For some viewers, The Grudge brings to mind chilling early-2000s Japanese horror. The original, Ju-on: The Grudge, released 2002, was a classic of its genre.
That means faceless, black-haired ghouls (much like The Ring), hooded ghost-children lurking in the shadows (see: Dark Water) and deadly curses that brutally eliminate characters one by one.
For others, it conjures up flashbacks of the 2004 remake directed by Takashi Shimizu, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse who moves to Tokyo and encounters a vengeful supernatural spirit.
2020's The Grudge, directed by emerging horror talent Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes of My Mother, Piercing), hits UK cinemas on 24th January and is part-sequel, part-reimagining of the 2004 version.
The first reviews are in - and there are plenty of nerve-shredding moments to prepare for.
Pesce's new American version relocates the action to a small town in Pennsylvania. The plot hinges on the discovery of a mutilated corpse found in a car in the forest.
Cop and widowed single mother Detective Muldoon (Andrea Riseborough) begins to investigate, despite the attempts of her partner Goodman (Demián Bichir) to pull her off the case.
Like Shimizu's The Grudge, the 2020 version follows a non-chronological structure, jumping back and forth in time as the truth is gradually revealed in flashback sequences.
Noel Murray writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Yes, it's scary. Pesce's art-film roots are evident in the movie's slow-burn first hour.
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"But in the final third, The Grudge piles on the explicit gore and jump scares - all leading to a final scene and final shot as terrifying as anything in the original series."
The horror in Pesce's version comes not just from the supernatural, but the everyday. Murray calls it "distinctively sour".
"From the way its characters look exhausted and hollow-eyed to the fact that so many have had loved ones who've suffered from cancer, dementia or some other devastating medical condition. This is not a "fun" horror picture," he writes.
Clark Collis' writes in Entertainment Weekly that the movie has a "crackerjack cast of actors", including John Cho, Betty Gilpin, Lin Shaye, Jacki Weaver and Frankie Faison.
"The effects are gruesome and a lot of the characters are having a terrible time even before things start going bump in the night," he continues.
Criticisms of the movie include its over-use of jump scares and too much reliance on the generic 'cursed house' format.
"Nicolas Pesce's horror movie remake has its chilling moments but ultimately remains cursed by a fatally hokey concept," was the summary of Ben Kenigsberg's write-up in The NY Times.
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We'll be watching through our fingers all the same.
Featured Image Credit: Ghost House PicturesTopics: TV and Film