Director: Nicolas Pesce
Notable Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir, John
Cho, Betty Gilpin, Lin Shaye, Frankie Faison, Jacki Weaver, William Sadler, Tara
Westwood, David Lawrence Brown, Zoe Fish
There’s a moment in The Grudge where a loving husband
and father-to-be real estate agent, played by the vastly underrated John Cho,
hesitates outside of the cursed house at the center of the film. Nothing in
particular is there, no ghosts or sinister shadows. He looks around at the
semi-desolate street in front of the characteristically part gothic home and
begrudgingly moves to go in. It’s moments like these, caressed in the heavyweight of an existential dread knowing something is wrong with no clear indicator
to what, which makes The Grudge franchise so timeless. It’s a franchise
that is fairly well known around the world. It took Japan by storm with a
variety of series from TV to reboots, but a 2004 remake starring Sarah Michelle
Gellar, produced by Ghost House (Sam Raimi and his crew), and directed by the original
writer/director Takashi Shimizu is what many people in America will remember.
Yes, that remake had a couple of ill crafted sequels that hardly capitalized on
the tone indicated in the scene above, but the series has lived on nonetheless.