Grudge, The

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.

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.

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.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's enough to send you home with jiggly knees and a tummy ache.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

One of the flat-out creepiest films ever released by a major American studio.

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.

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.

Empire Olly Richards

A lean, atmospheric and acutely creepy little horror pic - nothing more, nothing less.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Pretty much a one-trick pony, and, after a while, that trick loses its ability to impress.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It isn't frightening. Sometimes, in fact, it's laughable.

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.

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.

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.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Takes a leaf from the "Psycho" handbook and abandons its star for stretches here and there.

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.

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.

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.

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.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The Grudge offers a bit more exposition than did "Ju-On," but the plot is still wispy.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Isn't art, but as date-night fright flicks go, it's effective.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

More than anything, The Grudge suggests that it's time for Shimizu to move on.

Variety Scott Foundas

Viewers of this Sam Raimi-produced, sub-"Amityville" scarefest are likely to hold the real grudge.

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.