The Grudge (2020)

"Did I "like" it. No. But do I admire it as a lesson in craft, conviction, technique and inventiveness? Absolutely. If you're a genre fan, ready for a subtler approach to the boiler-plate than most, then I reckon you might enjoy The Grudge a great deal."

"Pesce has hired some fine actors and squandered them on a plot that isn't ingenious enough to justify the heartlessness that's all part of the package at this end of the horror movie market, where the desire to prop up a tired old franchise is more important than the film itself."

"Only succeeds at proving that the potential for this franchise died long ago."

"Nicolas Pesce's new and improved take on The Grudge ... is often as nasty as you want it to be, its cheesy jump-scares and generic packaging be damned."

"Things keep devolving into a sort of "stock beats" catalog of J-scares that goes from déjà vu to dullness to deadening."

"The remake remains cursed by a fatally hokey concept."

"If the angry, vengeful "Ju-On" ghosts must endure, they might as well be deployed by someone who knows how to make their attacks bruising."

"Nearly devoid of scares for the casual horror consumer, it will likely elicit a respectful dismissal from genre connoisseurs: "We get what you're trying to do," they might gently say to the filmmakers. "It didn't work.""

"A reboot of a remake of a movie that wasn't too scary to begin with, the latest version of 'The Grudge' conjures nothing but the dregs of J-horror."