Scream Queen Lin Shaye Talks Real Horrors of 'The Grudge'
- Details
- Category: Interviews
- Created: Thursday, 02 January 2020 16:38
- Published: Thursday, 02 January 2020 17:15
- Written by Lupe R Haas
Lin Shaye has made her career out of starring in horror film franchises such as the INSIDIOUS movies, AMITYVILLE, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and in the new installment of THE GRUDGE. CineMovie sat down to talk about THE GRUDGE and getting physical for the role.
THE GRUDGE opens in theaters January 3.
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About THE GRUDGE
Directed by Nicolas Pesce, THE GRUDGE stars Andrea Riseborough, Demián Bichir, John Cho, Betty Gilpin with Lin Shaye and Jacki Weaver. With a screenplay by Nicolas Pesce and a story by Nicolas Pesce and Jeff Buhler, THE GRUDGE is based on the film “Ju-On: The Grudge” written & directed by Takashi Shimizu. THE GRUDGE is produced by Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Taka Ichise and is executive produced by Nathan Kahane, Erin Westerman, Brady Fujikawa, Andrew Pfeffer, Roy Lee, Doug Davison, John Powers Middleton and Schuyler Weiss. This film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for disturbing violence and bloody images, terror and some language.
Fifteen years have passed since one of America’s most successful producer/directors, SAM RAIMI (A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Drag Me to Hell), first introduced American audiences to The Grudge. Now, the creator of the Evil Dead series is excited to return to one of his favorite stories in an R-rated version. “When we made the original in 2004,” Raimi says, “horror was still on the outside, and it was still for the cult audience. But it has now moved into the mainstream.”
The 2004 American film was based on the Japanese horror movie Ju-on: The Grudge, directed by Takashi Shimizu, which captured (and terrified) horror audiences in Japan. The movie was so popular in Japan that, a year later, it not only generated a sequel, but interest from Raimi in having Shimizu bring it to American audiences. “Takashi’s Grudge films were very successful in Japan,” Raimi relates. “and I’d so loved his series, I wanted the American audience to see The Grudge.”
Raimi says that the time is right to return to the franchise – especially since he says that audiences have approached him often over the years asking for R-rated Grudge thrills. “A lot of fans out there have been asking to see another Grudge film,” he says. “But we didn’t think we could do one until we had the right voice to tell the story.”
That voice belongs to NICOLAS PESCE (pronounced “Pesh”) who was in middle school when he first saw the 2004 Grudge film. “At that age, I was a big scaredy cat. Horror movies freaked me out,” he admits, having been raised on more classic black and white horror. But upon entering film school, he realized it was horror films that wound him up, not the art films shown in the classroom. “The fact that a movie can, days later, make you afraid to go to bed is awesome,” he states.
Pesce brought his very first feature film, Eyes of My Mother, to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016. There, Raimi’s producing partner at Ghost House, Rob Tapert and producer Roy Lee (Godzilla: King of the Monsters), saw the film and took a meeting with the tyro director. “I was doing the usual round of meetings that you do up there,” Pesce recalls, ending up in one with Lee. “I was kind of raving about how my I loved the Grudge movies – I didn’t even know they were trying to do a new one!” Though a previous pass at a script had been written by screenwriter Jeff Buhler, Lee was particularly taken with Pesce’s understanding of the films being essentially anthology stories, following different characters in different places. Lee informed him they were actually looking to make a new film, and asked if he had any ideas. “It’s a tapestry of stories that are loosely connected, all surrounding this house,” Pesce says. “So we had an opportunity with this franchise to not remake anything, but rather add a new installment into the franchise – a new chapter to the canon.”