The Point of Fear--The Grudge 3

Regardless of what I might think of The Grudge 3 (I’m currently working on a review for it), the set piece with Shawnee Smith, as psychiatrist Dr. Sullivan (the doc who was placed in charge of overseeing kid Jake (Matthew Knight, from The Grudge 2), to be disposed of by Kayako while trapped in his cell (although, there’s no where he could have retreated to that would have saved him)), trying to flee from Kayako, using her key card to pass from one corridor/room to the next within the hospital, is about as good a set piece as I’ve seen this year. If just because of how well orchestrated it is and how extraordinary Shawnee is at portraying absolute, shit-in-your-pants, fear. While the film, for me, is no great shakes (really, the sequel is doomed of the “the well has been scrubbed clean at the bottom of fresh ideas” problem), this set piece (the set piece with Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Marina Sirtis, isn’t too shabby, either) really left me quite thrilled. I have a little entry for the blog about Blair Witch 2 which further re-iterates this feeling that despite the overall effect of a horror film, a set piece or two can make a world of difference. I think dismissing a film outright because it doesn’t overall work can be a bit clumsy when there are some solid pieces that do deserve to be acknowledged as rather splendid.