'The Grudge' is a Little Too Serious for Ju-on

Nicolas Pesce's The Grudge is filled with dread and horror, that it forgot to inject a little fun into it. Instead, it has a prestige dramatic story based on its origin, Ju-on. It focuses on three families, almost like an anthology, except that each of them is connected with each other. One very important aspect of Pesce’s storytelling, which he brought along from the original, is his play with time. Though the flick begins with two detectives, Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough) and Goodman’s (Demian Bichir) discovery of a decaying corpse in the woods, the story cuts between the current time and the bits and pieces of the other stories that lead to this frightening discovery. Pesce knitted these stories together so well that its drama and its detective feature are almost the only two good things that's going for it.

Photo: Columbia Pictures

Where it falls short is the horror, and unfortunately, it's a horror film first before any other genre. It relies a lot on jump-scares which unfortunately are not that scary. They're surprising but the fact that they look like ripoffs from other scary movies make the jump-scares predictable and less impactful. Probably a good thing that the film doesn't dwell too much on its origin, but it also removed the horror and tricks that fans love from Ju-on and completely barred it with fun. The Grudge is about rage, death, grief, and revenge. This one has these but only in a minimum dose.

Ju-on has always been about campy horror and Pesce is obviously not interested in that. Narratively, it's a competent film as Pesce weaves each stories in a non-linear structure and made it interesting. But the throaty, scary sound or Kayako is sorely missing. It would probably work better if it's tagged as a True Detective story.

On a positive note, it's a well-acted film by an ensemble consisted of talents like Andrea Riseborough, Jackie Weaver, Lin Shaye, Jon Cho, and Demian Bichir. They make it as interesting as possible, especially that their characters are also distinct, each have their own purpose and baggage. It also helps the narrative a lot that they're from different stories so their great talents are scattered throughout the film.

In short, it's a well-knitted narrative with a great ensemble, and only falls short in its horror.