painting of Rose, it briefly changes to a portrait of Kayako and handprints begin to appear in the red paint and move towards Gretchen. Then another of Gretchen's paintings begins to change and morph into Kayako who crawls towards Gretchen and kills her by gouging her eyes out and ripping off her jaw.

Lisa, Max's sister, hears about the curse from Naoko and realizes that the deaths in the Chicago apartment - including the death of Jake Kimble - are connected, and to this end she meets Dr. Ann Sullivan, (Shawnee Smith) who informs her of what she learns from Jake concerning a girl named Allison Fleming and a woman named Kayako Saeki, from Japan. Dr. Sullivan also informs Lisa that Toshio, the boy Rose has been seeing, is dead, and plays a video of one of her interviews with Jake, who tells Dr. Sullivan that Kayako is sitting right in between them constantly. Lisa eventually returns to the apartment. Dr. Sullivan examines further evidence and then goes down the corridor out of her office because she sees Toshio on the monitor. Everything seems normal for a few brief seconds until Kayako appears in the hallway. Dr. Sullivan exits via the other door in the corridor, only to have Kayako appear before her in the corridor she is now in. Dr. Sullivan screams for help and knocks repeatedly on the door, but meanwhile Kayako is catching up. Kayako literally walks through the door opposite and Dr. Sullivan feels Kayako's fingers go through her hair and touch the side of her face as she screams for the cleaner to open the door, and then suddenly Kayako seizes Dr. Ann Sullivan's head and snaps her neck, splattering blood against the window.

Later that evening, Lisa invites her boyfriend Andy (Beau Mirchoff) out to supper, and there she discusses the Saeki murders and her theory that the vengeful ghosts are in her apartment. Andy dismisses her ideas initially, saying one only make connections one wishes to see, and persuades Lisa to come to New York with him, but Lisa refuses. Andy returns with Lisa to the apartment, and later when he leaves he sees the lights flickering and Toshio's legs run upstairs. He follows Toshio to a black hallway and sees Toshio run before him in the gloom. When Andy flicks on the light switch, Kayako appears behind him as the door slams shut to the sound of her.

Later, Max shows signs of possession and becomes violent and aggressive. He viciously attacks his superior when he is fired, and later his superior is killed by Toshio Saeki in his car. Max kicks out Lisa after taking out his rage on her, and then he also pushes Rose aside and tells her to go to her room. Lisa, frightened, goes to Naoko for help and Naoko realizes what has happened to Max. She dresses in a classic Japanese ritual garb and begins to perform an exorcism on the building using Rose as a witness, but halfway through Naoko tells Lisa that Rose has to drink Kayako's blood, which she somehow has obtained. Naoko begs Rose to drink it, claiming that "the bad will go away". Lisa stupidly refuses to have anything to do with this ritual, and begins to leave, only to find her path blocked by Max. Max has been possessed by the evil spirit of Takeo Saeki, and he is now out to repeat the same murder he performed on Kayako. He pursues Naoko into the hallway, and when Naoko attempts to reason with him, he breaks her leg. Naoko attempts to crawl away but Max seizes a knife, grabs Naoko by her long black hair, and thrusts the blade into her throat. Kayako pursues Lisa and Rose through the upper story of the apartment. Lisa and Rose run into the bathroom and find the corpse of her boyfriend Andy, but when she grasps it, Andy becomes Kayako and attempts to strangle her. Rose is thrown out of the bathroom and the door locks Lisa in. Lisa backs away as Kayako crawls towards her. Rose drinks Kayako's blood and Kayako's evil spirit vanishes. Takeo is exorcised from Max, who is horrified at what he has done. When he is sitting, immersed in remorse and guilt, in the apartment's corridor, noises come from the other end of the corridor. The source of the noises is revealed to be Naoko's spirit, stumbling on her broken leg while her throat gushes blood. Naoko has appeared as the new Onryo born from the new Grudge caused by Max. She crawls up to Max and kills him.

The final scene is of police and doctors removing the corpses and Lisa telling Rose that everything will be alright. However, as she hugs her, the final image is that of Kayako hugging Lisa instead of Rose, revealing that Rose now carries the spirits.