Lamb
A24 | Release Date: October 8, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 8, 2021
In scene after scene we don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re sure it will be worth the wait, especially because of Ms. Rapace’s presence. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 15, 2021
If you can get on its moodily monstrous wavelength, the movie will have you asking why we let some animals sleep on our beds and put others in pens. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 7, 2021
In what is essentially a three-human story (they’re outnumbered by their animal co-stars), Rapace brings the heart and soul to every close-up. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 8, 2021
The movie's stark Nordic mood and obscure mystery are as coolly immersive as nearly anything on screen this year — and in the hammy world of supernatural horror, that ambiguity alone feels like a small, spooky gift. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJan 11, 2022
Jóhannsson teases the possibility of a monster, but waits to reveal his hand. When he does, there’s more than a touch of gallows humour. I laughed out loud at his audacity, and had nightmares later. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellDec 21, 2021
The film as a whole is neither scary nor particularly interested in the nature of its ‘monster’, though it is undoubtedly strange and often unsettling. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyDec 10, 2021
The wild conceit is, against all odds, through smart writing and clever use of CGI and puppets, made palatable. The denouement is pleasingly shocking. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshOct 7, 2021
It’s a different register for Rapace, who remains controlled, with a few explosions of emotion. But she is present and instinctual, imbuing Maria with a steely but soft power: decisive, persuasive and feminine. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 7, 2021
Slow-moving and inarguably nutty, Lamb nevertheless wields its atavistic power with the straightest of faces, helped in no small measure by an Oscar-worthy cast of farm animals. Read full review
80
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaSep 27, 2021
Lamb is a wonderfully strange film about parenthood. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleTrace SauveurOct 7, 2021
If you like your affected character dramas with a healthy dose of weird insanity, you may just find yourself head over hooves. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 8, 2021
The result, for those who can overcome the substantial “suspension of disbelief” hurdle, is engrossing and unsettling. As ridiculous as the premise might sound, the film is not easily forgotten. It lingers. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 6, 2021
Lamb is weird and disturbing, even by the standards of the movie’s indie distributor, A24, which is known for its eclectic and times unsettling content. But it’s also strangely beautiful. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 4, 2021
This intimate, four-character film has its own quiet rhythms, compatible with yet distinct from any perceived A24 house style. It’s a hybrid of unnerving, dread-based horror and genuine domestic drama. Are they naturally so different, anyway? Read full review
75
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonOct 4, 2021
Lamb takes on the ominous, warning air of an old fable, the kind of pre-Grimm fairy tale meant to threaten the gullible with punishment for transgressing against the natural order of things. And in that respect, it’s a mighty debut, one worthy to see what else Jóhannsson has to offer. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnJul 26, 2021
Lamb takes a low-key minimalist approach to its premise that invites a certain shock-and-awe reaction before doubling back to give it purpose. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 11, 2021
What felt like an unusual metaphor for how parenting taps into an inherent need to nurture suddenly swerves into Grimms’ fairy-tale territory. It’s the sweetest, most touching waking nightmare you’ve ever experienced. Read full review
70
VarietyJessica KiangJul 26, 2021
No matter how pure your intentions nor how real your pain, these ancient myths all teach us, debts always come due, and the chilling denouement of Jóhannsson’s dark, deliberate debut suggests that is what Lamb is: a modern-day take on some ancient, pre-Disneyfication fairy tale or a nursery rhyme with a sinister history encoded into its Spartan melody. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeJul 26, 2021
The brilliantly sustained mood and matter-of-fact absurdity of Valdimar Jóhannsson’s impressive debut is slightly let down by a pay-off which doesn’t entirely land. Still, the majority of the picture is strong enough to satisfy audiences with a taste for folk horror oddities, even if the ending isn’t quite as punchy as one might have anticipated. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJul 26, 2021
Lamb is a disturbing experience but also a highly original take on the anxieties of being a parent, a tale in which nature plus nurture yields a nightmare. Read full review
68
TheWrapRobert AbeleOct 7, 2021
Set on a remote farm in the Icelandic tundra that could center either a horror film or a children’s fable, Valdimar Jóhannsson’s debut feature — which is sorta both — is in certain ways unexplainable, and in other ways as straightforward as a family portrait. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyOct 7, 2021
While it’s not a thoroughly satisfying stew of style and substance—plus, it could’ve used some sharper scares—Lamb nonetheless leaves a unique enough aftertaste for one to crave more of the same distinctive weirdness from Jóhannsson in the future. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 5, 2021
Whatever transpires or is left unexplained, Jóhannsson never loses track of the mood he sets out to establish, that of a frosty folk tale that suggests that not everything we do to cope with grief is healthy, acceptable and should be dressed up as a little girl. Read full review
60
Little White LiesHannah StrongDec 14, 2021
Lamb’s premise is intriguing too – a pleasing twist on the familiar horror trope of monstrous motherhood. Even so, the imaginative conceit is let down by a rather sudden and underwhelming climax. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerDec 9, 2021
Centred by a committed, affecting performance by Noomi Rapace, Lamb gets over its longueurs and missteps with interesting ideas, filmmaking craft and a unique tone of voice. Also includes some of the best animal acting of the year. Read full review
60
Screen RantSarah Bea MilnerOct 11, 2021
Lamb is a slow-burn suspenseful horror that eschews the genre's typical gore and jump scares, and instead frightens audiences with a nuanced portrait of grief, punctuated by the unshakable feeling that something is terribly wrong. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreOct 9, 2021
By the time the final act rolls around, Lamb approaches the idea that there’s a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom. It’s such an underwhelming conclusion to a film with such a compelling start. Read full review
59
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 8, 2021
More Tusk than, say, the goat who runs wild in The Witch. I won’t make the obvious joke and say it’s baaad. But its sheep thrills are mutton to write home about, either. Read full review
58
Paste MagazineJacob OllerOct 7, 2021
Bleak and crisp and cold as an Icelandic waterfall, Lamb is a movie with a sheepheaded toddler in great knitwear, the vague looming of something sinister and a filmmaker that can’t seem to wrangle it all. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 6, 2021
The narrative doesn’t generate much interest; the nature of the ultimate ending is discernible from a distance, and the movie’s message about nature and the natural order seems forced. Still, there’s a lot here that’s impressive. Lamb is too vivid and original to forget. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonOct 4, 2021
Though eerie and quietly deadpan, the film circles its grab bag of themes for so long that it also becomes tedious. Read full review
50
The PlaylistElena LazicJul 26, 2021
Lamb indeed is more of a slow build-up of dread than it is a real shocker, and Jóhannsson does know how to rack up the tension with long takes, long silences, and sparse set design. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyOct 11, 2021
Lamb preens and strains to be admired even as it reduces its characters to pieces on a game board and its actors to puppets. Read full review
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