Why did the 2019 reboot of The Grudge receive a rare F grade from audiences?

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The 2019 supernatural horror film The Grudge, a soft reboot of the American franchise, struggled to resonate with viewers. Despite a talented cast and director Nicolas Pesce’s vision for a grittier tone, the film faced harsh criticism and earned a rare F grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.

The 2019 film, also titled The Grudge: The Untold Chapter, serves as a prequel and concurrent narrative to the 2004 American film and its two sequels. Directed by Nicolas Pesce, the project underwent a long development cycle that began with an announcement in 2011. Although writer Jeff Buhler initially intended to introduce entirely new mythology and ghosts, the final product remained tethered to the established curse, which originates from a family in Japan and is brought to America by a nurse named Fiona Landers.

The narrative follows a series of tragic encounters at 44 Reyburn Drive, where characters like Peter Spencer, Faith Matheson, and detective Muldoon fall victim to the house's malevolent influence. The production, filmed in Winnipeg between May and June 2018 on a budget of $12–14 million, aimed for a darker, more realistic aesthetic. However, critics were largely unimpressed, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting only a 20% approval rating. Reviewers described the film as derivative and lacking development, though some noted its effective use of gore and a chilling final sequence.

Commercially, the film underperformed relative to the series' history, marking the lowest opening for a U.S. theatrical entry at $11.4 million. It ultimately grossed $49.5 million worldwide. Despite the negative reception, director Nicolas Pesce expressed interest in future possibilities for the franchise, including a potential crossover with The Ring series or a sequel set in a different time period and location, moving away from the contemporary American and Japanese settings that defined the earlier films.

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