THE GRUDGE | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"THE GRUDGE"
(2020) (Andrea Riseborough, Demián Bichir) (R)

NOTE:: The following is an unedited version of our review that may contain spelling, grammatical, and/or factual errors and will be finished later on Friday. The film was not shown to reviewers in most markets before it opened (because it's bad).

QUICK TAKE:: Horror: A recently widowed cop tries to figure out what's responsible for a series of murders related to one house in the town where she now lives with her young son.

PLOT:

Det. Muldoon (ANDREA RISEBOROUGH) is a recently widowed cop who's moved to the small town of Cross River with her young son, Burke (JOHN P. HANSEN), following the death of her husband a few months ago. She's partnered with veteran cop Det. Goodman (DEMIÁN BICHIR) who isn't pleased when they arrive on the scene of the discovery of a badly decomposed corpse. It's not so much the death that bothers him, but rather that the woman was associated with a particular house in town where various murders and deaths have occurred over the years, something that drove his former cop partner, Det. Wilson (WILLIAM SADLER), crazy.

Intrigued by that, Det. Muldoon begins looking into the past history there that began when Fiona Landers (TARA WESTWOOD), having returned from Tokyo after contending with supernatural phenomenon, murdered her husband and their young daughter, Melinda (ZOE FISH), before killing herself. That haunting then ended up affecting real estate agent Peter Spencer (JOHN CHO) and his pregnant wife, Nina (BETTY GILPIN), and a few years later William Matheson (FRANKIE FAISON), his terminally ill wife, Faith (LIN SHAYE), and an assisted suicide advocate, Lorna Moody (JACKI WEAVER), who he hired to help Faith depart this world.

As Det. Muldoon continues her research, she too ends up afflicted by the supernatural curse that causes her to have ghostly visions and encounters that lead her to the point of losing her sanity.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: If they're into horror films and particularly are fans of the earlier "Grudge" movies, they might have interest in seeing this one.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R: For disturbing violence and bloody images, terror and some language.

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