2004 was a long time ago, and this new stab at the hit Japanese horror franchise brings nothing to the table
Todd Gilchrist | January 2, 2020 @ 6:00 PM
Last Updated: January 2, 2020 @ 6:02 PM
Allen Fraser/Sony
“The Grudge” may have started in Japan with the horror film “Ju-on,” but after four installments, 16 years, and a villain that cannot die as long as there’s an ounce left of box-office potential in its intellectual property, it’s become a quintessentially American franchise.
Unfortunately, the intriguingly different — and, perhaps vitally, unspecific — set of cultural myths that drove Takashi Shimizu’s 2004 remake of his earlier work to more than $187 million at the box office has not only long since fallen out of commercial vogue, but also seemingly exhausted its own mysteries.
Even gussied up with a cast of prestigious character actors including Andrea Riseborough, Demián Bichir, John Cho, Betty Gilpin and Jacki Weaver, this new “Grudge” does little more than revive the visual lexicon of its predecessors without adding new mythic, narrative or emotional dimensions to the ongoing story of an unseen force that forever passes along its unstoppable evil.
Riseborough plays Detective Muldoon, a widow searching for distractions after the death of her husband from cancer. Teamed with lonely Detective Goodman (Bichir), the duo is assigned to investigate the mysterious death of Lorna Moody (Weaver), whose badly mangled body is discovered on the outskirts of town.
Goodman maintains his distance from the case, especially after clues suggest it may share elements in common with the deaths of the Landers family two years earlier, which he never solved and which slowly drove his partner Wilson (William Sadler) crazy. But after Muldoon encounters Faith Matheson (Lin Shaye), injured and seemingly insane, in the Landers’ home, she becomes determined to get to the bottom of these violent, unexplained deaths.
Muldoon’s investigation uncovers information about Faith and her husband William (Frankie Faison), who moved into the Landers home after she was diagnosed with a terminal disease, which eventually leads Muldoon to the case of Peter (Cho) and Nina Spencer (Gilpin), expecting parents who were killed while coming to terms with challenging news about their unborn child. But in spite of Goodman’s discouragement, Muldoon continues to search for the truth, even as she begins to experience strange visions herself.
As her worries mount that whatever caused these deaths has somehow attached itself to her and her son, Muldoon makes a desperate bid to expose this cycle of violence for what it is before they fall victim to its evil designs.
Directed and co-written by Nicolas Pesce (“The Eyes of My Mother”), “The Grudge” is almost slavishly devoted to the original (or “original”) film, taking place between 2004 and ’06 as a way to keep its continuity synchronized. At the same time, Pesce inexplicably opts to focus on Muldoon as his main character, while simultaneously jumping forward and back in time between the stories of various characters impacted by The Grudge without successfully uniting the morsels of information from each timeline into a cohesive (much less suspenseful) present. The audience learns details — about these couples, these families, as they descend into madness and murder — that none of the characters could know, with only a single takeaway: namely, that The Grudge is an evil force, and it cannot be stopped.
The nonlinear structure keeps Muldoon foregrounded throughout the film, but it accomplishes little else except distract viewers from the mounting list of important questions that never get answered. Meanwhile, Bichir’s Goodman seems to have evaded getting Grudged simply because he never went inside the house where the first murders occur; although that puts him a uniquely intriguing position to witness and react to (and maybe try to stop) this cycle of violence again and again, the character instead appears only to smoke cigarettes, provide useful expository information and then go away.
Pesce directs the whole thing with a handsome austerity that suggests a more thoughtful, reality-based interpretation of this long-running ghost story, and bolsters its seriousness with a cast of considerable acting if not commercial weight. (Gone are the Sarah Michelle Gellar days.) Riseborough wrestles with her role as cop and grieving mother-wife with more energy than the movie probably deserves, while Bichir lends his Sphinx-like stillness to Goodman in ways that are both effective and occasionally maddening.
But Cho and Gilpin are stuck in a domestic drama that gets interrupted by a monster movie, and Weaver’s natural effervescence — put to great use in the past in roles that underscored a character’s menace — makes her seem absolutely daffy as a woman who performs assisted suicides. Meanwhile, Faison gets a wonderful monologue about grief and remembrance of people lost that touches on ideas the rest of the movie can’t keep up with.
Finally, the rules of The Grudge are explained at the beginning, but they don’t make a lot of real sense, and they’re thrown out by the end of the film when new abilities are introduced to create suspense at the expense of common sense. But then again, unless you’re a dedicated fan of this franchise or the Japanese one that inspired it, little of this is likely to fit together in any cohesive or satisfying way.
“The Grudge” 2020 is a prestige drama sidelined by lackluster, incoherent horror, ruining the scares and undercutting the humanity of its characters. Mind you, this is the first theatrical installment of this franchise to receive an “R” rating, so I suppose there’s something appealing about the opportunity to really exploit that. But the scariest thing about Pesce’s film is imagining that someone believed this particular intellectual property had any actual life in it to revive.
10 Best Remakes of the 2010s, From 'Cinderella' to 'It' (Photos)
Remakes have been a part of the studio machine since at least as far back as 1904 when the groundbreaking “The Great Train Robbery” was reshot and resold. In the century-plus that followed, remakes have gotten a bad name for themselves and, to some, are indicative of the creative vacancy of the mainstream entertainment industry. But look closer and you’ll find that many filmmakers are doing wonderful things by taking old stories and making them new again, either by adding visual flair or injecting nuance where, perhaps, there was little to be found before. Some of the best movies of the last decade were remakes. And these, we dare say, were the 10 best.
Runners-Up (alphabetically): "About Last Night" (2014), "Benji" (2018), "The Crazies" (2010), "Frankenweenie" (2012), "Ghostbusters" (2016), "The Jungle Book" (2016), "Murder on the Orient Express" (2017), "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (2013), "A Star Is Born" (2018), "We Are What We Are" (2013)
10. "Let Me In" (2010)
Tomas Alfredson’s modern classic Swedish vampire drama “Let the Right One In” was only two years old when Matt Reeves remade it for American audiences, but “Let Me In” is anything but a superfluous rehash. Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz bring their own pain and warmth to their characters (a bullied boy and the immortal vampire who takes a shine to him, respectively), and Reeves adds a handful of gruesome shocks that make Alfredson’s icy original seem more brutal than before. “Let the Right One In” is the more mature and graceful film, but “Let Me In” is an expertly crafted crowdpleaser, equally valid but made for slightly different tastes.
Relativity Media
9. "Pete’s Dragon" (2016)
Of the recent spate of Disney blockbuster remakes, David Lowery’s “Pete's Dragon” is by far the loosest. Lowery transforms the original, quirky and bizarre musical into a focused and elegiac family fantasy about an orphaned boy raised by a dragon in the woods, and the family who wants to bring him back into the world without fully understand what he might lose in the process. Gorgeously photographed and sensitively acted, the new “Pete’s Dragon” is its own beast, full of charm and love and ambition, and arguably better than the original.
Walt Disney Studios
8. "True Grit" (2010)
The first time the Coen Bros. took a stab at remaking a classic film it was “The Ladykillers,” and we’ve all collectively agreed not to speak about that. Their second, “True Grit,” is a modern western classic. Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar-nominated for her big-screen debut, plays Mattie Ross, who hires the gruff and eccentric gunman Rooster Cogburn to hunt her father’s killer. Jeff Bridges takes over the Cogburn role from John Wayne (it’s the role than won Wayne an Oscar), and he makes the character over within the Coens' vivid vision of the west as ruled by loutish miscreants, all of whom lack the moral fiber of a teenage girl. A fantastic western from start to finish, filled with impressive detail and memorable performances.
Paframount
7. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (2011)
One of the most intriguing decisions any blockbuster franchise made this decade was to restart the “Planet of the Apes” series not by remaking the original, but by remaking the fourth film in the series, the underrated “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” (1972). Directed by Rupert Wyatt, the loose remake also tells the story of Caesar, the first intelligent ape who led a rebellion against his human oppressors. But without the baggage of multitudinous prequels, “Rise” is free to weave a distinctive new version of the sci-fi tragedy, in which a helpless animal forms attachments to humanity, only to watch his faith go unrewarded and punished before finally fighting back. Andy Serkis’ performance as Caesar over the course of the three rebooted “Apes” movies is perhaps the most accomplished piece of motion-capture acting filmed so far, and the intelligence and sensitivity with which “Rise” sets up his journey is nothing short of stellar.
20th Century Fox
6. "Cinderella" (2015)
Disney’s original “Cinderella” is a triumph of animation, but the 1950 film's story and characters were undeniably underdeveloped by contemporary standards. Kenneth Branagh’s luminous remake can’t hold a candle to the original’s historical significance to the medium, but it tells the superior version of the story, fleshing out Cate Blanchett’s “wicked stepmother” character into a nuanced and sympathetic villain and giving Ella (Lily James) and her Prince Charming (Richard Madden) more time than ever to build a romantic bond before fate -- or at least, the magical stroke of midnight -- tears them apart. The remake views Ella not as a victim but as a principled heroine whose nobility emerges in ways that her persecutors cannot comprehend, let alone stifle. Branagh's “Cinderella" is one of the greatest fairy-tale movies.
Walt Disney Pictures
5. "Evil Dead" (2013)
Sam Raimi’s low-budget, independent, raw, ultraviolent and hyperkinetic cult classic was remade by Fede Alvarez into a raw, ultraviolent and hyperkinetic film that’s no less daring or subversive or grotesque for being paid for and released by a studio. In the remake, a group of young friends convene at an isolated cabin in the woods to help Mia (Jane Levy) battle her addiction to heroin, but along the way they accidentally release an ancient evil force that possesses Mia and tries to mutilate and destroy them all. The new “Evil Dead” captures Raimi’s virtuosic storytelling -- and reminds us all just how limp and conventional most modern camerawork really is -- while subverting audience expectations about where this remake is going, and how despicably it’s going to get there. It’s just as frightening and bizarre as the original, remake or no.
TriStar
4. "Suspiria" (2018)
Dario Argento’s hypnotic and hallucinogenic “Suspiria” defies conventional critical analysis, and searching its nightmarish surrealism for deeper meaning may have been beside the point. So it was bold as hell of Luca Guadagnino to remake “Suspiria” and to infuse the spooky narrative, about a ballet school run by witches, with vibrant political and social symbolism. Dakota Johnson stars as Susie Bannion, an American dancer studying under the great Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), and veering further and further into the school’s matriarchal world of empowerment and violence. As dense as the original is ephemeral, Guadagnino’s complex and ambitious new take on “Suspiria” is the mirror image of Argento’s classic and may reveal itself to be its own kind of horror classic as time goes on.
Amazon Studios
3. "It" (2017)
The cries that the two-part feature film “It” adaptation isn’t technically a remake of the two-part mini-series “It” adaptation have fallen on deaf ears; even the bloody format is the same. Andy Muschietti’s new version doesn’t have Tim Curry’s iconically horrifying chuckle as Pennywise, but the first half is more interested in Stephen King’s demonic clown as an insidious influence than as a scene-stealer. The story of a small-town “Loser’s Club,” comprised of adolescent outcasts who band together to conquer their fears -- as personified by Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, absolutely terrifying) -- has been transported into the late 1980s and now takes on a truly epic quality. “It” is a superbly produced horror-thriller that doubles as a sharp and meaningful coming-of-age allegory. The follow-up, “It: Chapter Two,” can’t stick the landing, falling prey to tedious mythologizing and an over-reliance on flashbacks, but Chapter One stands perfectly well on its own, and is so frightfully effective it could be destined for classic status.
Warner Bros.
2. "Silence" (2016)
In Scorsese’s “Silence,” a failure to be Christ-like is not a failure to be Christian. That’s not necessarily the reading one gets from Masahiro Shinoda’s original film version of Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel about Christian persecution in Japan in the 17th century. The author was reportedly unhappy with that first adaptation, and Scorsese seems determined to explore the story in a different way. “Silence” stars Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as Jesuit priests investigating claims that another member of their order has publicly renounced his faith under pressure from the Japanese government, who are eager to root out the western influence by any means necessary. Along the way, they too are challenged to give up their beliefs in exchange for an end to their suffering and the suffering of those they know. The film may be a tale of persecution, but it’s not a simple “us vs. them” propaganda narrative; Scorsese seems most eager to frame the story as a thoughtful treatise on the seeming impossibility of genuine faith in a world of danger, doubt and endless complications. It’s as fine and nuanced a work as any the filmmaker has ever crafted.
Paramount
1. "Little Women" (2019)
You know what they say about not fixing what ain't broke, but Greta Gerwig’s remake of “Little Women” fixes parts of Louisa May Alcott’s original novel, and its many adaptations, that some of us didn’t even realize needed fixing. Gerwig’s adaptation changes the timeline of the story, reframing it as a story being written instead of using the authorship of “Little Women” as a climax, and in so doing allows the love affair of Amy (Florence Pugh) and Laurie (Timothée Chalamet) to play as the most important relationship. (Previous adaptations sometimes made it seem like an afterthought, or worse, creepy.) The bold and welcome changes don’t end there, but Gerwig blissfully keeps the majority of the wonderful, timeless story intact. The cast is as fine as any ever assembled -- no easy task -- and the family squabbles, the romance, the humor and the progressive themes are as radiant as ever, and arguably more intelligently presented than in any previous rendition.
Sony
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Decade in Review: “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Little Women” rank among the highlights of the decade
Remakes have been a part of the studio machine since at least as far back as 1904 when the groundbreaking “The Great Train Robbery” was reshot and resold. In the century-plus that followed, remakes have gotten a bad name for themselves and, to some, are indicative of the creative vacancy of the mainstream entertainment industry. But look closer and you’ll find that many filmmakers are doing wonderful things by taking old stories and making them new again, either by adding visual flair or injecting nuance where, perhaps, there was little to be found before. Some of the best movies of the last decade were remakes. And these, we dare say, were the 10 best.
