THE GRUDGE (Horror Movie Review)


7/10
Welcome to the curse house, this time in America with very Caucasian looking ghosts. Detective Muldoon is grieving for her husband and trying to start her life anew. When a broken down car is discovered with a rotten corpse behind the wheel it all leads to a house where a terrible murder suicide had happened a few years ago. Muldoon enters the house unaware of its murderous nature and when she leaves a deadly curse will follow her wherever she goes... 

Written and directed by Nicholas Pesce, an independent director, who made quite a splash with his horror flick The Eyes Of My Mother,  the new Grudge takes the franchise’s cinematography and storytelling to a completely different level, while keeping its legacy intact. Fans should have been pleased, although they were not, as this horror movie is designed to distress rather than scare. The original was gimmicky and cool. This one is simply sad! 

That aside, the wonderfully creepy THE GRUDGE is a hallmark of how a horror movie shot by a class A director should look and feel like: Cold and Nihilistic, oozing hopelessness and dread. But it is this hopelessness that turns the viewers away and earns it such a poor rating from the critics. 


Pesce has a talent in finding terror in plain and everyday things. The cast are not just expendable victims, they are all given a nice story arc, which makes their ultimate demise heartbreaking. More good news - unlike its predecessors this modern Grudge is wonderfully gory. An amazing soundtrack from The Newton Brothers is a real treat. They are probably one of the most talented score writers out there these days!

On the downside I was never a fan of the patchwork like structure of the original films, here it remains intact. The ending is an anti climax but once again it is typical for the  Grudge franchise. Watch carefully for the house facade as the credits fall. There’s a wonderful twist out there that very few who watched the movie had understood!

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