Nicolas Pesce's new film is a continuation of the Japanese horror franchise
The trailer for The Grudge starring John Cho has been released.
Based on the classic Japanese horror of the same name, the 2020 film is directed by Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes of My Mother).
Also starring Andrea Riseborough, the film is more of a continuation of the Japanese franchise rather than a sequel.
Hollywood’s first English version of the film was in 2004 starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Sony’s synopsis of the film reads, “A single mother and young detective, Muldoon (Riseborough), discovers that a suburban house is cursed by a vengeful ghost that dooms those who enter it with a violent death. Now, she runs to save herself and her son from demonic spirits from the cursed house in her neighborhood.”
Cho stars as real estate agent Peter Spencer who is tasked with selling house that turns out to have a rather dark history.
When asked how his version of The Grudge would differ from past iterations, Pesce said, “the movie’s way more fucked up,” the director. Not that the wave of J-Horror in the early 2000s wasn’t fucked up — but this is really fucked up.”
“As far as the imagery, it was finding that balance between [old visuals and new visuals],” Pesce added. “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.”
Supporting cast includes Demián Bichir, Betty Gilpin, Lin Shaye, and Jacki Weaver.
The Grudge will hit theatres on 3 January 2020.
In other news, Cho recently suffered an on-set injury during filming for Cowboy Bebop, forcing production to shut down.