The Grudge (2020)

The latest entry in The Grudge franchise within the US has promise. The Director, Nicolas Pesce, had a solid first film. In The Eyes Of My Mother he showed he can use characters effectively to build tension while at the same time give explosive scenes of horror in a background of bleakness. The fourth film in the american version of the franchise was touted as a re-imagining of the original. This would mean we get the elements of the original Grudge with a new twist by a different director. The acting, presentation, camera work and effects were wonderful but the lack of any build or use of the themes to draw tension made this re-imagining flounder.

The film is presented in a disjointed manner similar to the original Ju-On and the American version. It begins in the infamous house where a violent tragedy occurred. An american working there as a caretaker witnesses something horrific and quickly returns back home to the states. We see that she is not the same when she returns, starting the curse in a new home. From there we see 4 timelines. Officer Muldoon, a single mother starting anew in the small town after her husband lost his fight with cancer. She begins investigating the home after finding a woman’s remains in a car in the forest. Her partner, Goodman witnessed the original tragedy in the home. While he did not enter, his partner at the time did. The Parkers were real estate agents attempting to sell the home soon after the tragedy that started it all. Finally, the Matheson’s were the most recent owners of the home. Each of these timelines are presented to us each time Muldoon finds something new about the original case. This pieces together each story until the final reveal and Muldoon’s decision based on her research.

Each character set is given a great deal of focus, with a very common theme that arises. Every character has an event or choice regarding death. The loss of a parent, witnessing a disgusting murder and suicide, whether to terminate a pregnancy when the child will have a debilitating illness, and finally a husband considering assisted suicide for his wife suffering from dementia.  The Grudge curse is used to highlight the potential results of a more gruesome decision when these people step foot into the home.

The spirits make some stunning appearances yet feel identical in their usage in the story. Their wounds match how they died, makeup effects and a little cg do great with these entities. The spirits stalk the characters first from distance, many times lurking in the background. Then progressively get closer till they can strike. The Grudge falls though when the attack happens. One egregious scene had Mr. Parker hiding from the spirit within a closet. When his phone goes off there is no jolt, no reaction from him to try and silence the phone. When the entity appeared right beside him this lack of reaction ruined any scare and the tension was a waste.

Likewise the tension that is ever building with Muldoon’s search for the truth and how to save herself never feels like it progresses or climaxes. The entities creep about, scare her and gather ever closer, yet the time between these attacks doesn’t feel like there is a growing urgency for her to learn about the home. The mystery of the home is given away rather quickly so her research just seems like a vague way to see the other deaths leading up to her finale. 

Nicolas and his team do display a love of the original. They paid homage in a way that didn’t feel like these scenes were just stuck in there. They felt a part of the overall story. The focus on more of an eerie build where the spirits would watch, then interact in ever increasing aggression was also very much like the classics instead of overly focused on trying to make the audience jump. Only that tension needed somewhere to go and a release, which wasn’t done properly. I do have hopes for further films as there was enough here that was good that these fixes would make a sequel a great entry in this new form of the curse.