We’re pretty far removed from the J-horror craze here in 2019, as well as the craze of Hollywood remaking J-horror hits for English-speaking audiences, but next year’s Grudge will be bringing one of the most iconic of those properties back to the big screen here in the States. And it’s hoping to connect with audiences way more than Rings did back in 2017.

For starters, director Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes of My Mother) promises in a new chat with Entertainment Weekly that his movie is quite unlike the Grudge movies of the past.

“It’s a very different take on The Grudge than you know it from the past,” Pesce told the site.

He continued, “I think that horror audiences these days are looking for a much more grounded, much more realistic, much more character-driven story in their horror movies. We see what’s doing well now and it is these kind of smarter, more nuanced horror stories, and that’s what this is going to be. We’re trying to update it for contemporary sensibilities, and we have an unbelievable cast, and I think it’s going to be something very different.”

Pesce further details, “The movie is set up a lot more like Seven, that sort of movie. There’s a cop drama that drives the whole thing, and Andrea [Riseborough] is the lead detective on this new case that they’ve come upon, and is the driving force through the movie. She’s incredible.”

Grudge will bring meowing children back to the forefront on January 3, 2020

Horror veteran Lin Shaye stars in the re-remake. Also starring are Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir (The Nun), and John Cho (“The Exorcist”), as well as Betty Gilpin (“Glow”), William Sadler (The Mist), Jacki Weaver and Frankie Faison.

Based on a script by Midnight Meat Train and Pet Sematary scribe Jeff Buhler, it’s a new take on the 2004 pic (itself based on the 2002 Japanese original Ju-on), which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse in Tokyo who is afflicted by a curse that created uncontrollable homicidal rage.