"For the American émigrés that populate ‘The Grudge' are portrayed as struggling with the basics of Japanese language, confused even by the products on a Japanese supermarket shelf, and generally lost and out of place – and it is a mutually uncomprehending relationship between an American and a Japanese which turns out to have engendered the curse at the heart of the film. Shimizu, it seems, is not only exploiting this cultural clash to amplify his characters' alienation, hopelessness, and terror, but also to comment wryly on the bizarre love affair between America and Japan which makes a film like this possible. It is as though the original ‘Ju-on' had been merged with Lost in Translation, and the result is an intelligent reflection on Hollywood's flawed attempts to recreate Oriental horror in its own image –as well as a great scare or three for the uninitiated West." - Anton Bitel, Movie Gazette