The Grudge 2 Credit: Sony Pictures

Looking to get the daylights scared out of you? The Grudge 2 will do the trick, albeit with subtlety.

The Grudge took a perfectly happy Valley Girl, brought her to Japan, where she entered a haunted house, and then, well, you know the bloody rest.

The Grudge 2? Surprise, more of the same. This time the sister goes to Japan, but the evil goes everywhere. (The Grudge is actually the remnants of a daughter whose mother, a clairvoyant, fed her the remains of the evil spirits that inhabited her customers. Guess what? The kid's pissed. For mom, it was a business write-off; for the daughter, a permanent grudge. Pun intended.)

The Grudge 2 Credit: Sony Pictures

There is a semblance of a plot, and there are some thrills that follow. People mostly die offscreen. But everyone dies - or will, in the next sequel. (Did I mention a sequel?) The sound is great and the music perfectly suitable. The cinematography is sophomoric: How many fade-to-blacks can you do to cover bad writing?

But director Takashi Shimizu, who shares screenplay credits with Stephen Susco, can take comfort that he's made a movie that has a plot, that creates suspense and - for horror fans who actually don't go to a movie to see heads cut off with chainsaws (Are there any?) - delivers evil with a bit of class. Did I really say that? Sorry. (Did I mention a sequel?)