The Innocents
Vertigo Films | Release Date: May 13, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 18, 2022
The Innocents is a nightmare unfolding in cold, clear daylight. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 12, 2022
Skillfully merging menace and sweetness (when Anna begins to speak, her parents’ delight is incredibly touching), The Innocents constructs a superbly eerie moral landscape, one that the children (all of whom are fantastic) must learn to navigate. Read full review
90
VarietyJessica KiangApr 20, 2022
This superior chiller is both a satisfying genre exercise and a minute observation of the process by which young children acquire morality; its most striking aspect may just be the empathy Vogt displays for his 7- to 11-year-old stars, and the extraordinary juvenile performances that empathy brings out. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinApr 20, 2022
The lonely, uncanny and sometimes unthinkingly violent world of childhood is explored with chilling candor and exceptional skill in writer-director Eskil Vogt’s arthouse horror feature The Innocents. Read full review
85
TheWrapRobert AbeleMay 12, 2022
Vogt, with his second feature, has crafted a disturbing and original heart-pounder all his own, uncommonly attuned to the perspective of unsocialized prepubescents: how their feelings work, what their minds process, and why their worst moments may bring catharsis to them, but can look terrifyingly wrong to us. Read full review
83
Original-CinThom ErnstMay 12, 2022
Vogt masterfully—undoubtedly infuriating for some - understates the horror in his film by filtering it through a bright summer Nordic sun while adults mill about oblivious to the violence around them. Read full review
82
PolygonTasha RobinsonMay 19, 2022
Vogt makes deliberate, thoughtful choices that amp up the story’s drama and horror without ever turning it into the kind of action-centric special-effects showcase Americans have come to expect even from their low-budget superpower stories. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 19, 2022
The Innocents features some superb kid-acting, which doesn’t just entertain and convince but embellishes the malevolent intelligence (call it sociopathy) at work in Mr. Vogt’s story. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMay 21, 2022
The child’s perspective on the story means that the film is unquestioning when it comes to the sources of the psychic powers, neatly sidestepping the need for exposition. In a child’s mind, magic is real, black magic painfully so. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentMay 20, 2022
An effective and unsettling allegory for growing up, this is the kind of low-key horror that will make you look twice at cherub-faced youngsters. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyMay 20, 2022
Vogt coaxes impressive, carefully calibrated performances from his creepy young ensemble. Read full review
80
NMEPaul BradshawMay 19, 2022
Kids are scary. If you didn’t think so before, you definitely will after watching The Innocents – one of the year’s most quietly unsettling horror films. Read full review
80
IGNMatt DonatoMay 13, 2022
The pace of this gorgeously shot Norwegian pseudo-fable will be a roadblock for some, but give Vogt a chance. Storytelling rewards are bountiful once The Innocents executes its conflicts well above the expected maturities of players on screen. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMay 11, 2022
The film maintains a quiet dynamic even throughout the most horrific moments, and while you might expect, or even want, the film to climax more operatically, the understated tone is a radical choice. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganApr 20, 2022
The Innocents successfully weds three elements: a strong, original concept distilled through a smart screenplay; excellent young performances; and a mise-en-scene which puts the audience in a child’s circular view of a very small world - tiny by nature of childhood itself, in which the smallest areas are unfathomably large, and also by circumstance on a self-contained housing estate. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 25, 2022
Vogt brings out the ugliness of childhood (the shallow empathy, the lashing out, the selfishness, the curiosity about the disgusting) and ramps it up with endless malice that slowly builds to horrific action. It's the anti-jump scare, with a sickening catharsis that what you think is coming does, indeed, come to pass. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganMay 13, 2022
Already at a disadvantage for sharing a name with a 1961 film that adapts Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents manages to conjure unique imagery of troubled youths—but doesn’t necessarily deliver on crafting adequate interiorities for these kids. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 13, 2022
A deep empathy from Vogt for his child actors elevates this from what it could have been, even if it feels like there’s a tighter version that unfolds with a tad more urgency. Read full review
75
IndieWireChristian ZilkoMay 12, 2022
The Innocents is a film about childhood as much as it is about murder, sharing as much DNA with “Boyhood” as it does “The Bad Seed.” Specifically, it’s a film about contemporary childhood and, in a dangerous world that forces kids to grow up faster and faster, whether innocence is even still possible Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubLuke Y. ThompsonMay 12, 2022
Childhood is hard, and childhood grudges run harder. The Innocents pulls no punches in turning that fact into horror. Read full review
70
Screen RantAlexander HarrisonMay 13, 2022
From a superhero perspective, Vogt's movie recaptures that sense of primordial awe that many of today's blockbusters have lost touch with, simply by setting themselves in worlds so obviously distant from everyday life. Whatever its impact upon release, The Innocents seems destined to be remembered, and hopefully the industry will find room for more movies just like it. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 10, 2022
The Innocents, writer and director Eskil Vogt’s horror film about children with supernatural powers, is definitely difficult to watch, a brutal bit of business. But the thrills aren’t cheap — they’re hard earned, if you can call them thrills at all. Read full review
58
The PlaylistCaroline TsaiApr 20, 2022
Make no mistake: The Innocents is no young adult novel adaptation, and things get very dark very quickly. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineWes GreeneApr 20, 2022
The Innocents adopts a slasher-esque vibe that, however airlessly aestheticized, feels lurid for the sake of being lurid. Read full review
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