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Vanessa Cassidy is a main character from The Grudge 2, portrayed by Teresa Palmer. She is a stunning American schoolgirl attending Tokyo's International School with Miyuki Nazawa and Allison Fleming. Being a vicious and mean bully, Vanessa crosses paths with the curse after persuading the newcomer Allison to enter "one of the most haunted houses in all of Japan", to play a prank on her which goes horribly wrong.

She can be considered an unofficial antagonist of the film alongside Kayako Saeki, as she was inadvertently responsible for getting her friends and the people living in the Chicago apartment killed, as Allison took the curse back home to Chicago (and setting up the events of The Grudge 3).

She is the second of the schoolgirls to be killed.

Biography[]

Vanessa was a beautiful student from the International School and best friends withMiyuki. She was admired for her incredible beauty and was by far the prettiest girl in the school with her long and beautiful curly blonde hair, stunning and piercing blue eyes, model-like cheekbones, skinny and very fit body, and long, gorgeous, and shapely legs. She was fully aware of how incredibly sexy she was, and took great pride in her divine appearance. Her worst nightmare would be losing her beauty, for example having blemishes and zits appear on her face, if her hairline were to recede or if her luscious hair were to fall out. She'd also have been distraught if her breasts or arse were to shrink, and in fact she wished those features were larger and planned to have them artificially enhanced. Vanessa took great care in not putting on any weight in order to maintain her perfect model like body. She wore little to no makeup, as she knew her face was already impeccable as it was. Vanessa was very popular due to her good looks and sexy charm and was the "queen bee" of the school along with Miyuki. She took great pride and care in her looks and was also rather vain and shallow. She deliberately wore her school uniform in a provocative way to flaunt her beauty over the other girls by unbuttoning her blazer, wearing a tight blouse and unbuttoning the top buttons, loosening her tie, and rolling up her skirt very high to show off her legs, which became the "cool" way to wear the school uniform that other girls copied. Vanessa was secretly very insecure and worried about losing her status as the prettiest and most popular girl in school and, worse, even worried about losing her immense beauty. She had a nasty edge and maintained her popular status by putting down girls she deemed a "threat" and making them feel insecure. She would even lash out at her best friend, Miyuki, at times.

Chicago's newcomer to the school, the unpopular and lonely Allison, wanted to become popular by befriending Vanessa and Miyuki. She tagged along with them as school ended, and Vanessa and Miyuki teased her for sitting alone at the lunch table and looking frumpy in her school uniform. Vanessa instructed Allison on how to look "cooler" in her uniform by showing her how to roll up her skirt, just like Miyuki and her. Allison complied and rolled her skirt up, which led to Vanessa complementing her legs. When they left the school campus, both Vanessa and Miyuki took advantage of being outside the school's jurisdiction by taking off their uniform blazers to reveal their blouses, which Vanessa preferred because she thought it was less cumbersome and sexier. Vanessa further adjusted her uniform by rolling up the sleeves on her blouse and loosening up her tie and the open top of her blouse.

After the girls left the school, Vanessa offered Allison a test to become part of the popular clique: to enter an abandoned, flared house, said to be "one of the most haunted houses in all of Japan". Vanessa knew about the house's murderous background and its inhabitant curse but was openly skeptical about the curse and seemed to mock it. As they approached the house, Vanessa and Miyuki informed Allison that "a girl" set a fire that killed her "boyfriend" two years before and called the house haunted in order to frighten Allison. Vanessa entered the house first and urged on the other two girls to follow her. When they entered the house, they found the interior to be completely burnt, desolate, and dark. Vanessa further described the "accident" and teased Miyuki about her promiscuity with her boyfriend. Vanessa took Allison upstairs while the embarrassed Miyuki remained behind for a moment. She approached the burnt out tub downstairs after she thought she saw something in the dirty water and jumped back in a fright after she saw something emerge from the water. Vanessa returned downstairs to retrieve Miyuki and began to laugh about their plan when she saw that Miyuki had become frightened. Miyuki then protested that they should stop and leave, which annoyed Vanessa.

The girls eventually made their way to a bedroom upstairs. Vanessa then informed Allison that she had to remain in the closet for ten seconds while closing her eyes. Allison reluctantly complied and, while she was counting down, Vanessa and Miyuki shut the closet on her in order to terrify her. Vanessa had no plans to actually include Allison in the popular clique and instead wanted to scare her and humiliate her by taking a picture of her with her cellphone while she was scared. Vanessa readied her phone as Allison screamed in the closet, but became concerned as Allison did not leave. Both Vanessa and Miyuki tried to open the door, but the door would not budge, and they became concerned. Allison soon screamed as she saw Kayako ans Toshio's ghost, which scared Vanessa and Miyuki and caused them to flee the house. Allison managed to escape and frantically followed them after the door eventually opened. Now, all three of the schoolgirls are now victims of the curse.

Later in school, both Allison and Miyuki are haunted by the curse. Afterwards, Vanessa and Allison were in the same PE class and were changing in the locker room from their gym clothes to their uniforms with the other girls in the class. Vanessa lingered in the locker room as she chatted with the other popular girls and unsubtly flaunted her beauty over them while she remained in her bra and panties in front of everyone after taking off her gym clothes, unlike all the other girls who quickly covered up their bodies after taking their gym clothes off to go to the shower or change into their uniforms, by showing off their gorgeous body. As Allison, who had re-everted to her previous uncomfortability with her body and was embarrassed to take off her gym clothes in front of everyone, passed by Vanessa and her popular clique on the way to the shower, Vanessa taunted Allison in front of the whole class. Having not felt any of the effects of the curse, she made fun of Allison for previously freaking out in class and the fact that she had to see the school "shrink" in the morning, which caused all the girls to laugh at Allison and join Vanessa's mockery. Their cruelty caused Allison to cry, and her embarrassment was compounded by the fact she felt ugly and ashamed of her body when compared to Vanessa's beauty. As Allison ran away in tears, Vanessa smugly strutted to the shower and briefly admired her beauty in the mirror.

As Vanessa showered, she discovered a strand of dark black hair, which puzzled her given she had blonde hair. She then dug her finger into hair and pulled away tufts more black hair, which alarmed her greatly as she had no idea where the black hair had come from or what was happening to her natural hair, and became terrified that her gorgeous blonde hair had been permanently damaged and that she would no longer be beautiful without her hair. After she left the shower, she checked herself in the mirror and was relieved to see her cherished hair was still intact, along with her good looks. Still somewhat unnerved, she began to change into her uniform and grabbed her blouse from her locker. Suddenly, as she grabbed her blouse, she spotted a hanging white dress in another locker, which then became Kayako when she looked a second time. Terrified, she peed all over her legs, dropped her blouse, and ran from her locker, wearing a towel.

Vanessa later entered Principal Dale's office, and was met by a startled Allison, to her great annoyance. Vanessa's face was now very worn down and she was gradually losing her looks to the curse. She denied that anything had happened in the house to the principal, even after Allison startled Vanessa by saying that Miyuki was missing. When Allison asked why Vanessa took her to the house, she haughtily put the blame on Allison by claiming she wanted to come, retreating further into denial and refusing to accept that her disfigurement and Miyuki's disappearance were caused by her own actions. Allison then became upset by Vanessa's denial and cruelty and stormed from the office in tears. Vanessa got up as if she was to stop her but the principal told Vanessa to wait in the office as she ran after Allison.

The distraught Vanessa waited at the principal's desk and sent a text message to Miyuki asking where she was. While Vanessa was playing with a lamp light, the light suddenly went off, and she bent down beneath the desk to see what was wrong with the lamp. While she was beneath the desk her phone rang, and she saw a pair of white feet running across the floor. Frightened, she grabbed for her phone on the desk, but instead felt Toshio's feet, which caused her to scream and panic. Vanessa then leapt backwards in total fear, but did not see anything except her phone vibrating. She picked up the phone as she saw Miyuki's number was calling and cried out for Miyuki when she answered. However, she was met with the sound of a cat crying, which caused her to drop the phone. Vanessa then ran from the principal's office in total panic and left the school.

Desperate in the streets, she entered a phone booth and attempted to make one last call to Miyuki, only to hear Kayako's death rattle. Startled, Vanessa drops the phone and looks around in the booth, and then Toshio appeared beneath her, grabbing her legs. She was unable to escape from his grip, since her skirt was rolled up too high and he was able to clench on to the plentiful amounts of skin on her legs that were uncovered by her short skirt. Vanessa then met her fate under the curse, as Kayako fully wrapped her with her long black hair, suffocating her to death.

Aftermath[]

Vanessa’s ghost continued to haunt Allison after her death, appearing next to her along with Miyuki’s ghost in the principal’s office, before the Principal herself revealed she’s a ghost, prompting Allison to move back home.

Apart from Kayako and Toshio, the curse followed Allison to her appartment building in Chicago in the form of Vanessa and Miyuki. Jake saw the two ghostly schoolgirls twice, the first time walking behind Allison in the basement, the second time himself being threateningly stared by their ghostly eyes. 

Trivia[]

  • The character of Vanessa was written by Takashi Shimizu with actress Vanessa Lengies in mind. She ultimately turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts and the role went to Teresa Palmer. The part still bares her name.
  • Australian, The Grudge 2 was actress Teresa Palmer's first American film. She reportedly felt her accent in the movie was "horrific".[1]
  • The shot of Vanessa in the shower mirrors the infamous scene of Karen in the shower where she is touched by Kayako's ghost, from The Grudge
  • Teresa Palmer had a video journal during shooting that is availabe here. It shows Palmer hanging out in Tokyo with co-star Arielle Kebbel and their first sight of the Saeki house setting.
  • The scene where Vanessa is in the principal's office being tormented by Toshio references Mizuho's demise in Ju-on: The Curse.
  • The Director’s Cut shows that Vanessa might have had a tendency to gaslight the people around her, as a startled Miyuki in the Saeki home asked to leave, and then Vanessa accused her of being a bad friend, also suggesting that not even Miyuki was safe from her bullying.
  • Despite this, Vanessa was still shown to be genuinely concerned about her disappearance, as she kept repeatedly calling her.
  • In a deleted scene, Vanessa is more severely disfigured by the curse, as the right side of her face has completely deteriorated. She stumbles backward in shock after realizing her beauty has been destroyed into her baffled classmates, until a teacher grabs her and says the principal wants to see her.
  • From a certain perspective, Vanessa can be considered one of the main antagonist of the Grudge 2 since she is the reason that the Saeki's curse is revived and unleashed. Her actions cause the curse to spread to America, starting the events of the Grudge 3 and killing many people in both movies.
  • Toshio starts tormenting Vanessa in the principal’s office when he unplugged the lamp that Vanessa starts playing with, leaving her confused as to why it suddenly stopped working. Ironically, Teresa Palmer would go on to star in Lights Out (2016), a horror film that uses lamps and lights as a plot point.

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