Movie Reaction: The Grudge

Formula: The Grudge + (0 to 16 Years)

Based on how old you are, different kinds of horror really did a number on you. I'd never go into a church again if I was a teen during the Rosemary's Baby/Exorcist/Omen run. I would've hated to move around the time that Amityville Horror and Poltergeist were all the rage. It actually would've been nice to be a teen in the mid-90s, when Scream was deconstructing the slasher. My teen years were marked by the arrival of the Japanese-style horror (with a hint of found footage). The Ring, adapted from a Japanese horror movie, is the first time I remember being haunted by a horror movie. It was soon followed by another Japanese remake that referenced the influence directly: The Grudge. I don't really remember that one as well, but the overcast, dreary aesthetic of those films remain the template for horror in my mind.

It feels too soon to be rebooting The Grudge only because I don't realize how much time has passed. It's been 16 years since the first Grudge movie. There's actually been a couple sequels since then; the last coming in 2009. The 2020 The Grudge is something between a reboot and a sequel. It begins with a woman leaving a house in Japan in 2004. I believe it's the same house as the first movie. Actually, the movie begins with a quick refresher before that. It explains that when something terrible happens in a location, that creates a curse (a grudge, one could call it) that follows anyone who comes into contact with it. So, this woman leaves a grudge house in Japan and heads back home to the U.S. This brings the curse to her house, of course, and sets off the events of the movie. Like previous installments, this film tells multiple stories concurrently that happen in different timelines. I won't bog you down with the details, but some people die in all the timelines. The A-story is a detective played by Andrea Riseborough investigating what happened in the other stories while suspecting that the curse has followed her. I'll assume we're all grownups who have seen horror movies before and let you figure out how the rest of this goes.

I'm a fan of this style of horror. I like supernatural horror about malevolent forces rather than concrete villains. I love a good investigation. It's a great way to tell a lot of hopeless stories plausibly. In a slasher, I have to always keep a little hope alive. But when I already know the result, I can be afraid for the people in good faith. This movie doesn't overuse the jump scares or overresolve the story. It's not quite the masterwork of "smart protagonists" vs "clever, unstoppable force" that Oculus is, but I wasn't constantly rolling my eyes at what the characters do. That's a low bar that few horror movies manage to clear.

It's a solid cast. I didn't recognize Andrea Riseborough at all, and I'm not sure why. Demian Bichir plays another detective out of a slightly different horror movie. The story with John Cho and Betty Gilpin felt off too. No one was bad. They just didn't all fit together.
Of all the major studio horror offerings out there, The Grudge ranks toward the top of what I've seen lately. It's an actual horror movie, not one that dips its toes into other genres. The stakes and storytelling are simple. It doesn't explain too much. It's nice, lean horror.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend