My Grudge With 'The Grudge' (2020)

Dear Vocal Readers,

Oh, horror movies, how low they have come. If this was anybody's idea of a scary movie, I pray for them and would love to sit them down and show them what the genre was meant to be (something like John Carpenter's The Thing for example). But for those who love to be tortured by crap movies, this is the movie for you. Don't get me wrong, I love a stupid horror movie. But this my friends, was far beyond the caliber of movies like Truth Or Dare. At least that movie made me want to look away from the screen because of its gore and violence. This movie had me and everyone else in the theater doing one thing: laughing.

***A spoiler warning is now in effect for the film, but I would just suggest watching the original instead and being ten times more pleased***

So there I sat next to my boyfriend as we awaited the film's start. We went on the opening day and the theater was packed full of horror enthusiasts (and also a little kid which is totally not good parenting). When the lights dimmed down we all settled in for what should have been a B-list horror movie or maybe even C. Little did we know, this movie created it's own list, the F list. Or perhaps even the G list, as it was even worse than a failure. When a horror film can only achieve laughter from its audience you know something is wrong. I've been one to find myself laughing at horror movies before as some are meant to have comedic moments like the work of Jordan Peele or the amazingly original Cabin In The Woods. But for those of you who haven't seen this trash film, you would quickly find out that this was never meant to be a funny movie.

With every so-called jump scare the film produced there was a roar of laughter from the crowd. I was in awe of the fact that everyone in the theater alongside me found the film to be as stupid as I had found it to be. It really made us feel like a little community in there. A community who was both sad they wasted their money and their time on trash like this. But do you want to know what got me the most? The film actually had an actor that I have been a fan of. When I saw John Cho was going to be in the film I thought that there may be some hope. And yes I know he is mostly a comedic actor, but even comedic actors can be spectacular performers and he has always proven to be one of those actors in my eyes. His acting was probably the best the film showcased and he was an actually likable character. But of course his fate was anticipated along with everyone else's, and the way they handled his wife was all kinds of messed up.

For those who are keen on the events that occur in the Grudge series, we all know that basically every single character is going to die. So, when we were introduced to Cho's character and his wife, any knowing fan knew they were going to die. Something that threw a wrench in this idea however was the pregnancy of his wife. Now this adds a problem to the normal theory, as it is much harder and less acceptable in the public's eyes to kill a pregnant woman. So they decided to make the baby disabled. I am not even kidding. The director must have thought, "Well if we make the baby disabled then who is going to be that sad that it died right?" This mindset is seriously all sorts of messed up and right when we found out that the baby would be born with some difficulties I knew exactly what the film was doing. And of course they kill the pregnant woman and her child by the end of the film, something I had been 100% sure would happen since we found out about the baby's health issues. Seriously messed up right?

So that was my experience with one of the worst movies I have ever seen. When a film ends and the couple next to you is talking about how horrible it was, you know it was bad. You could also tell by the trash left in the theater and the drinks that didn't even find their way into the trashcans and instead were just splattered on the floor. If you are going to subject yourself to a torturous film such as this one, I suggest you bring along a loved one so that you can at least find solace in suffering together.

Sincerely from my supremely irritated mind,

Kacie