Caught a matinee of this today. What a fucking piece of shit. We got like 6 story lines going. 3 different time lines (2004, 2005, 2006) Absolutely fucking retarded. I didn't give a shit about any of the convoluted stories. None of which explain why the house is haunted. There was one cool scene involving a fall from a stair well. Other than that I was bored and angry. Another bullshit jump scare modern retarded attempt at horror.
I saw it today, and it's nowhere near as bad as people are saying. It's nothing special, fairly bland in parts, and doesn't really go anywhere, but it mostly kept my interest. It's also better than Grudge 2 or 3. It's baffling how people can be okay with snoozefests like Annabelle Comes Home, but this is "worst. movie. ever." (not referring to Natas' review above, I'm pretty sure he's as bored of that Annabelle shit as I am. But I've been seeing some scathing reviews for it.) The only thing I can think of is that its tonally different from the previous films. The opening scene takes place at the house from the original film, but after that, the action moves to a house in Pennsylvania and kind of starts from scratch. After the opening scene, we have a new Grudge house and different ghosts from the ones in the previous movies. So maybe people are just upset there's no Kayako or Toshio? Anyway, I'm not saying the movie is great. Or even good. But it's totally serviceable. It's pretty much the norm for Sony's mainstream theatrical horror (Possession Of Hannah Grace, Slender Man, etc), which isn't exactly a glowing endorsement but gives you a fair idea of what to expect. I wouldn't go in expecting a gorefest. There's some bloody stuff towards the end, but nothing too wild or consistent. Like the first two movies, this one retains the anthology structure. The framework is really the police storyline, featuring Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir, and to a lesser extent William Sadler. We also get two other stories surrounding the new Pennsylvania Grudge house. One features realtor couple John Cho and his pregnant wife Betty Gilpin. My favorite storyline of the movie involves Jacki Weaver, Lin Shaye, and Frankie Faison. So if nothing else, the casting is top notch. My biggest problem with the movie is that none of the three storylines offer any sort of pay-off whatsoever or weave together in any satisfying way. It doesn't go anywhere, there's no twist, no furthering of any mythology. It's just three very matter of fact stories about people who encountered this curse. Riseborough's character is trying to piece together a mystery, but by this point the movie has not only already shown us the outcome of what she is piecing together, but we have 3 movies worth of knowledge about this curse. So you're basically waiting for her to catch up. However, this is just as big a problem in Grudge 2 and especially 3. So yeah, I wouldn't rush out to the theater or anything, but I didn't find it as terrible as people are saying. I thought it was entirely watchable, and brief at only 90 mins, plus if you've already put yourself through 2 & 3 you've seen worse. Maybe it didn't seem so bad to me because I had just put myself through 2 & 3 as a refresher? If nothing else, you get to see Jacki Weaver and Lin Shaye share the screen, even if they deserve a better movie and a starring vehicle together.
So what did you end up thinking of this one? Is it as shit as everyone is saying? At this point I'm not sure it's even worth a download.
Sorry, forgot to give my review of the movie. It was fucking terrible. Bad characters, bad script, lame scares and just overall so damn boring, I was thinking of leaving half way through the movie. This crap makes the shitty 00:s remake a masterpiece in comparison. The gore is great, but not worth the pain of sitting through this stinker. I felt like I wanted to punch someone, when the credits rolled
I'm with Steel here 100 percent...... I usually find redeemable qualities in most flicks I catch..... I'm not a critic, but boring is boring and this piece of shit movie is exactly that. You can probably YouTube the coolest scene involving a fall down a stairwell.... Do not waste 2 hours of your life, even if it's a free download.
Riseborough, Sadler, Faison, Jacki Weaver, Bichir, Cho and Lin Shaye all in the cast is pretty amazing for this type of movie.
