The film's cast also includes actress Marika Matsumoto, who plays a fictionalized version of herself,[3] as well as Rio Kanno, Tomono Kuga, and Satoru Jitsunashi.

It has garnered generally positive reviews, with critics commending the presentation, performances from the cast, atmosphere, and pacing of its narrative.

During the production of a documentary titled The Curse, Kobayashi disappeared after his house burnt down and his wife Keiko was found dead in the ruins.

A year and a half earlier, Kobayashi investigated a woman named Junko Ishii and her son after a neighbor heard the sound of crying babies coming from her house.

Hori's obscure directions lead Kobayashi and Miyajima to observe a man named Osawa, who takes pigeons into his home in a nearby apartment block.

After filming at a shrine, actress Marika Matsumoto finds herself fashioning yarn and wires into interconnected loops in her sleep.

Kobayashi discovers that the daughter was Ishii and that she worked at a nursing school where she helped perform illegal abortions and stole the fetuses.

After Marika experiences strange behaviors, she goes with Kobayashi, Miyajima, and Hori to the Shimokage dam to perform the ritual to appease Kagutaba, hoping that doing so will free her from the demon's influence.

[6] Koichi Irikura of Cinema Today included Noroi: The Curse in his list of the best "documentary-style" horror films, calling the screenplay "excellent".

[7] Niina Doherty of HorrorNews.net called Noroi: The Curse "the best found footage film of the decade", referring to it as "well crafted, credible and most important of all, genuinely scary.

"[10] Writer Megan Negrych noted that the film "weaves together a complex story of curses, demons, and the forgotten with strong attention paid to atmospheric tension and the slow-building narrative in order to pursue a more subtle and highly effective horror experience.