550: The Grudge

[00:00:02] Let's get to the remake of The Grudge from 2020. It is directed by Nicholas Petschy, stars Tara Westwood, Junko Bailey, David Lawrence Brown, Zoe Fish, Andrea Riseborough, Damian Bashir, Jackie Weaver, John Cho.

[00:00:24] And the synopsis is, A house is cursed by a vengeful ghost that dooms those who enter it with a violent death.

[00:00:35] So I've only seen the 2004 Grudge film. I haven't seen the original Japanese ones yet.

[00:00:44] I've always been aware of this series. Something about it has been intriguing.

[00:00:49] And I heard about this one only in the last couple of years.

[00:00:55] I knew it was a bit of a reboot, like kind of a sequel, but more so remake or reboot of the entire franchise.

[00:01:04] My main draw in watching it was Nicholas Petschy, who directed Piercing, which I saw at Sundance, actually.

[00:01:11] And then also The Eyes of My Mother, another great movie.

[00:01:15] It's also produced by Sam Raimi.

[00:01:20] While I don't think that this movie is groundbreaking at all, I've never seen a movie so trashed across the board for little to no reason.

[00:01:31] Like, yes, it is very much a jump scare film, but there are so many other movies that get glowing reviews in the same genre that do a lot of the exact same things this one does and not nearly as confidently.

[00:01:48] I knew the general premise. I also know that the Ring series is in the same vein, kind of inspired by this as well.

[00:01:59] The cast, way above average than what I was expecting.

[00:02:03] I knew Andrea Risborough was in this, but like Jackie Weaver, John Cho, like it's a really stacked cast for a movie that seems to be very small in stature.

[00:02:14] And even for a franchise like this, you don't really see a cast this good.

[00:02:21] It's shot very well, like the lighting is great.

[00:02:25] It has that sepia palette to it, but was very striking and kept me looking around the frame in terms of who or what might be lurking in the background.

[00:02:40] What caught me off guard the most in a great way was the editing and the overall structure of the story.

[00:02:47] It's told in a very nonlinear fashion.

[00:02:52] I was thinking at first, like, okay, I'm a little jumbled here, like a little confused, but then everything comes back around.

[00:03:00] It feels very deliberate, very thoughtful, like they're in command of this story and they're not just mixing things around for the sake of it.

[00:03:12] I think that the score and honestly just the overall vibe of the movie is refreshingly understated.

[00:03:20] Like the score is mostly just piano, a very somber piano.

[00:03:26] While I'm not someone who prefers jump scares, I will almost always prefer a movie to create horror in other ways that will linger more with you after the movie is over.

[00:03:40] Talking about picking your spots for, let's call them classic jump scares and doing them so well, this movie has that.

[00:03:47] Like I was very on edge.

[00:03:51] It's the kind of movie you want to watch with all the lights out, volume on high.

[00:03:57] In terms of Nicholas Petchy's previous work, I don't know the exact reason as to why he was hired for this movie.

[00:04:04] I'm glad he was, but it does in some ways or in a lot of ways seem beneath him for the kind of project and what he's able to do.

[00:04:14] He does the most with what he can.

[00:04:17] So I guess it's kind of bittersweet that he did this instead of doing something else.

[00:04:21] There's something about the long, scraggly, wet hair of the girl that is so iconic, so creepy and effective every single time I watch it.

[00:04:34] It's one of those horror images that you never forget.

[00:04:40] And spoiler warning, the reveal of the body in the car who you don't know who it is at the time at the beginning and it's like a rotting corpse.

[00:04:50] And then that's revealed later to be Jackie Weaver because she got in a crash trying to get away from the house after the husband was murdered.

[00:05:01] The first time Andrea Rysborough, who's a great actor, very underrated actor.

[00:05:08] When she goes into the house for the first time and she sees the wife who is cursed and mentally gone.

[00:05:18] Her fingers are all gone and the husband is in the chair rotting with the maggots and the TV on in the background.

[00:05:27] The flashbacks with John Cho and his wife, I thought were very interesting and well told within the main narrative.

[00:05:35] It never felt okay here we're having to go back again in time.

[00:05:38] It always felt very fluid.

[00:05:42] The flashback of the cop who investigated the original murder at the house and he can't let it go.

[00:05:50] And he tries to kill himself in the car while the other cop is driving and he butchers it.

[00:05:55] Ends up just blowing a hole in his cheek and disfiguring his face.

[00:06:02] And then later he pulls his eyes out so he can quote unquote not see the girl or the other demons looking at him.

[00:06:12] The wife stabbing the husband with a fork and then when she's put in the asylum she jumps off the stairwell and we see her splatter on the floor.

[00:06:25] It's not a hundred percent I don't think in this way but what's great about the direction in terms of tackling a supernatural story like this but keeping it fairly grounded is we're generally only seeing the ghosts through certain characters eyes.

[00:06:49] It's not like we're seeing the demon walk around on their own causing havoc without a perspective.

[00:06:55] It's always someone who has been cursed who has been a part of the house is seeing that firsthand.

[00:07:01] And so therefore it's easier for me at least to say okay I can understand that this has afflicted them personally.

[00:07:09] There's a mental game going on right now with them in terms of what's real what's not.

[00:07:15] Some of the best jump scares is when I mean the one that made me jump the most was in the inventory room at the police department when she's wandering through the hallway when the lights are out and suddenly there's that ghoul like figure right in front of her face when she flashes the light.

[00:07:38] The girl coming out of the bathtub towards the beginning when she first sees John Cho.

[00:07:48] All of the moments when Andrea Riseborough is really starting to question herself and her sanity when she's outside her house and she sees the figures moving through her hallways and her rooms going into her son's room and that causing of course complete panic.

[00:08:06] When John Cho looks through the people at the house and you just see the girl's face that's completely covered in hair staring at him.

[00:08:20] And if we're talking great endings like great final moments of a movie.

[00:08:26] When Andrea Riseborough or we think that she's killed the cursed girl the house is destroyed.

[00:08:35] I totally bought maybe this is just me like I bought OK everything's OK now it's peaceful.

[00:08:42] Oh good.

[00:08:43] She's got her son back and then there's that great sleight of hand when she's hugging her son and she says I love you and blah blah blah.

[00:08:51] But then you see the son in the background the real son saying OK bye I'm going to school.

[00:08:56] And she slowly looks at who she's hugging and it's the girl and the girl just drags her away.

[00:09:04] I thought that was a fantastic end teaser that reinforced the showcase for if you're going to do a jump scare movie and that's what you have to do.

[00:09:16] You can hire the right people to do it.

[00:09:20] Some issues with it though so I'm not glowing over it too much.

[00:09:25] Overall the story that's there is not that strong.

[00:09:28] It's very threadbare.

[00:09:31] The investigation the look into the house the look into the curse itself like there's really not a whole lot going on there.

[00:09:40] There's not a lot of character development.

[00:09:44] They're all very broad.

[00:09:47] The looks into grief like everyone is dealing with their own sense of grief and trauma.

[00:09:55] It could have used an extra 15-20 minutes to explore some of those ideas a little more and it would be that much better.

[00:10:06] So that does make it a little bit more forgettable.

[00:10:10] More throwaway.

[00:10:12] I did appreciate that the movie never got huge in the third act as many like it do where the CG goes crazy.

[00:10:21] It goes so supernatural that you've lost all sense of reality and grounding.

[00:10:29] Looking back at all the things I've said about it, I can't think of the last jump scare focused horror film that I've had so many things to say about in a good way.

[00:10:40] Had me not really emotional but had me affected.

[00:10:45] If you haven't seen any of the other grudge films, I wouldn't worry.

[00:10:50] You don't really need to have any true backstory to this.

[00:10:53] You could go in blind as I pretty much did and follow it very easily.

[00:11:01] That one is a heavy three and a half out of five.