Exclusives
The Curse of ‘The Grudge’: The Franchise Will Never Die
EXCLUSIVE BREAKING: Bloody Disgusting has learned that Ghost House Pictures and Mandate are currently developing another remake of the Japanese Ju-on franchise.
Before the 2004 American remake, The Grudge, Ju-on was originally released as two low-budget straight-to-video Japanese television movies in 2000. Three years later, due to the success of the videos, Takashi Shimizu, director of all, made a theatrical version based on the videos, titled Ju-on: The Grudge.
Now, it gets tricky as that version spawned a sequel titled Ju-on: The Grudge 2. A year later Takashi Shimizu directed The Grudge, an American remake. It is based on the theatrical version of Ju-on, but it contains scenes re-enacted from all of the Ju-on movies. (Wikipedia)
Continuing the franchise into infamy, Ghost House released The Grudge 2 theatrically in 2006 and The Grudge 3 direct to video in 2009.
Next up, another reboot, although it’s unclear to Bloody if this is to go direct-to-home video or hit theaters. A Grudge 4 was originally debunked back in 2009. This will mark the eighth film in the franchise.
Stephen Graham Jones is one of those horror literature names you know, even if you’re not that into horror literature.
The author of The Only Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw, and dozens of other entries in the modern horror canon has built a reputation for two things: Chilling fiction and a jaw-droppingly prolific output, and today we can exclusively reveal the next story he’s unleashing on readers.
On March 9, 2027, Jones and Saga Press will release Ears, a new haunted house horror novella about a down-on-his-luck man who finds an unlucky ally in the ghost of a child in footie pajamas, complete with bunny ears on top.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“Mr. Morning Gun, the hapless narrator of this first person novella, is a disgraced history teacher who now is an unhoused person who is largely living within his electric car and the empty homes he looks after for local real estate agencies in a specific way: He flushes the empty houses toilets to keep, primarily, the wax seals on the toilets fresh, and the plumbing flowing. For this he gets a bit of money under table. One day, at “The Messner House” he gets caught by an aggressive realtor having a tryst, and the ghost of the previous owners’ missing child intervenes, killing the couple, and saving the former teacher and he finds himself embroiled into an ever-increasing layer of cover-ups as the girl in the lavender footie pajamas keeps killing folks to keep the house empty, except for him.”
What inspired a story like this? For Jones, it began with something very practical, which quickly morphed into a new expression of horror.
“I was wondering if the chargers for electric cars are universal or not, but didn’t know how to phrase a search to figure that out, so I had to figure it out the only way I know how: with a story—with horror,” Jones told Bloody Disgusting. “With, as it turned out, a haunted house. So, now I know that they probably are universal. And that that leads to… to bad things.”
Bloody Disgusting is pleased to exclusively reveal the haunting cover for Ears, designed by Luisa Dias.
Ears is the latest entry in Jones’ always-busy publishing schedule, which includes a new novel, Off the Reservation, arriving this fall from Saga. Beginning next spring, Saga will also reissue three of Jones’ earlier horror works for a new generation of readers, delivering new editions of Demon Theory, The Last Final Girl, and Growing Up Dead In Texas.
Those reissues don’t have firm release dates yet, but you can expect Ears to arrive on March 9, 2027.
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