The Grudge trailer is here and you'll never want to shower again

The Grudge trailer
(Image credit: Sony Pictures)

The Grudge trailer has emerged, fittingly, on Halloween week. The Sam Raimi-produced reboot is filled with all the tropes you've come to expect from the series: long-haired girls skulking in the shadows, jump scares, and teeth-gnashingly tense shower scenes. Watch it below now.

Confusingly, this isn't a remake of The Grudge, more like a re-imagining of the original 2002 Japanese horror, Jo-On: The Grudge, which was later remade for a Western audience in 2004 with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead role. 

John Cho, who has horror experience having starred The Exorcist TV show, will play Peter Spencer, and he's the very first face we see in the trailer. He creeps and tiptoes his way into the stately home and swiftly makes his way upstairs as he hears a woman muttering. Pro tip, Pete: run the other way.

Unfortunately, Cho's character works his way up to the bathroom, where he's met by the ominous sight of a bloody bathtub that bubbles up until, eventually, a hand grabs a retreating Spencer. 

Later, he's showering, a neat subversion of the iconic scene starring Gellar, and a decrepid hand rises from his roots and grabs a hold of his hair. Showers? Baths? What do these supernatural beings have against hygiene?

He's not the only one terrorised by an unseen force, however. Andrea Riseborough (of Black Mirror fame) is tasked with investigating a murder at 44 Rayburn Drive, the very same house where Cho nearly took an impromptu blood bath. 

If The Grudge lives up to its spine-chilling trailer on January 3 in the US and January 31 in the UK we could be in for a banner year of horror. A Candyman reboot, A Quiet Place 2, and The Conjuring 3 are all out next year. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Need some more scares to start your week? Here are the best horror movies around.

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

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