Director Takashi Shimizu has made a career out of ghost stories. Or to be precise, he's made a career out of retelling the same ghost story over and over. The Grudge 2 is the sixth reworking of his original Japanese outing - 2000's direct-to-video Ju-on. It's also a direct sequel to his Hollywood remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as an American in Tokyo terrorised by ghosts. Gellar returns briefly here, but is largely supplanted by Amber Tamblyn as her sister, who's trying to stop the supernatural beings reaching the States. Those familiar with the series will find little that's original, as Shimizu shamelessly recycles set pieces from earlier incarnations of the story. Yet his masterful ability to inject even innocuous objects (telephones, wardrobes and shower cubicles) with a foreboding sense of dread delivers some occasional, hair-raising chills.

A young woman encounters a malevolent supernatural force while searching for her missing sister in Tokyo, a mean high school prank goes horribly wrong, and strange things begin happening in a Chicago apartment building.