Ju-On: The Curse 2

Ju-on: The Curse 2 (呪怨2), also known as simply Ju-on 2, is a 2000 Japanese V-Cinema supernatural horror film and the second installment in the Ju-on series being a sequel to Ju-on: The Curse. The film was released in Japan on March 25, 2000, and was later released on video on April 14.

Much of the sequel is a recap of the first film, nearly 30 minutes of retelling out of 76 minutes. The rest of the film introduces new information on those events, and new characters, as well as briefly introducing events that would play into the later theatrical films.

Plot
Teacher Shunsuke Kobayashi visits the Saeki household but finds his student, the young Toshio Saeki, alone. He finds the corpse of Kayako Saeki hidden in the attic and receives a phone call from her husband Takeo Saeki who reveals he has killed Kobayashi's pregnant wife Manami and butchered her unborn child, believing Kayako was being unfaithful upon discovering she has an obsessive crush on Kobayashi. Kayako's body rises as an Onryō and kills Kobayashi, before tracking down and killing the rampaging Takeo.

Sometime later, a woman named Kyoko helps her brother Tatsuya, a real estate agent, to examine the Saeki house and put it on the market. Disturbed by the house, Kyoko leaves, visiting her nephew Nobuyuki in the apartment once owned by Kobayashi. They witness a vision of Takeo murdering Manami and are affected by the Saeki curse. Tatsuya moves them to his parents' house in the countryside, where Kyoko is seemingly possessed and rocks back and forth, whilst Nobuyuki has become mute. Convinced the Saeki house's curse is responsible, Tatsuya heads off to investigate.

The current residents of the Saeki house, Yoshimi and Hiroshi Kitada, become affected by the curse. Yoshimi murders her husband by bludgeoning him with a frying pan and kills Tatsuya when he visits. All of Tatsuya's family save Nobuyuki die from the curse. Around a month later, detectives Kamio and Iizuka observe Nobuyuki, who is still mute. Both visit police officer Yoshikawa, who has been driven insane by his investigation of the deaths surrounding the Saeki house. After the visiting detectives leave, Kayako appears in Yoshikawa's home and kills both him and his wife. At the police station, Kamio gets frightened when he sees Kayako, alerting Iizuka and another female officer who go to check his office. Kamio remains outside out of fear and is killed when Kayako reappears.

At school, Nobuyuki spots Kayako outside the window, and she suddenly opens and crawls in through it. Nobuyuki flees whilst pursued by Kayako. A second Kayako appears while he makes an attempt to escape through the stairs. Both ghosts corner Nobuyuki in a science lab and kill him.

Three schoolgirls named Saori, Chiaki, and Ayano visit the now-abandoned Saeki house on a dare and drink from a bottle of sake lying around, finding that it tastes horrible.

Cast

 * Yūko Daike as Kyoko Suzuki (鈴木 響子)
 * Makoto Ashikawa as Tatsuya Suzuki (鈴木 達也)
 * Kahori Fujii as Yoshimi Kitada (北田 良美)
 * Yūrei Yanagi as Shunsuke Kobayashi (小林 俊介)
 * Ryota Koyama as Toshio Saeki
 * Takako Fuji as Kayako Saeki
 * Takashi Matsuyama as Takeo Saeki
 * Kaei Okina as Hiroshi Kitada (北田 洋)
 * Tomohiro Kaku as Nobuyuki Suzuki (鈴木 信之)
 * Taizo Mizumura as Taiji Suzuki (鈴木 泰二)
 * Harumi Matsukaze as Fumi Suzuki (鈴木 ふみ)
 * Yue as Manami Kobayashi (小林 真奈美)
 * Denden as Yoshikawa (吉川)
 * Taro Suwa as Kamio (神尾)

Release
Ju-On 2: The Curse was released in Japan on home video on March 25, 2000.

Stage adaptation
A stage play adaptation of Ju-On was developed in 2023. It adapts the plots from this film and its prequel.

Reception
The website Moira Reviews wrote that, although Ju-On: The Grudge was the high point of the film series, The Curse, although a B-budget film, did "produce a number of uncanny scares – the images of the mother’s croaking body crawling down the stairs; the eerie appearances of the little boy. Especially effective is the scene where a mother sees her bloodied daughter walking up the stairs and follows a trail of bloody footprints."