2.5/10 I wanted to watch one horror show in honor of Halloween this year. Despite really wanting to check out “The Haunting of Hill House” followed by “The Haunting of Bly Manor”, I decided to check out “Ju-On: Origins” only due to the fact that I saw 2020’s “The Grudge” as only the third film in theaters way back at the year’s beginning. I figured it was appropriate to come full circle and end with a Grudge related show since I started with the movie. I gave “The Grudge” a 3/10 and didn’t think it could get much worse than that. Sadly, I was mistaken. This series is a complete waste of everyone’s time and it makes me wish I would have checked out some of those other horror shows instead. I watched every movie in the Grudge franchise and the biggest problem with this show is that it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. The plot, content and (lack of) scares are what we have seen time and time again in this franchise. The jumps back and forth in time, the poorly developed characters, lazy jump scares, etc. are all staples of this worn out franchise that needs to die already. Luckily, with only six episodes at roughly a half an hour each, the entire series clocks in at about three hours, essentially making this one long movie split into parts. As for the very few positive aspects that work, this quick pacing is one of the things I was grateful for. Episodes don’t drag on for too long and for an entire season to only be three hours long was a God send. A couple of the actors (Yuina Kuroshima and Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) give great, heartfelt performances and finally, the show embraces its graphic, gory side. There is definitely some dark, disturbing imagery, which was great to see as opposed to some PG-13, watered down diet horror. Despite these few shimmers of light, there is nothing else to draw you to the series or keep you around. Episodes don’t end on cliffhangers and due to the poor quality, it felt like a chore to play the following episode after one concluded. The ending is rather anti-climactic and nothing gets resolved as questions still remain. But you won’t care about any of that because you will just be happy the show is over, followed by instant regret that you even watched it. If you are looking for something new, well written, original, exciting or scary to watch on Halloween…look elsewhere.
#GrudgeNotLestYeBeGrudged / #JuOnlyTheGoodDieYoung / #MoreBuryThanScary / #JuOnBoreigins / #GrudgeJuDy / #HomeBirthMidknife
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