What actually happens
How a house goes bad
The curse in The Grudge starts when a person dies in a state of rage or sorrow and stays behind in that spot. Whoever meets it dies, and then the curse moves on to its next victim. In 2001, a housewife in Tokyo named Kayako Saeki has a crush on her college professor, Peter Kirk, and fills her diary with him. Her jealous husband Takeo finds the diary and decides she is having an affair. In a rage, he murders Kayako, the couple's little boy Toshio and the family cat, Mar, and hides the bodies in the house. Then Kayako's ghost hangs him with her hair. Peter visits the house after getting a letter from Kayako, finds the bodies and Toshio's ghost, and kills himself the next day. The Saeki family comes back as ghosts, and Kayako becomes an onryΕ.
Reading this instead of watching it is the correct decision. Scaredy Cat makes that decision automatic, for free.
An American family moves in
In 2004, the Williams family from America moves into the Saeki house because of Matt's job. Matt loves the house. His wife Jennifer feels lost in Tokyo because she can't speak Japanese, and his mother Emma, who has dementia, senses that something is wrong. The curse quickly takes Matt and Jennifer. Matt's sister Susan is haunted too, and it follows her home to her apartment. A care worker named Yoko goes to the house, finds Emma alone, and meets Kayako, who drags her into the attic. Yoko's boss, Alex, sends a different care worker, Karen Davis, to cover. Karen finds Toshio sealed inside a wardrobe, and later she sees Kayako's spirit come down from the ceiling to take Emma.
The detective who knew too much
When Alex gets to the house, Emma is dead and Karen is in shock, so he calls the police. Detective Nakagawa and his partner Igarashi go up to the attic and find the bodies of Matt and Jennifer, along with a human lower jaw. Kayako chases Susan around her office building, then attacks her at home, and Susan vanishes. As Alex leaves work, Yoko's jawless corpse kills him. Kayako starts haunting Karen, who tells her boyfriend, Doug. Karen looks into the house's history and talks to Nakagawa, who tells her the curse took three of his colleagues who investigated the Saeki deaths. Nakagawa brings gasoline to the house that night to burn it down, and Takeo kills him first.
The stairs
Nakagawa is already dead, so nobody is left to stop the curse. Karen hurries to the Saeki house after learning that Doug has gone there looking for her. She finds him paralyzed and tries to get him out of the house. Kayako crawls down the staircase, grabs Doug, and he dies of shock. This is the scene people dread most, and it happens near the end. Karen sees the gasoline Nakagawa left and ignites it with Kayako closing in.
The ending, explained
Karen survives the fire. In the hospital she learns that the Saeki house survived it too. She visits Doug's body and realizes that Kayako still haunts her. Doug, Nakagawa, Alex, Emma, Matt, Jennifer and Yoko are dead, Susan has vanished, and Kayako's family and Peter are dead as well. The curse is still active, and it has moved on to Karen.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
β Spoiled safelyDog status: No dog dies, though the family cat does.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Grudge scary?
Yes, The Grudge is a 6 out of 10. It has a lot of jump scares and a ghost who appears in ceilings and on stairs, and the dread lasts about a night.
How does The Grudge end?
Kayako kills Doug, and Karen sets the Saeki house on fire and survives. The house survives too, and Karen realizes that Kayako is still haunting her.
Does the dog die in The Grudge?
No dog dies in The Grudge. The family cat, Mar, is killed by Takeo in a flashback near the end, and it is shown for about a second.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Grudge?
Nobody has confirmed whether The Grudge has a scene after the credits.
What is the curse in The Grudge?
The curse begins with a person who dies in rage or sorrow and lingers at the spot. Anyone who runs into it dies, and the curse then passes to a new victim.
