Takashi Shimizu, a darling of the recent Japanese horror boom, makes his Hollywood debut with this incoherent remake of his equally incoherent Asian hit Ju-on (2000). The original, shot simultaneously with its sequel and released straight to video, was an endless series of set pieces in which unsuspecting rubes exploring a desolate home stumble upon the ghosts of a woman and a little boy. Strangely, the remake is still set in Japan, though Bill Pullman, Clea DuVall, and Sarah Michelle Gellar are shoehorned in as Western visitors. Most of the chills have been faithfully re-created, though first-time screenwriter Stephen Susco hasn’t done much to straighten out the muddled narrative. With Ryo Ishibashi (Audition). PG-13, 91 min.
