Leading up to its release, there was a lot to look forward to when it came to the reboot of The Grudge. Even with a new director and screenwriter helming the project, franchise veteran Sam Raimi was attached as a producer and there were plenty of solid actors and actresses lending their own talents, including Andrea Riseborough and Harold and Kumar‘s John Cho.
Unfortunately, however, despite the hype and anticipation, The Grudge didn’t exactly blow away moviegoers when it hit theaters last night. In all likelihood, it will avoid becoming a box office bomb (having already grossed over $5 million against a $10 million budget), but on the other hand, it hasn’t exactly garnered much in the way of critical acclaim. Despite a handful of positive reviews, many have been trashing director Nicolas Pesce’s newest film, with much of the criticism placed on the plot, characters, and the overuse of jump scares.
In fact, as Bloody Disgusting has pointed out, audiences are so disappointed with The Grudge that it’s managed to receive an “F” grade on CinemaScore, which is an extremely rare feat in and of itself. For those wondering how the score is calculated, the company polls moviegoers in both Canada and the USA and asks them to grade a film on a scale of A to F.
Generally speaking, a movie’s CinemaScore is a quick way to see how audiences are taking to new releases, but it’s far from a definitive statement on quality. After all, plenty of solid releases have gotten low scores, including Ari Aster’s Hereditary, which racked up a D+ rating. That being said, The Grudge has been getting negative reviews across the board.
Personally, we wouldn’t recommend spending your hard-earned money on this one, but if you’re still keen, The Grudge is currently playing in theaters nationwide.
