Posted in: Horror, Movies, Sony | Tagged: grudge, Nicolas Pesce, sony pictures, The Grudge

"The Grudge" Director Discusses the Film's Canon

Published Thu, 09 Jan 2020 13:45:59 -0600

The Grudge didn't exactly achieve mainstream success during its opening weekend but has delivered some solid ties to the 2004 film. The '04 film also received mixed reactions during its initial release, but now the new film has some people looking at the first US film with a little more appreciation.

The film only briefly acknowledges the events of the film in Japan, but when it is included, it comes with some important moments that influence the overall direction of the new chapter. The curse that stemmed from Kayako in The Grudge and carries over into this new parallel film, spawning a new curse of its own which director Nicolas Pesce is now addressing. Pesce tells Gizmodo:

"A big thing of this movie is kind of just showing, yes, the movies have traditionally been uniquely Japanese, but the mythology says that it's essentially like the most contagious virus ever. So the fact that it's not realistic that it would stay in Japan, this thing has spread. It's not only in Japan. It's not only in America even. And a lot of this movie is just kind of showing how sprawling this curse can be."

Regarding the idea of a contagious curse as well as sticking to the era of the first film, Pesce adds:

"I didn't want it to feel like, oh, we're just doing a modern Grudge, because the time isn't really that important. Like we never even talked about time period aside from like what cell phones they're on. Back to the earliest of the movies, it was an anthology so every movie is a different story, a different location, different characters. So, The Grudge provided us with an opportunity to not really have to like remake anything but kind of just add a new chapter to the canon."

The Grudge is definitely a title that has pressure to live up to, and despite the less than stellar reception — it did feature some solid ideas that made the film something worth watching. The Grudge is in theatres now, so check it out for yourself and sound off about the end result below!

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