GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Grudge, The
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Grudge, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 49 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.0 out of 10
based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 94 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13

Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Clea DuVall, William Mapother, KaDee Strickland, Bill Pullman, Rosa Blasi, Grace Zabriskie, and Courtney Webb

Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in this remake of director Takashi Shimizu's popular Japanese movie "Ju-On: The Grudge."


GENRE(S): Drama  |  Horror  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Stephen Susco
Takashi Shimizu (film Ju-On: The Grudge)
 
DIRECTED BY: Takashi Shimizu  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 17, 2005 
Theatrical: October 22, 2004 
RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Japan / USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
A master of atmosphere, Japanese director Takashi Shimizu leads his audience along on a celluloid leash to his pitch-black attic of horror, inviting each hair on the back of your neck to stand up.
Read Full Review
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
There is no "why" in The Grudge, at least not an explanation that provides comfort or cure. It simply is. That's what makes it really scary.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
The only character with any personality in The Grudge is a Tokyo house, but not to worry - it's got enough mean in it to keep any horror movie afloat.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It's enough to send you home with jiggly knees and a tummy ache.
Read Full Review
70
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
One of the flat-out creepiest films ever released by a major American studio.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis
Slightly less frightening than the original, but it's still a scary psycho-horror that effectively replicates its bleak and crisp shocks.
Read Full Review
63
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
This is an eerie, inventively mounted movie: It's a shivery fun time, filled with dark corners, deserted hallways and sudden apparitions. But it never manages to genuinely rattle you.
Read Full Review
60
Empire Olly Richards
A lean, atmospheric and acutely creepy little horror pic - nothing more, nothing less.
Read Full Review
60
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
It's effectively frightening. It's just not the kind of frightening that stays with you very long, unless of course someone decides to make the same movie . . . yet again.
Read Full Review
58
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A horror film that consists of virtually nothing but don't-go-in-the-attic suspense scenes strung together with a reasonable degree of brooding mood and a minimum of logic.
Read Full Review
58
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
In the hands of a less-skilled director, this Hollywood-mandated need to impose order could have ended in disaster.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Most of the chills have been faithfully re-created, though first-time screenwriter Stephen Susco hasn't done much to straighten out the muddled narrative.
Read Full Review
50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Pretty much a one-trick pony, and, after a while, that trick loses its ability to impress.
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
It isn't frightening. Sometimes, in fact, it's laughable.
Read Full Review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
There are so many events here but no real story. Perhaps that is what's making the drowned kabuki ghost so irate: She's desperate to find a coherent script.
Read Full Review
50
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Like a good horror movie, the images, jolts and artistically directed disorientation will keep your stomach clenched...Like a bad one, it doesn't make a lick of sense.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Shimizu can't quite pull everything together, trying to get off easy with a bargain-bin twist ending that most of the audience will see coming by the time the pile of corpses reaches double digits.
Read Full Review
50
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Takes a leaf from the "Psycho" handbook and abandons its star for stretches here and there.
Read Full Review
50
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
The benchmark for any horror movie, of course, is how well it frightens you, and The Grudge is pretty satisfactory in that regard.
Read Full Review
50
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The cast is drab and lifeless, the characterization non-existent, the ending simply impossible. Between our jumps of fright come lumps of time that take forever to pass.
Read Full Review
50
USA Today Mike Clark
At least the horror premise here has a hook - a house can spread its curse like a plague to adversely affect all who enter.
Read Full Review
50
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It’s not a disaster by any stretch, but purists will ache to show newcomers the horrific genius of "Ju-on" over The Grudge as soon as they exit the theatre.
Read Full Review
50
New York Post V.A. Musetto
The Grudge offers a bit more exposition than did "Ju-On," but the plot is still wispy.
Read Full Review
50
Premiere Peter Debruge
American audiences have seen Ju-On. And The Grudge just goes to show why remaking it is such a frivolous idea: What's the use in wasting so much energy if the filmmakers aren't going to fix what was wrong with the movie in the first place?
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Less scary than creepy, The Grudge may have lost some oomph in the translation from Japanese to English, and the desire for a PG-13 rating probably muted the violence and perhaps the scares.
Read Full Review
50
Village Voice Jessica Winter
The overdetermined approach preempts character shadings or social subtext-just compare Hideo Nakata's original "Ring," which tapped its dread from viral-replicant mass culture and its pathos from a broken home, or Nakata's "Dark Water," which channeled the sorrow, guilt, and paranoia felt by a young divorcée mired in a custody battle.
Read Full Review
50
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Less a film than a terror delivery system, The Grudge repeatedly shows off Shimizu's technical chops, but never gives viewers a reason to care about or identify with the victims.
Read Full Review
40
Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Despite the tighter rewrite and the slicker production, it's obvious that Shimizu is still searching for what scares him, and until he finds it, he doesn't stand--ahem--a ghost of a chance of frightening us.
Read Full Review
40
LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Isn't art, but as date-night fright flicks go, it's effective.
Read Full Review
40
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
More than anything, The Grudge suggests that it's time for Shimizu to move on.
Read Full Review
30
Variety Scott Foundas
Viewers of this Sam Raimi-produced, sub-"Amityville" scarefest are likely to hold the real grudge.
Read Full Review
25
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Sarah Michelle Gellar, the nominal star, has been in her share of horror movies, and all by herself could have written and directed a better one than this.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 94 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Javito13 O gave it a10:
The best horror film EVER. Sarah Michelle Gellar was incredible here and Kayako and Toshio actors too. Simply AWESOME.

Brandon W gave it a9:
It's funny how some of you said, "It's a pathetic attempt to copy The Ring" when this film is actually a remake of the orginal Ju-On. The Ring was a pathetic remake compared to this masterful remake. Get your facts straight.

Sarah o gave it a10:
AMAZING MOVIE I loved it so much I'm only 11 years old it was one of the best movies I have seen in my life! ITS downright creepy!

[Anonymous] gave it a2:
Give it an extra 2 for nice horror, but for the rest, I call it trash, very bad plotting.

Riren gave it a5:
The only effective thing about The Grudge is the gimmicks it brings to the table. The masses of black hair are creepy. The distinct groaning sound is creepy. The pale little boy is creepy (if you aren't fed up with pale children from a host of similar movies). The plot, the acting, the mood - these are all generic, certainly nothing fresh enough to have necessitated it being a remake. If there is one annoying person who likes to make fun of movies in the theatre, they will make fun of The Grudge - and it's really the sort of movie that attracts those kinds of patrons, too.

Axel L. gave it a10:
I don't know why some people are so unappreaciative of horror movies these days, this movie is one of the best I have seen!!! A successful remake of Ju-on.

Chris gave it a10:
I really like this movie. It was scary, disturbing and that noise that Kayako made was downright creepy. Everyone should see it.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: iPhone 3G | Fantasy Football | Moneywatch | Antivirus Software | Recipes | E3 2009

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use