Grudging praise for reboot
The Grudge (R16, 94 mins) Directed by Nicolas Pesce Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★1⁄2
The older I get, the less I enjoy horror movies. I’m still a fan of a gleeful and gruesome horror/comedy, quietly hoping that the Final Destination franchise gets revived. And I’ll always love a classic – or a film that reminds me of that golden age of great horror that wound through the 1970s and early 1980s.
But, mostly these days, horrors are an exercise in lazy storytelling and cheap shocks, made to be a quick cash-in at the box office, or a calling card for a promising young director to transition from commercials and short films by proving they can control a featurelength narrative.
The Grudge was ticking every box as I walked into the otherwise empty cinema. It’s a reboot of a franchise that hasn’t troubled our screens in more than a decade, directed by a promising up-and-comer with two low-budget features on his CV already. So, imagine my surprise when, despite being just as derivative and nearly as predictable as I was ready for, The Grudge also turned out to be, if not a ‘‘good film’’, then at least an example of some quite startlingly good film-making.
The plot really hasn’t moved on since the much-imitated 2002 Japanese original – Ju-On – and its 2004 English language remake.
There’s a house in which an unspeakable murder has taken place and now anyone who enters that house will be harassed and haunted to death by a growing army of angry ghosts.
As with most horrors, the story is just a convenient chassis to hang a succession of ever-gorier set pieces on. What distinguishes this Grudge is an absolutely top-shelf cast of real actors – Andrea Riseborough, John Cho and horror legend Lin Shaye especially – all committing to the carnage like absolute professionals. Plus stunning cinematography from Zachary Galler. Galler (TV series
Manhunt) frames the action with a disorienting selection of angles and lenses and keeps us guessing at what might be lurking. The lighting – looking as organic and naturalistic as you could wish – makes genius use of shadow and gloom, without ever seeming artificial or contrived. I’ve seen less impressive technique in plenty of award-nominated films.
Throw in some quite beautifully subtle and inventive sound-design – and director Nicolas Pesce’s ability to maintain the slow burn of tension for the film’s first hour, before unleashing bloody chaos in the home stretch – and The Grudge emerges as a far better film than the international critical pile-on would have you believe.
Did I ‘‘like’’ it. No. But I do admire it as a lesson in craft, conviction, technique and inventiveness. If you’re ready for a subtler approach to the boiler-plate than most, then you might enjoy
The Grudge a great deal.