Director of the new Grudge compares movie to David Fincher’s Seven

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

We’re living in an age of reboots and remakes, with established franchises of all sorts getting makeovers for newer audiences. One such is THE GRUDGE series which is getting a new addition from PIERCING director Nicholas Pesce, and the filmmaker has some big plans for the new movie, saying it will take things in a completely new direction than the previous entries.

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Pesce was talking with EW about the upcoming horror flick (now due out for January 3, 2020), and he promised it’s a “very different take on The Grudge than you know it from the past.” He likened it to the types of grounded, less-flashy horror movies that have been taking audiences by storm in recent years (THE BABADOOK, HEREDITARY), saying they inspired them to look at the series in a whole new way.

“Those movies will always exist and always be there for you to watch. I think that horror audiences these days are looking for a much more grounded, much more realistic, much more character-driven story in their horror movies. We see what’s doing well now and it is these kind of smarter, more nuanced horror stories, and that’s what this is going to be. We’re trying to update it for contemporary sensibilities, and we have an unbelievable cast, and I think it’s going to be something very different. There’s a thousand Grudge movies out there, and we wanted to figure out a way to kind of put a new, fresh spin on it, and it’s going to be exciting.”

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A remake of the Japanese horror movie JU-ON: THE GRUDGE, the 2004 movie starring Sarah Michelle Gellar was a huge hit that spawned two more sequels, neither hitting the same heights as the first one. While those movies appealed to the teen crowd and saw Gellar and several other unfortunate souls become victims of a curse, Pesce unveiled some plot details for his new movie starring Andrea Riseborough, comparing it to the 90s David Fincher classic – SEVEN.

 “The movie is set up a lot more like Seven, that sort of movie. There’s a cop drama that drives the whole thing, and Andrea is the lead detective on this new case that they’ve come upon, and is the driving force through the movie. She’s incredible. She’s in absolutely everything and, when you see her act, you know why.”

THE GRUDGE movies have not aged well, so they are very much in need of a new style and approach. If that approach is going to be inspired by some of the excellent, critically-acclaimed horror movies of recent years then I am all for it. That means there's room for grounded tension as well as shocking, demon girl visuals, which is the best of both worlds, I say. 

GRUDGE starring Riseborough, Betty Gilpin and Jackie Weaver is out January 3, 2020.