Ready for a serious case of the heebie-jeebies?
Sony Pictures has released the first official poster for its upcoming remake/reboot/sequel
The Grudge, and we sincerely hope that you're not about to jump in the shower.
The one-sheet references an iconic scene from the 2004 film that has literally never stopped
giving us the creeps.
In case you're not familiar, that flick itself a remake of the 2002 Japanese film Ju-On:
The Grudge starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as Karen Davis, an American exchange student
in Japan who moves into a house populated by malevolent spirits.
These are no run-of-the-mill spooks, however; they're an extra-virulent variety created
when one dies under extraordinarily emotional circumstances, and as the flick's title implies,
they don't go away... ever.
In the scene in question, Karen is enjoying a nice, hot shower, and is in the middle of
washing her hair when she suddenly appears to grow an extra hand... from the back of
her head.
It's an incredibly unnerving jump scare, and the fact that the new flick's producers chose
to invoke it for their movie's first poster tells us something about the specific vein
of terror they're hoping to mine.
As the poster notes, Sam Raimi, who served as a producer on the 2004 film and the first
of its two sequels, is back in that role for this go-round.
He's got an interesting talent in the director's chair: Nicolas Pesce who turned in low-key,
slow-burn, minor masterpieces with 2016's Eyes of My Mother and 2018's Piercing.
According to Pesce, his film will more than make good on this poster's promise to scare
the absolute hell out of you.
The director has explained that he views The Grudge as, quote, "an anthology series...
[featuring] different characters, different stories, different locations, different ghosts,"
and while he is taking care to stay true to what came before, he promises that when it
comes to the level of pure terror he's going for, audiences simply aren't ready.
Pesce told a crowd at New York Comic-Con:
"The movie's way more f----d up [than the other films in the series].
Not that the wave of J-Horror in the early 2000s wasn't f----d up — but this is really
f----d up."
Pesce went on to explain that he rejects the "reboot" label, as his Grudge takes place
in the same timeline as the 2004 movie, and that he is in no way simply telling a different
version of the same story.
He explained:
"We're not rehashing [the first film].
We're finding the key elements that are just how the grudge expresses itself.
So much of this movie is about the fact that this can happen anywhere and that it happens
everywhere.
It can spread like wildfire.
Having certain touchstones was important.
Obviously with a franchise we don't want to throw everything out.
There is certain stuff that is fun for the fans to see again in a new context with a
new spin."
The director also let slip a few details about the flick's plot in a conversation with Entertainment
Weekly.
It will focus on a police officer played by Mandy's Andrea Riseborough who arrives in
a new town only to be handed a bizarre and inexplicable case one which leads her to investigate
a mysterious house that, as Pesce describes it, quote, "has been grudged."
The director explained:
"We follow her, as well as two other storylines, that are all interacting with this 'grudged'
house in small town America.
Like the old films, it's a tapestry of three different stories that interweave and all
take place at slightly different times, centered around this one house that's at the center
of this case that this cop is working on."
That sounds really cool, but we're going to need a bit more confirmation on the movie's
fright factor.
Let's check in with horror legend Lin Shaye, who is also appearing in the film, and who
had a few choice words when asked about the project in an interview with ComicBook.
Shaye dished:
"Wait until you see this.
It's the scariest movie I've ever been a part of, not even maybe.
Not even maybe.
It's the scariest part I've ever had, bar none...
I'm very excited about it.
The horror fans are going to go insane, that I can promise."
Okay, that's all we needed, we're officially on board.
In addition to Riseborough and Shaye, The Grudge stars Betty Gilpin, John Cho, William
Sadler, and Demian Bichir.
The haunting flick will hit screens on January 3, 2020.
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