Review: In "THE GRUDGE," That Ghost Bitch is Really Mad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 216 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Road to Halloween 2025

The Grudge (2004)

Running time:  91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing images/terror/violence, and some sensuality

DIRECTOR:  Takashi Shimizu

WRITER:  Stephen Susco (based upon the Japanese film Ju-On: The Grudge, written and directed by Takashi Shimizu)

PRODUCERS:  Taka Ichise, Sam Raimi, and Robert G. Tapert

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hideo Yamamoto (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Jeff Betancourt

COMPOSER: Christopher Young

HORROR with elements of thriller and mystery

Starring:  Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, William Mapother, Clea DuVall, KaDee Strickland, Grace Zabriskie, Bill Pullman, Rosa Blasi, Ted Raimi, Ryo Ishibashi, Yoko Maki, Yuya Ozeki, Takako Fuji, and Takashi Matsunaga

The Grudge is a 2004 American supernatural horror film directed by Takashi Shimizu.  The film is a remake of Shimizu's 2002 Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge, and it is the first installment in The Grudge film series.  The Grudge focuses on an American nurse living and working in Tokyo who is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse.

When a person dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born.  If that person dies in his house, then, the curse stays in the house like a stain making the house death itself.  Any person who goes into the house is touched by death and will be killed by the curse, usually in the form of an angry spirit.  So goes The Grudge, the latest American remake of a Japanese horror film, but unlike 2002’s The Ring, the writer/director of the original Japanese film, Ju-On: The Grudge, Takashi Shimizu helms the remake.  Does that make a difference?  Very likely, it does.

The Ring and its forefather, Ringu, were similar, but The Ring clearly showed American sensibilities, as well as being set in the U.S.  The Grudge, like the original, is set in Japan, and Shimizu apparently treats the film as a sequel rather than as a remake.  And The Grudge certainly comes across as a kooky, as weird, and as very, very creepy horror movie, fitting right in with other Japanese horror films.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is Kare Davis, an American exchange student who somewhat reluctantly moved to Japan with her boyfriend Doug (Jason Behr), also a student.  When a fellow student who is working as a nurse doesn’t show up for work, Kare gets the fill-in assignment of going to a home in a Tokyo suburb to care for an invalid older woman.  What she doesn’t know, nor apparently does anyone else, is that the house has a horrible curse on it due to a double murder and suicide committed within its walls.  The curse touches anyone who enters the house, and Kare unwittingly unleashes a diabolical supernatural killing machine.

The Grudge is one of the scariest pure horror films that I’ve seen in awhile.  It’s unabashedly about the evil dead, wicked spirits, and mysterious supernatural curses that come and go with no explanation.  Some audiences may be put off by the fact that the curse doesn’t really follow the rules.  That’s because humans are explaining something they only halfway understand; like explaining the unknown and unknowable in human terms.  The may not be steadfast rules to how the curse in The Grudge works, and Japanese filmmakers seem to understand that capricious nature of the supernatural, or at least they aren’t always trying to order it like Western filmmakers.

There’s almost zero characterization in this film, and the fact that the audience doesn’t really get to know the characters keeps this from being a great horror movie.  Ms. Gellar, however, is now without a doubt, a great screen star of horror and thriller genres.  She centers this film and keeps the kookiness from getting out of hand.

The Grudge is certainly peculiar.  As frightening as I found it, I can easily see where some people might find the concept of the curse and the film itself farcical and utterly hilarious.  Be warned; it could be your cup of tea or have you rolling your eyes in disgust.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

RE-EDITED:  Thursday, October 2, 2025

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