Jacki Weaver in The Grudge is a star in a second-rate horror movie. – The Canberra Times

whats-on, theatre-arts

Seeing Jacki Weaver in the cast list of The Grudge was a surprise, but perhaps it shouldn't have been. Weaver had a long and respectable Australian career before her performance as the matriarch in Animal Kingdom brought her to Hollywood notice and she's been in some notable films there since, including the Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook. But in addition to these highlights, she's also made some decidedly lesser efforts, most recently The Grudge, a not very good, relatively low budget ($US10 million) but commercially successful horror film. She also made the more obscure Haunt (2015) but has managed to stay in the mainstream of respectability for the most part. With luck and good management, I don't think she will be turning up in a Friday the 13th reboot playing the Betsy Palmer role any time soon. Not that low-budget horror can't be good, but as a genre it still has an disreputable air about it in a way bad dramas do not - not surprising given how many bad and gross horror movies are made. Some future stars made horror movies early in their careers but moved onwards and upwards. Kevin Bacon survived getting an arrow through the throat in Friday the 13th, Steve McQueen was not consumed by The Blob and future Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey and Rene Zellweger did not have their careers dismembered by Texas Chainsaw Massacre: the Next Generation. Some older stars who wanted - or needed - to keep working ended up in the lower end of the genre, presumably when they were deemed too old or faded to get more prestigious parts. We're not talking about the big, "respectable" (whether good or bad) horror movies like The Exorcist (with Max von Sydow), The Omen (Gregory Peck, Lee Remick) and Damien: Omen II (William Holden). Nor are we talking about longtime horror stars like Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. One cycle - saddled, unkindly, with nicknames like "hag horror" "hagsploitation" or "psycho -biddy" cycle of the 1960s and '70s saw stars like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Olivia de Havilland in films varying widely in quality but generally fun, like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Mickey Rooney, a huge box-office draw when young, ended up in a Silent Night, Deadly Night sequel. Other respectable veterans who did lesser horror movies later in their careers include Ray Milland (Frogs), Glenn Ford (Happy Birthday to Me) and Janet Leigh (Night of the Lepus, a long way from Psycho). Why the filmmakers felt it desirable to cast veteran actors is a bit of a mystery: since the movies were mostly aimed at younger audiences, the presence of some old-time star probably would offer no special attraction. Perhaps it was simply to add a veneer of class to films that didn't always have much (if any) - for the distributors, possibly, or just for the filmmakers, to try to convince themselves they were more than purveyors of schlock. Weaver will probably survive her dips in the horror pool and keep doing a range of roles. Her co-star John Cho had better be careful though, lest he end up being talked into yet another Harold and Kumar film. He's nearly 50 and has been lucky to be able to diversify so far. But being known only for Harold would be as bad as being known only for second-rate horror.

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Seeing Jacki Weaver in the cast list of The Grudge was a surprise, but perhaps it shouldn't have been. Weaver had a long and respectable Australian career before her performance as the matriarch in Animal Kingdom brought her to Hollywood notice and she's been in some notable films there since, including the Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook.

The Grudge Jacki Weaver in The Grudge. Picture: Allen Fraser/Sony

But in addition to these highlights, she's also made some decidedly lesser efforts, most recently The Grudge, a not very good, relatively low budget ($US10 million) but commercially successful horror film. She also made the more obscure Haunt (2015) but has managed to stay in the mainstream of respectability for the most part. With luck and good management, I don't think she will be turning up in a Friday the 13th reboot playing the Betsy Palmer role any time soon.

Not that low-budget horror can't be good, but as a genre it still has an disreputable air about it in a way bad dramas do not - not surprising given how many bad and gross horror movies are made.

Some future stars made horror movies early in their careers but moved onwards and upwards. Kevin Bacon survived getting an arrow through the throat in Friday the 13th, Steve McQueen was not consumed by The Blob and future Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey and Rene Zellweger did not have their careers dismembered by Texas Chainsaw Massacre: the Next Generation.

Some older stars who wanted - or needed - to keep working ended up in the lower end of the genre, presumably when they were deemed too old or faded to get more prestigious parts. We're not talking about the big, "respectable" (whether good or bad) horror movies like The Exorcist (with Max von Sydow), The Omen (Gregory Peck, Lee Remick) and Damien: Omen II (William Holden). Nor are we talking about longtime horror stars like Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.

One cycle - saddled, unkindly, with nicknames like "hag horror" "hagsploitation" or "psycho -biddy" cycle of the 1960s and '70s saw stars like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Olivia de Havilland in films varying widely in quality but generally fun, like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Mickey Rooney, a huge box-office draw when young, ended up in a Silent Night, Deadly Night sequel. Other respectable veterans who did lesser horror movies later in their careers include Ray Milland (Frogs), Glenn Ford (Happy Birthday to Me) and Janet Leigh (Night of the Lepus, a long way from Psycho).

Why the filmmakers felt it desirable to cast veteran actors is a bit of a mystery: since the movies were mostly aimed at younger audiences, the presence of some old-time star probably would offer no special attraction.

Perhaps it was simply to add a veneer of class to films that didn't always have much (if any) - for the distributors, possibly, or just for the filmmakers, to try to convince themselves they were more than purveyors of schlock.

Weaver will probably survive her dips in the horror pool and keep doing a range of roles. Her co-star John Cho had better be careful though, lest he end up being talked into yet another Harold and Kumar film. He's nearly 50 and has been lucky to be able to diversify so far. But being known only for Harold would be as bad as being known only for second-rate horror.

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Jacki Weaver in The Grudge is a star in a second-rate horror movie. - The Canberra Times

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero