Horror flick hell for the audience too

The Grudge

Ghoulish history repeats itself in The Grudge, a lacklustre reboot of the horror franchise spawned by the 2003 Japanese film Ju-on about a vengeful spirit which attaches itself to victims and untethers their sanity.

Writer-director Nicolas Pesce demonstrated a sadistic streak with his last film, Piercing.

Here, he resorts to hoary horror tropes to stitch together four stories of hellish hauntings centred on a Pennsylvania house.

His patchwork of predictable shocks squanders a terrific ensemble cast including Newcastle-upon-Tyne actress Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir, John Cho and Australian two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver.

They scream, squeal and shudder on cue, foolishly hiding in a closet in one case, when any horror movie fan will tell you that’s the last place to seek refuge if you intend to survive to the end credits.

Three months after her husband dies of cancer, police detective Muldoon (Riseborough) moves to Pennsylvania with her young son. She and a fellow detective attend a horrific scene in the woods, which is connected to a local property.

In a bewildering mosaic of flashbacks, we encounter residents and visitors to the accursed house.

The Grudge exhibits dramatic rigor mortis from its opening frames.

Consequently, we’re braced for any jump scares and a symphony of squelchy sound effects as poorly served cast are dispatched with maximum splatter.