Movies
‘The Grudge’ Re-re-reboot Infects Andrea Riseborough
Before Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Freddy vs. Jason, Saw and Hostel turned everyone onto gore, and before Paranormal Activity turned Hollywood’s attention to found footage, J-horror attempted to creep onto U.S. soil. While it never quite found its footing, U.S. remakes of both The Ring and The Grudge were huge successes, with the latter being the main catalyst behind Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead remake. It went on to spawn two sequels, the third going to direct-to-home video. Now, several years later, they’re hoping to spread the infection once again.
Last summer, Ghost House Pictures got us excited by attaching Nicolas Pesce, the man behind The Eyes of My Mother, to rewrite and direct the reboot of The Grudge.
Now, Deadline is asserting that casting is officially underway and that Andrea Riseborough (“Black Mirror”) is circling the role of a detective and young single mother.
Based on a script by Midnight Meat Train scribe Jeff Buhler, it’s a new take on the 2004 pic (itself based on the 2002 Japanese original Ju-on), which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse in Tokyo who is afflicted by a curse that created uncontrollable homicidal rage.
This will be the twelfth Ju-On/The Grudge film, which also has a video game, two short films, and several graphic novels included in the collection.
Andrea Riseborough appears in NANCY by Christina Choe, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Zoë White.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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