The Grudge is many things, but subtle ain't one of 'em so you probably didn't get too
lost along the way.
But just in case, here's everything you need to know to make sense of The Grudge's shocking
ending.
Beware: Spoilers abound!
The Grudge tells its story out of order, saving the big reveals for when they will deliver
the biggest emotional punch.
Telling the story chronologically isn't as interesting, but it is necessary to understand
the ending.
In 2004, Fiona Landers returns home from Japan, where she worked as a caretaker in a cursed
house.
Unfortunately, while Fiona is happy to be reunited with her husband Sam and her daughter
Melinda, the joy doesn't last.
The curse has followed Fiona home to 44 Reyburn Drive, where, driven mad by the apparitions
she sees, she drowns Melinda and stabs Sam, then takes her own life.
Shortly afterwards, married real estate agents Peter and Nina Spencer, unaware that the Landers
have been murdered, try to sell the Reyburn house.
Peter goes inside the house, but Nina, who's pregnant, doesn't.
The curse attaches itself to Peter, who stabs Nina in their kitchen before drowning himself
in their tub.
In 2005, Faith and William Matheson move into the house so that Faith, who has cancer, can
be closer to her doctors.
Both Faith and William see ghosts, but while William isn't too worried, Faith loses her
mind.
By the time Lorna Moody, an assisted suicide attendant, comes by to help Faith die with
dignity, Faith is completely gone.
Faith murders William and cuts off her own fingers.
Lorna flees, but sees a vision of Sam Landers while driving and crashes her car.
Her body isn't found for months.
This is where Detective Muldoon enters the picture.
"Mrs. Matheson.
I'm Detective Muldoon."
In 2006, Muldoon moves to town just a few months after losing her husband, forcing her
to raise her son Burke alone.
Her new partner, Detective Goodman, has a few tragedies in his past, too.
His original partner, Wilson, became obsessed with the house at 44 Reyburn Drive after investigating
the Landers killings, and eventually shot himself.
He survived, and is now institutionalized.
Most importantly, however, Goodman isn't haunted by the curse.
See, he never stepped inside the Reyburn house, it gave him a weird feeling, so he stayed
away and so he's free of its supernatural tormentors.
"Why'd you never go into that place?"
"Something never felt right about it."
The original Grudge hinted at the idea and its sequels made it explicit but the reboot
makes it clear: the ju-on, or "grudge," will infect anyone who steps into the location
where the curse lives.
Stay outside, and you're fine.
Muldoon doesn't know this, though, so she enters the house while investigating Lorna
Moody's death.
Almost immediately, the Landers family begins haunting her.
Afraid that the visions will make her hurt Burke, Muldoon decides to burn the Reyburn
house to the ground, hopefully ending the curse.
The house is destroyed, but as the final scene shows, it doesn't do much.
The Landers' spirits are still around.
There's one big question that The Grudge doesn't explicitly answer, and it's a big one: What
horrific act of violence created the curse?
The 2020 film begins with the curse already active.
Fiona has already been infected in the opening scene.
When she returns home, her family's death is a foregone conclusion.
To find the explanation, you actually need to go back to the 2004 version of The Grudge.
Yup, that's right: The Japanese house where Fiona works in is the same one featured in
the Sarah Michelle Gellar flick that kicked off the American leg of the franchise.
In the 2004 movie, we discover that the curse was born when Takeo Saeki learned that his
wife, Kayako, was in love with her college professor.
In a fit of jealousy, Takeo murdered Kayako and their son, Toshio, creating the curse.
The Grudge reboot doesn't spell this out, but the clues are there.
Perhaps the most telling one is that Detective Wilson says that he's talked to a detective
named Nakagawa, who investigated a murder at the house where Fiona was working.
That's the Japanese detective who appeared in the original Grudge.
The house in the opening scene also looks a lot like the one in the 2004 movie, and
the film's end credits confirm that the ghost Fiona sees in the garbage bag is indeed Kayako,
the antagonist of the first three Grudge movies.
Given that the 2004 Grudge and the 2020 Grudge stick to a similar formula, it's possible
that the reboot's sequels will too.
If so, here's what you can expect.
Like the 2020 version of The Grudge, The Grudge 2 takes place between 2004 and 2006.
In the earlier timeline, Karen's sister, Aubrey, travels to Japan to bring Karen home, and
ends up infected by the curse and dying for her efforts.
In the 2006 story, three girls break into the Saeki house on a dare.
Two die, but another, haunted by Aubrey's spirit and Kayako, returns to the United States,
bringing the curse to Chicago.
In The Grudge 3, the sole surviving victim from the previous movie dies, attracting the
attention of Kayako's sister Naoko.
Naoko moves to America and tries to exorcise Takeo Saeki's spirit, hoping to end the curse
once and for all.
The results are mixed.
Naoko is killed during the process, and while the exorcism is successful, Naoko's murder
sparks a whole new grudge, starting the process all over again.
On the other hand, the Grudge reboot introduces enough new ideas to the mythology that a potential
sequel could go in a different direction.
The revamp makes it clear that the curse can spread not just from person to person but
from location to location.
The Saeki house might've been where it started, but the Reyburn house ends up just as dangerous.
If Muldoon's house is now another home base for the curse, it wouldn't be too surprising.
We don't know if Muldoon died at the end of the movie or not, but the final shot of the
movie ominously lingers on her house.
The house is filmed similarly to the Reyburn house, too, with its street address number
14 featuring prominently in the frame.
It could be that the Landers family relocated to Muldoon's property when the Reyburn house
burned down, or maybe the town now has two ghostly hotspots.
Either way, if Burke asks your kid to stop by for a sleepover, you should probably say
no.
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