Parents' Guide to The Grudge (2020)

A curiously talented and interesting cast was somehow lured into -- and subsequently wasted in -- this pointless, tired, reboot/revival of the long-running Ju-On Japanese-based horror series. At least the cast keeps things from sinking into total awfulness. The Grudge (2020) is the fourth American/English-language movie in the series, which, by some counts, now runs to 13 feature-length movies. The last one, the fun, tongue-in-cheek Sadako vs. Kayako (2016) -- which pitted the stringy-haired girl Grudge ghost against the stringy-haired girl ghost from The Ring -- probably should have put an end to it. But apparently the lure of profits brought down the curse once again.

The random unfairness of the entire idea -- that simply walking into a house causes someone to be haunted forever -- isn't really very interesting, and the scares dreamed up by director/co-writer Nicolas Pesce are strictly of the creaky old jump-scare variety: Ghosts move in fast-motion and open their mouths really wide, and the soundtrack makes a huge "crash/bang!" Even the familiar ghost Kayako, with her throaty, chittering moan and her threatening locks of hair, is woefully underused here. That said, The Grudge is sometimes saved by inspired moments on behalf of the cast, notably Frankie Faison, whose beautiful speech about the afterlife and connectedness is unfortunately ignored and betrayed by the rest of the movie. In short, this Grudge doesn't budge.