The Grudge, the American remake of Ju-On: The Grudge starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, is getting a reboot.
Deadline reports that Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures have hired Midnight Meat Train writer Jeff Buhler to write a script for a new version of the vengeful ghost story, which was a huge financial success.
Making $187 million worldwide from a $10 million budget, the 2004 American version of The Grudge, directed by Takashi Shimizu based on his own film and set in Tokyo, spawned a sequel. While that film made $70 million worldwide from a $20 million budget, it was deeply unpopular with critics and genre fans, who found it to be an incomprehensible mess.
That being said, the 2004 version was one of the best of the run of American remakes of Asian horror films that began with Gore Verbinski’s version of The Ring in 2002. Admittedly, the competition isn’t stiff, as the trend ground on to bring us best-forgotten re-imaginings of films from Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong like Pulse, The Uninvited, and The Eye. With the recent success of Blumhouse’ low-budget things-going-bump-in-the-night horrors, it hardly seems too surprising that Kayako will be popping up in unexpected places again.
You can buy the original The Grudge on DVD for £2.36 at Amazon.co.uk.
