After an extended talk about Takashi Shimizu’s 2002 breakout film, Ju-On: The Grudge, the Split Picks crew — Bennett Glace, Jim Hickcox, Frankie Vanaria, and host Craig Wright — picks up with The Grudge franchise once it made its way to the US
In the wake of the American remake of Ringu (as The Ring) and its global success, The Grudge was tapped as the next film to be remade for American audiences and confirmed that J-horror was ready to take on Hollywood.
Takashi Shimizu was asked to direct the remake of his own film, and he said he would do so only if he could bring his ghosts with him in Kayako (Takako Fuji) and Toshio (Yuya Ozeki). But with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead role and a brief Bill Pullman appearance as Americans abroad, the film is fundamentally different from the suburban Japanese original. In this episode, our host and guests debate whether the trailer is stronger than the film itself, discuss the US remake’s efforts to soften most of the original’s best scares, and wonder if Americans are truly as unintelligent as studios would like to believe.
In 2020 director Nicolas Pesce revived the franchise with The Grudge, a film set in the same universe that is not a direct sequel or remake. It is also an American work produced by Sam Raimi, and it asks what happens if the curse could spread to a different location.
Also in the episode: Jim hypothesizes what it might be like to take his short horror film Slow Creep (2015) from a short to an international big-budget adaptation; Bennett swears the 2020 Grudge is the finest offering of the series. Frankie enjoys none of the Grudges. Craig reveals which film put him to sleep. Who tests ramen packaging that way? And how exactly does the WWE predict the state of horror and culture at large? Tune in to find out!
Listen to the episode below, or on Spotify, Apple, or Amazon:
Find every horror episode of Split Picks here:
Stream The Grudge (2004) on Amazon Prime here
Stream The Grudge (2020) on Amazon Prime here
Find the complete October Horror 2023 series here:
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Split Picks theme music by Nick Miller, Lee Walker, and Craig Wright
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