Fiona Landers is a supporting character in The Grudge (2020) played by Tara Westwood. She is the original social worker that looked after Emma Williams before she was replaced by Yoko.
She got the curse after entering the Saeki House and unintentionally took it back with her to Pennsylvania. She became an onryĆ after her death along with her family, and serves as the main antagonist of the film.
Biography[]
In 2004, a few days before the events of The Grudge, live-in nurse Fiona leaves the Saeki house in Tokyo, disturbed by events she has witnessed inside. Fiona informs her co-worker (Yoko) that she is returning to America and will leave the keys with Alex at the care center, telling her that she saw something in the house but canât explain what.
In the alley behind the house, the ghost of Kayako Saeki starts to haunt her, by lunging out from a garbage bag. Fiona soon after arrives back at her home on 44 Reyburn Drive in a small town in Pennsylvania, reuniting with her husband Sam and her young daughter Melinda. Kayako's curse however, has followed Fiona back to America and possesses her. She bludgeons her husband to death and drowns her daughter in the bathtub before committing suicide by stabbing herself in the throat with scissors. Their deaths create a new curse infesting their former home.
As an OnryĆ, she begins to haunt and kill several of the characters who have the misfortune of entering the home. Detective Wilson, after scoping out her former home, starts seeing her and it drives him mad, first by trying to shoot himself and then by gouging his eyes out to stop seeing her.
Fionaâs hand is implied to have been the one that popped out the back of Peter Spencerâs head in the shower. Soon afterwards, she attacks him by first lunging at him while heâs sleeping and then appearing in front of him as heâs trying to escape their house. She then attacks him as heâs hiding in the closet.
Her next victim would be Faith Matheson, as she repeatedly torments her in the house, and is implied to have possessed her to kill her husband William Matheson and chop off her fingers.
Detective Muldoon would soon follow after, with Fiona frequently haunting and attacking her, such as in one instance where she briefly tries to drown her in her sink. Muldoon would later receive visions of Fiona killing her family as she attempts to burn the house down.
In the ending, after Melinda tricks Muldoon into thinking sheâs Burke in an illusion, Fiona ambushes her and drags her away, her fate is left unknown.
Trivia[]
- The character was dubbed by actress Takako Fuji (who originated the role of Kayako Saeki) in the Japanese-language version, as Fuji-san herself revealed on Twitter.[1] She also dubbed the character of Faith Matheson.
- She can be considered a counterpart to Kayako, given her role in the plot. She also shares common traits with Takeo Saeki, as they both killed their whole families and created the curse as a consequence.
- The theatrical trailer for The Grudge (2020) has shots of Fiona's (or Melinda's) crawling ghost much like Kayako's. However, such scenes are not seen in the final film.
- A deleted scene has Fiona chopping Sam's members before throwing his remains in the lake, which explains why the possessed Faith Matheson chops her own fingers off.
- Fiona's backstory is a reversal of Kayako's origins. This time, it is the woman who murders her husband and only child.
- Her plot is similar to that of Trish, another housewife possessed by the grudge who murders her husband. Furthermore, investigation oficially concluded that Trish also killed Lacey and the Flemings in a rampage before comitting suicide, similar to Fiona's acts.
- Fiona is the second female cursed character to commit a murder in the American film series and the thrid overall, after Trish and Yoshimi.
- The scene where Kayako attacks her by lunging out from a garbage bag is an homage to Ju-on: The Curse, where Takeo is killed in the streets by Kayako when she emerges from a dumpster.
- Fiona makes the same death rattle Kayako makes, even though her neck wasnât broken when she died. It may be a result of Fiona stabbing herself in the neck, likely severing her windpipe.