The Grudge (2020) Make it Stop, Please Make it Stop Grade: F

Source: IMDB

Well 2020 is under way, now we have a brand new year of films and a start of a new decade of cinema to explore as well. We start off the year and decade with.... The Grudge (2020)?! A horror remake that nobody asked for?! Really? The Grudge (2020) is basically the same exact movie as 2004 American version, only this time around the curse is taken from China back to America. Watch skits of human beings, getting haunted by this haunted entity. Alright I’m going off books on my typical critiquing format because this film doesn’t need to be discussed more than five minutes. So first off let’s talk about my feelings for The Grudge franchise and the director behind this new adaption of the film. I’ve only seen The Grudge (2004), never seen the sequel or the original Ju-On film. When I was a kid I was so hyped to see The Grudge, my parents wouldn’t allow me to see it even though it’s rated PG-13. I finally watched the film at seventeen and maybe my parents were afraid of me seeing this film, because of how much an embarrassment it was. Seriously The Grudge (2004) is one of the most laughably awful horror films I’ve ever seen, nothing about that film was scary at all if anything it’s more of a comedy live show, playing multiple random skits that don’t make much sense. So remaking The Grudge (2004) wasn’t that bad of an idea, just because that film was terrible. Now let’s talk about the man behind the camera of the new version Nicolas Pesce. Nicolas Pesce made his name in the horror genre by the two indie horror films he made The Eyes of my Mother and Piercing. The Eyes of my Mother is a solid horror film, lovely black and white cinematography, which gave reasons for other studios to take a chance on him in the future. Piercing came out last year, a horror film is which I did a small quick view for. To go into deeper detail Pesce had unique style for his sophomore year, it’s a lovely shot movie. The problem with the film is the storyline was kind of bad, like at first I was all for it but then it got really goofy and over the top, as it turned me off. So I was kind of hopeful for The Grudge (2020), as they got a film maker that does have not only unique style but does care for the projects he makes. Somehow someway... The Grudge (2020) manages to be even worst than 2004’s version, this film has been one of the worst films I had to sit through in a theater since Jeepers Creepers 3. How bad was this film?! I left an hour in because I just didn’t care anymore and none of you should too. So I’m going to give one prop for 2004’s Grudge film and that is the entity design. It may not be the most frightening thing you’ve ever saw, but it’s interesting to look at, plus The Grudge trademark that entity’s design because it looked cool. The entity design for this film is horrendously bad, it looks disgusting to the point where you have a straight pissed off face just by looking at it. Another thing with the entity is when it turns into a normal girl form, it resembles too much of the little girl from The Ring, the scenes with her were beyond baffling where a couple of horrific moments, I busted out laughing. The one thing The Grudge could thrive off from and they decide to just get worst out of the one remorseful thing they were good at?! Great job everyone! The film looked pretty bad from a visual standpoint, it didn’t resemble Pesce’s previous style of films he worked on in the past, very dark and just a bland looking film. I don’t really want to talk about any cast member of this film, because it’s extremely hard to thrive off the material they are dealing with, like nobody is good in this film and I can’t fully blame anyone. The films starts off with a woman leaving a house in China, where an entity makes a jump scare appearance from a trash bag and then she goes home. When she got home, she hugged her husband and then the film takes a sudden pause. Now I thought this was going to be another set up for another cheap jump scare, but then we cut to title sequences about curses and how it won’t let go.... HUH?! The scene didn’t feel complete, to where the film would cut to text, but it’s The Grudge so who cares? So this new version of The Grudge follows the same exact plot as the last one... I kid you not, it’s the same exact story we’ve seen already. Someone discovering murders have been going on in one particular house, trying to explore how can this be, while we’re shown many flashbacks of victims getting terrified of The Grudge.... There’s absolutely nothing new offered to this new version whatsoever. But you know what separates 2004’s version to this new version?! It’s tolerable. Like I watched 2004’s The Grudge start to finish without struggling to finish. This version is almost impossible to do so. The film is dealing with an identity crisis, where Pesce wants to make his own indie style horror film, but because this film has a bigger budget than what Pesce is used to, plus is owned by a well known studio, that makes a difficult path for Pesce to make what he wants to make. At times you would see glimpses of Pesce’s voice from this film, however you’ll see the studio block his vision by creating unnecessary jump scare sequences that make you question what were they trying to do?! Are they trying to create a dramatic horror film or did they want to make a jump scare horror film?! Which is it?! This time around it’s dreadfully BORING! You know exactly what’s going to happen, when an entity pops up, when a flashback is going to occur, it’s freaking nonsense. I hate the fact this film can’t be one moving narrative, like I can’t stand watching our lead character trying to discover this house and entity, but then I gotta sit through a bunch of skits of The Grudge messing with people. It’s not even comedic this time around, at least with 2004’s you can make fun of it and have a good time. Of course there are a few laughs I got out of watching this, but it’s like watching paint dry, it’s ridiculously dreadful to watch. The thing that bothers me with The Grudge the most is why does this entity haunt these people for?! Ok so in the past you got killed by your mother or father I don’t remember, but why are you haunting people for?! “Oh this girl has a Grudge on her parent that killed her, therefore she’ll haunt people for no apparent reason.” Like what is this rubbish?! What is the point in The Grudge?! Maybe that’s it: There is no point in The Grudge, it was just a stupid cliche jump scare horror film and there’s nothing more to that. At least with The Ring you’re provided with an intriguing story and that it makes sense for it’s existence, what the hell does The Grudge need to exist in cinema for, to the point where we’ve gotten five freaking films out of this?! Maybe I’m just mad I wasted an hour on this load of garbage, but I’m sick of The Grudge man. Overall, The Grudge (2020) is one of the worst horror films I’ve seen in a long time. I don’t recommend this film at all, please don’t support this trash, stop making Grudge films for the love of God! -Mitch Smietana