The phrase "a grim shadow" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a sense of foreboding, sadness, or a negative influence that looms over a situation or person.
Example: "The news of the layoffs cast a grim shadow over the office, leaving everyone anxious about their future."
Alternatives: "a dark cloud" or "a foreboding presence".
The resultant surge in carbon emissions will cast a grim shadow over the coming decades.
But today Cuba is a grim shadow of its former self.
Terry Collins steps to the lectern, Mets cap pulled over bristly white hair, so that a grim shadow falls over his brow.
In July 2012 the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight screening of the latest Batman film, the apocalyptic The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan), cast a grim shadow over Hollywood.
The New York Times article reporting the events noted that, "While the ceremonies marking this major historic event were taking place communal strife continued to cast a grim shadow over [the] future".
King Edward VIII's decision to quit the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson remains a grim shadow in the royal memory, especially for Queen Elizabeth, who is said to remain haunted by the trauma her father, King George VI, suffered when he was forced to take the throne.
The Guardsmen are under a grim security shadow, and they warn visitors to walk with a buddy between dusk and dawn.
The results are shocking and sharp as a knife, but be warned – the unfolding real-life tragedy in the Alps casts a grim unforeseen shadow over the opening segment.
The fallout of this event is told from multiple characters' perspectives — a Lebanese shopkeeper with a nose for news; a Broadway has-been turned alcoholic music teacher; a talented, rootless graffiti artist; a well-meaning kid from the projects living in the grim shadow of his father's murder.
The grim shadow of the impending Holocaust abroad presages, it turns out, a smaller-scale disaster closer to home.
In the 1998 Belmont Stakes, Real Quiet, trained by Bob Baffert, was collared by Victory Gallop in the grim shadow of the wire – rarely have four small inches seemed such a chasm of disappointment.
