Taking a moment to remember the last 3 Grudge films - which were ripped from Ju-On: The Grudge in 2004, I really don't see a reason for this 'requel' as it's being called at all.
The film continues the same disjointed cop narrative overlaid with past moments from inside the house that led to how far the Grudge has come to this point. Tough, the storylines can be confusing as to which order they occured and it even follows some seriously specific aspects of the original 3 movies that didn't work the first time. This leaves the audience knowing exactly how it's going to end.
But, while this isn't necessarily bad for a horror film there is one thing that truly bothers me and it's a divergence from the original 3 that I don't think they're fully acknowledging. In the original 3 someone winds up in a mental hospital and is caught on camera being killed. You can't see the grudge but you can tell that he isn't the one murdering himself. In this movie someone else is in a mental hospital for 2 years and still isn't dead. While yes some gruesome stuff happens to him AFTER the main character comes to visit, he seems alive and relatively well. It just doesn't make any sense.
I appreciate that the ending stayed true to the original series. You can't stop the grudge.
Review by GM BartheBlockedParent2020-01-05T22:08:32Z
Taking a moment to remember the last 3 Grudge films - which were ripped from Ju-On: The Grudge in 2004, I really don't see a reason for this 'requel' as it's being called at all.
The film continues the same disjointed cop narrative overlaid with past moments from inside the house that led to how far the Grudge has come to this point. Tough, the storylines can be confusing as to which order they occured and it even follows some seriously specific aspects of the original 3 movies that didn't work the first time. This leaves the audience knowing exactly how it's going to end.
But, while this isn't necessarily bad for a horror film there is one thing that truly bothers me and it's a divergence from the original 3 that I don't think they're fully acknowledging. In the original 3 someone winds up in a mental hospital and is caught on camera being killed. You can't see the grudge but you can tell that he isn't the one murdering himself. In this movie someone else is in a mental hospital for 2 years and still isn't dead. While yes some gruesome stuff happens to him AFTER the main character comes to visit, he seems alive and relatively well. It just doesn't make any sense.
I appreciate that the ending stayed true to the original series. You can't stop the grudge.