😬 THE GRUDGE 3 (2009)

💀 “When Curses Go on Tour: American Nightmare Edition”


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🎬 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

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❗Quick Note Before We Begin:

So The Grudge 3 marks a dark turning point—not in tone, but in franchise geography.
This is the first (but sadly not the last) time the Grudge saga sets up shop in America.
Yep. This is when the curse gets a passport and decides, “I’mma haunt some overpriced Chicago apartments now.”
And yes, I’m glaring directly at Grudge 2020. We’ll get there. Unfortunately.


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📼 Non-Spoiler Plot Rundown:

After the chaos from The Grudge 2, the curse doesn’t just continue—it relocates.
We’re now in a Chicago apartment building tied to the previous film’s events. Spooky stuff starts up again. People die. Screams echo. And a woman from Japan, Naoko—Kayako’s sister—comes to try and end this curse once and for all.

Does she? Lol. You know better.


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🧍 Character Rundown:

Naoko (Emi Ikehata) – Kayako’s sister trying to fix this franchise with ancient rituals. Bless her.

Max (Gil McKinney) – Traumatized landlord, slowly slipping into something… evil.

Lisa (Johanna Braddy) – Max’s sister. Screams, runs, does horror things.

Rose (Jadie Hobson) – Little sister who’s sick and definitely going to be used for ghosty tension.

Kayako & Toshio – Still croaking, still staring from corners. But this time? It feels like déjà boo.



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✅ Pros:

Attempts closure to the curse (keyword: attempts).

Naoko brings some actual Japanese spiritual lore back.

Some kill sequences still have that J-horror DNA (faintly).



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❌ Cons:

Flat characters – Nobody’s really interesting here.

Possession plotline – Because apparently that’s a thing now?

Blood ritual exorcism twist – Y’all are just making stuff up now.

Franchise tone downgrade – This ain’t eerie Japan anymore. It’s Chicago. With drywall.

Ghost logic falling apart – Kayako’s menace feels… meh.



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💭 Final Thoughts:

This is where The Grudge goes from “otherworldly dread” to “ghost goes Airbnb.”
The tension and cultural eeriness that made the first one iconic is totally gone. It’s replaced with dull apartments, awkward pacing, and ghost rules that now involve bloodletting and sibling sacrifice.

Kayako isn’t scary anymore—she’s like a haunted mall greeter: shows up, croaks, kills, repeat.

The only legacy Grudge 3 truly starts is the “let’s try this curse in America now” era… and if you’ve seen Grudge 2020, you know this is where the bad decisions started.
It’s not scary. It’s not creepy. It’s just… tired.


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🎯 Rating: 3/10

🛫 Ghost tour gone wrong.
🩸 Naoko deserved better.
👻 Kayako clocked in, barely.
🇺🇸 America officially made the curse lame.


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🚨 Spoiler Warning!

You’ve officially entered the cursed part of the review. Watch your neck, and maybe don’t open that closet door.


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💀 Spoiler Breakdown:

The curse moves from Japan to a Chicago apartment where Max, Lisa, and little Rose live. The deaths from the second film linger, but now it’s spreading again.

Naoko shows up to perform a traditional ritual that’s supposed to end the curse using her bloodline. The logic is fuzzy at best—basically, she thinks her blood can banish Kayako. She teams up with Lisa and Rose to do this.

But plot twist: Max gets possessed by Kayako (because possession is a thing now??) and murders Naoko before the ritual is complete. Because that’s how curses work—kill the sister trying to fix it and boom, curse doubles down.

Then the film gets gross. Kayako is reborn through Naoko’s corpse (think: blood-drenched, gooey birth sequence that nobody asked for), and then kills Max in a finale that’s just… tired.

The curse lives on. The building is still haunted. And little Rose, in the final scene, is sketching Toshio in her notebook.

Because sure. Let’s curse a child artistically. That’s a wrap.