“The Grudge” is an interesting case study in a horror franchise that has had difficulty sustaining itself beyond a single film. The Japanese original spawned six sequels, but none of them have been as memorable as the first film. When the property went stateside for the 2004 remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, it was a big hit, tallying up $187 million worldwide. However, that goodwill didn’t last long as the follow-up, released two years later, couldn’t even crack $100 million globally, and everything pretty much stopped there. But Sam Raimi thinks there’s juice left in the property, snapping up the rights for his Ghost House Pictures a couple of years back, and now the project has a director.
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Deadline reports that Nicolas Pesce, who broke out with the moody horror “Eyes Of My Mother,” has been tapped to direct the reboot of “The Grudge.” Jeff Buhler (“The Midnight Meat Train”) has penned the script for the movie, and while there are no story details, presumably it sticks with the motif of girls with long black hair scaring everyone half to death.
We’d rather see Pesce do anything else but a Hollywood horror redo, but at the very least, he’s got the thriller “Piercing” starring Mia Wasikowska and Christopher Abbott on the way, and hopefully coming to the fall festival circuit.