Photo by: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Most sequels in the motion picture industry have a slim possibility of being as good as the original.

It is a difficult and complicated undertaking to maintain the elements that made the predecessors successful, while adding new and interesting plot developments.

Even those that achieve success don’t usually surpass the original.

In any case, there are two guidelines to creating a sequel.

First, do not make the movie a replication of the first, and, second, do not betray those elements that made the first one great.

“The Grudge 2” makes the former mistake.

In the “The Grudge,” Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) becomes the caretaker at a cursed house in Japan.

The violent murder of a woman and her child has left an evil imprint that affects all that enter the house.

At the end she makes a failed attempt to burn down the evil house, thinking that this will end the curse.

The second film picks up with Karen hospitalized and her estranged sister Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) flying to Japan in order to bring her home safely.

Audiences my recognize actress Amber Tamblyn from the television show “Joan of Arcadia.”

The movie has two main plotlines, one occurring in the future and one in the present, that are connected only by the curse itself.

Throughout the movie, the plot jumps back and fourth from one plotline dealing with Aubrey to the other dealing with three schoolgirls who wander into the cursed house.

Though this might be an attempt to create suspense, it only slows down the movie, making it boring at times.

Because there is no real connection between the two stories, it is almost annoying when the story shifts.

The only real revelations made in the second film concern the woman whose death originally caused the curse.

The first deals with events from her childhood that help to increase the power of the curse, and the second is an explanation of the creepy gagging sound that her ghostly figure makes whenever it reveals itself to its prey.

Other than that the exact same elements of the first movie are used in the second, including the traumatic ending and nature of the curse.

The problem with this is that the first film did it more effectively.

As in the first, main characters hunt down information that leads them to the origin of the curse while people die along the way.

This is somewhat repetitive. It’s the typical haunted house story and easily created time and time again throughout the horror genre.

A good argument could be made for the fact that horror movies aren’t necessarily supposed to be great in the way that other movie genres are.

The real question is whether or not the movie is actually scary.

The answer would depend on your definition of scary. In many scary films the fear originates from the unknown.

Because the first film explained the curse, this element of fear is gone, leaving only cheap startle tactics comprised of things that jump out when and where they are least expected.

If this appeals to you then the movie is worth a look, but for the most part if you have already seen “The Grudge” then there is no real reason to see the second one.

At its core, it is the same film with different actors.