Close Your Eyes
First Look International | Release Date: April 23, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
5
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Strong acting and smartly tuned-in directing turn a run-of-the-mill detective story into a striking, sometimes harrowing blend of horror and suspense. Read full review
70
VarietyDavid Rooney
An enjoyable throwback to the occult psychological horror-thrillers of the late 1970s. While it flirts often with campy excess, the film remains compelling thanks to its chilly mood, stylish visuals and polished production values. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
If you happen to be seeking a fairly cute film concerning occultism, torture, and murder, here ya go. Read full review
63
New York PostMegan Lehmann
If you can overlook its TV-episode look, occasional lapses in logic and detours into lurid overkill, this old-school psychological thriller, which marries a tracking-the-serial-killer narrative with occult themes, is a creepy diversion. Read full review
60
L.A. Weekly
As Willing moves the movie along its well-worn, Ruth Rendell–ish path, it accrues a certain fusty British charm, along with the requisite (and, for this reviewer, most satisfying) amounts of satanic symbolism, creepy mute children and abandoned gothic churches. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Sometimes a movie's charm materializes where you least expect it and in this particular case it emerges in the unlikely form of Henderson's character, Scotland Yard detective Janet Losey. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Visnjic is charismatic, sympathetic and believable in the role, and the first part of the film -- in which he's being drawn into the case against his will and then use his hypnotic skills to get inside the mind of the little girl -- is quite riveting. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Before it goes down in a soggy mess of scary movie cliches and insultingly stupid plot contrivances, director and co-writer Nick Willing's adaptation of Madison Smartt Bell's novel Dr. Sleep gets in some good, seriously creepy licks. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
With such plodding dialogue, there's little the actors can do to surmount the falsity, although Ms. Shaw, in her brief appearances, almost succeeds. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Willing's confused procedural -- derived from a novel by Madison Smartt Bell -- is a hasty throwback to the sado-medieval Exorcist descendants of the turn of the millennium (Stigmata, Stir of Echoes, Lost Souls). The somnolent cast can't keep the faith. Read full review
30
Washington PostMark Jenkins
The plot, loosely derived from Madison Smartt Bell's "Doctor Sleep," is utterly stale. On their way to confront ancient evil, Strother and Losey keep tripping over timeworn cliches. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A cheaply made piece of ''psychological'' occult schlock, subjects you to that depressing stop-and-go rhythm that defines inept fantasy thrillers. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Adapted - badly and unfaithfully - Close Your Eyes is a convoluted jumble of paranormal psychology, occultism and pagan symbolism, topped off with a quest for immortality. Read full review
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