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70
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Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It's enough to send you home with jiggly knees and a tummy ache.
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60
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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.
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58
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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.
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50
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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.
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50
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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.
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50
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San Francisco Chronicle
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.
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50
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Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Takes a leaf from the "Psycho" handbook and abandons its star for stretches here and there.
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50
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Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
It isn't frightening. Sometimes, in fact, it's laughable.
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40
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Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
More than anything, The Grudge suggests that it's time for Shimizu to move on.
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25
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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.
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