Thursday, January 16, 2020

Movie Review: "The Grudge" (2020)

Director: Nicolas Pesce
Year: 2019
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes

When a nurse returns to the United States after working in Japan, she brings a curse back with her. This "grudge" drives her mad and subsequently affects everyone who comes in contact with her house.

Detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough) shines a flashlight in an empty room after she hears a loud noise in the Sony Pictures remake of "The Grudge."
Detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough) shines a flashlight in an empty room after she hears a loud noise in the Sony Pictures remake of "The Grudge." (Image Source)
It seems like every year in the first week of January, we get an obligatory garbage horror movie. This year, that movie is the American remake of the 2002 Japanese ghost story "Ju-On: The Grudge." This time around, the film is written and directed by Nicolas Pesce, who is best known for his slow-burning, visually disturbing black and white Portuguese language horror flick "The Eyes of My Mother." Pesce's version of "The Grudge" primarily revolves around Detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough) of the Pennsylvania police department. While investigating a bizarre death, Muldoon discovers that several deaths and murders all stem from one house on Reyburn Drive, which belonged to a nurse named Fiona Landers (Tara Westwood). Fiona once worked in Japan and inadvertently returned to the States with a curse attached to her. Because of the "grudge" that possessed her, Fiona went crazy and murdered her husband and daughter, then killed herself. Anyone who sets foot in their home is now affected. Detective Goodman (Demián Bichir), Muldoon's partner, was one of the officers who investigated the case initially, but he never stepped foot in the home. Muldoon's obsession with the case leads her to Reyburn Drive, and now, she is plagued with the curse, too.
Faith Matheson (Lin Shaye) is possessed by a cursed spirit shouting over her body in the horror movie remake "The Grudge."
Faith Matheson (Lin Shaye) is possessed by a cursed spirit shouting over her body in the horror movie remake "The Grudge." (Image Source)
Much like the previous versions of "The Grudge," the narrative of the 2020 remake has many different storylines told in a non-chronological order. This version includes storylines about Detectives Muldoon and Goodman, The Landers Family, The Matheson couple, and real estate agents Peter (John Cho) and Nina Spencer (Betty Gilpin). The biggest problem is none of their stories are even the slightest bit interesting. We know from the get-go that each and every individual in this story faces an inescapable evil, including Muldoon, who is currently investigating the long series of strange deaths. Because of this, we're basically left sitting there twiddling our thumbs and slowly passing the time until every character eventually meets their demise. We never once wondered if someone would perish or not because it's already a certainty that they will. This erases any possible tension there might have been since we know what's going to happen before it occurs on screen. The primary storyline with Muldoon and Goodman falls into the inevitable trap of having too many horror cliches. All of the stories are overloaded with exposition and use ineffective jump-scares. Since the narrative is so hindered with unnecessary detail and a multitude of worthless frights, it slows everything down to a snail's pace, and we wound up feeling bored for most of the movie's runtime. There is, however, one (slightly) redeemable thing about "The Grudge," and that is Pesce's use of grizzly, gruesome visuals that can be quite unsettling. These images are cool to look at, but they don't make the film compelling, and it doesn't change the fact that the characters and the narrative are dull and tedious.
In the 2020 reboot of "The Grudge," John Cho washes his hair in the shower and discovers another hand on his head.
In the 2020 reboot of "The Grudge," John Cho washes his hair in the shower and discovers another hand on his head. (Image Source)
Skip the 2020 version of "The Grudge." There are already nine other Japanese movies in the "Ju-On" franchise, plus the American-produced "The Grudge" trilogy. There's bound to be a better watch than this in there somewhere. Nicolas Pesce wasted a talented cast on a rubbish reboot to a series that should have just stayed dead.

My Rating: 2.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 3/10
IMDB's Rating: 4.1/10
RT Rating: 17%
Do we recommend this movie: AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!

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