"When a reviewer watches a movie, and then the remake....and then another remake they gain such terrible, terrible rage, and every time they see such sequels a Grudge is born....especially when they discover that this isn't a remake, but a damn bloody connector movie that links the original Ju-On: The Grudge, and the American remake (The Grudge (2004)), the Graphic Novel and the damn Ju-On: The Video Game.....I should have taken heed of her warnings, but I was such a fool..."
If there is one thing I like it is good horror, and the one thing I discovered a long time ago was that Asian horror is top-notch. Dark Water, One Missed Call, Ringu and Ju-On is pretty good if you want movies that stay with you and mess with your head a little. Ju-On: The Grudge (aka Ju-On: The Curse 3) is one of my favorites because it was the first Japanese horror I watched.
As most readers will know if there's one thing I really don't like (aside from Birdemic) its remakes. Lots of remakes. Remakes of remakes. Or reboots. Or reboots which are essentially a frame for frame remakes...you get the point. As I've mentioned before it feels a lot of the time with the number of remakes out (especially now) that the creativity in the movie world is being lost, and that is quite saddening....but a remake of a remake feels even worse and now it just makes me wonder if the writer's originality well has finally run well and truly dry, leaving us with the dust of dust... Which brings me to this...The Grudge: The Untold Chapter is the second American remake of Ju-O: The Grudge. Ok, let's get this show on the road then...
Detective Muldoon is a single mother who moves to a small town in Pennsylvania with her son Burke to work in the local Police Department. Muldoon is assigned to be the partner of Detective Goodman, who has recently lost his partner Detective Wilson that was obsessed with a murder case where a young housewife murders her family in her own home. When Muldoon and Goodman find the remains of a woman in a car in a closed road, Muldoon realizes that her address was the same as the murder case Wilson was investigating. She decides to investigate and soon discovers that the house has a curse that originates in Japan and now a vengeful ghost that dooms all who set foot within the walls to a violent death.
I have to admit, as soon as I found out about this, it worried me. As I said before, I loved Ju-On: The Grudge but wasn't too keen on the 2004 American remake, and Sam Rami and Sarah Michelle Geller didn't save it for me either, which is surprising as I'm a fan of both...so when I saw this with my expectations low, I wasn't really disappointed. The wibblly-wobbly time-wimey of The Grudge-verse is there but it just doesn't help. This movie wasn't scary in the slightest (at least the 2004 one was slightly scary...my former flatmate left the cinema partway through watching it at the cinema.), the character seemed to be by the numbers characters and kinda shallow (more so than the 2004 version) and as much as it was interesting spreading the curse to America I feel they needed to go a bit more in-depth into how the curse hopped from Japan to America.
The extras on the disc aren't too bad, there's the alternate ending (which is meh really although saying that I have to admit I think I would have preferred that), behind the scenes, deleted scenes, and an interesting piece about the many Easter Eggs which was interesting and shows many links to the Ju-On/Grudge franchise.
There are people who really like this movie, and I guess it'll be great for fans of Rami and the franchise itself.
For the Steelbook collectors out there, the movie is being released in an exclusive Steelbook by Zavvi, check it out...
Pretty sweet huh? If you want to get yourself this copy then click HERE or click on the images.
The Grudge (2020) is rated 15 and available on VOD now and will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD on June 1st 2020 from all the usual entertainment outlets.