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 CatsyBlockedParentSpoilers2020-01-29T19:42:40Z
I went to a preview screening for this movie.
For the positives:
- there are some really good scores in this movie
- the title card flashes up in japanese which is a nice tribute
- the practical effects look amazing
- the casting is really good - at times the mother looks like she's on the verge of a mental breakdown
- some of the dialogue is really touching and heartbreaking
- strongly developed small-town cop feels
- some of the characters have really good backstories
- grief is a strong theme in this movie
But the negative...oh goodness. The idea of the curse...basically a police officer takes the curse back with her from Japan and it infects her house. Despite this being a movie with several main character police officers, there is no investigation. They do not actually investigate the curse at all, because a previous character did all of it before. You dont get to see any of the discovery, you dont even get to see anything in Japan.
This movie is not scary. You don't see any chasing or stalking, you don't see any deaths until the end of the movie. It is all jump scare/fade to black. The CGI does not look good. The cadavers spewing flies look very fake. The blood splatter scene where the mother stabs herself in the neck looks very fake. The blood particularly looks almost pixelated on the stained glass window. I just can't understand that there are no real chase /stalking or fighting the bad monster scenes. It feels like a tribute to The Grudge in that they couldn't show the monster because they couldn't afford it in the budget. The Grudge aspect in this film is more like vengeful spirit possession, less tied to the idea of a monster personifying a grudge brought on my death.
The tonal shifts are really confusing as is the direction the movie goes in. It feels like the director wanted to make a well-shot western film or something like There Will Be Blood, but only got a horror movie instead. Some character and story elements are really underused. The main character has a son but he's in like 10% of the movie. They have a dog but it isn't even in more than 3 scenes?
Overall I'm just really disappointed since I thought it started pretty strong.