Director of The Grudge, Nicolas Pesce, has ideas for a sequel to his recently released film. Pesce is an up and coming director, who previously directed the horror movies The Eyes of My Mother and Piercing before he wrote and directed The Grudge.
While Pesce is the most recent filmmaker to take on The Grudge, it is a story that we've seen over and over again. The Grudge series dates back to 1988 when the Japanese short films Katasumi and 4444444444 were released. Several more films have been released since 2000, including three American Grudge films, all of which received mixed to negative reviews. The reboot actually turned out to be a "sidequel", which tells the story of different families who all die after entering the home at 44 Reyburn Drive. The events are told in non-chronological order throughout three different years, something Pesce wants to continue in the sequel.
Pesce recently sat down with Bloody Disgusting on their "The Boo Crew" podcast to talk about his new film. While this film takes place in America, the director said he would be interested in exploring a different part of the world and possibly even a different time period. Pesce's full quote can be read below:
"I think the overarching thing would be to take it to more places than just Japan and America, and potentially even leave the modern era. This is something to me…the Grudge is not a thing that happened once, it’s been happening forever. It’s just a matter of revealing when and where that happened. I think that there’d be something cool in going way far back and doing something that’s less contemporary and seeing what shape this sort of thing has taken the form of in other forms and other places.”
Sequels for The Grudge are often green-lit pretty quickly, but that may not be the case for this film. Despite having a promising team including Sam Raimi as the producer and Lin Shaye as one of the film's stars, The Grudge has been panned by fans and critics alike. The film doesn't focus on Kayako Saeki and Toshio, which could be part of people's disinterest, but The Grudge has also been criticized for its story and abundant horror movie clichés. With all that in mind, if The Grudge ends up doing well at the box office, a sequel will probably happen despite the negative reviews.
Even though Pesce is being optimistic about a sequel, there's no telling yet if The Grudge 2 will actually happen. If Sony does decide to give The Grudge a sequel, it would no doubt have to center on different people given the way the film ended, and the way the movie was received. Trying to make a straight sequel would be a mistake, and seeing a new film with people outside of the US and Japan in a different time period could be an interesting idea. It's just too bad the idea wasn't considered for this film instead.
Source: Bloody Disgusting