"Hiruko is not a perfect film but it is an awful lot of fun, a surprisingly effective popcorn film from a man known best for his grim visions of humanity. Hieda sports the director's trademark fishing hat throughout the film and is clearly a stand in for Tsukamoto to live out all of his childhood fantasies. It's got pretty much everything you could want: likeable lead characters, bizarre secondary roles, a wealth of splat-stick humor, one of the more bizarre movie monsters you'll ever come across, fountains of blood, surprisingly effective special effects and a legitimate dose of fear and suspense." - Todd Brown, Screen Anarchy