The Lodge
Neon | Release Date: February 7, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanDec 31, 2019
While the cabin seemingly offers a rural respite, the endless snow and the situational horror of it all adds agoraphobic washes to any space. Couple that with captivating uses of grey and silver — seriously, the gradient factor in those two colors here is awe-inspiring by itself — and the dread becomes suffocating. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJordan RuimyFeb 1, 2019
Appropriately frosty and aloof, The Lodge is a meditative plumbing of the darkest parts of the human psyche, our vulnerabilities, and self-doubts and it’s these personal fears that resonate loudly. Read full review
90
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaFeb 3, 2020
An icy cold mix of The Shining and religious mania run wild, The Lodge opens with a bang, and never lets up. Take it from someone who doesn’t scare easy: The Lodge is scary as hell. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 19, 2020
This is a scary movie that loves other scary movies. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 4, 2020
Is The Lodge the most disturbing thriller of the year? Judas Priest, I hope so. Dark and despairing, grim and gripping, it’s not necessarily shocking. It doesn’t live or die on its “big twists.” But it gets in your head and messes around there. Just as it was designed to do. I can’t remember a horror movie that left me as gutted as this one. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 4, 2020
It’s a bruising movie, being sold on the promise that it’s “scary as hell”, a quote that I worry will mislead expectant horror fans. The scariest thing about The Lodge is how human it all is. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 1, 2019
The longer The Lodge rolls along, the sheer skilfulness of the execution — the precise manipulation of the audience’s fears — becomes so impressive that one is tempted to simply succumb to its cold, cruel efficiency. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Chandler LevackFeb 21, 2020
While The Lodge isn’t as hearty as the horror films it desperately wants to emulate, the filmmakers have concocted a heavy stew of emotions, left on a low simmer. In the cold winter season of "IT" children orphan horror movies, it will have to suffice our cravings. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloFeb 7, 2020
Overall, Franz and Fiala perhaps play things a little too safe with The Lodge, not straying too far from a formula they know has already worked before. “The Lodge” is more disturbing than scary, with its eerie ambiance and chilling plot handling most of the scares. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartFeb 5, 2020
Keough is riveting as the vulnerable Grace. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeJan 3, 2020
The thing that haunted me the most about the film afterwards—aside from Riley Keough’s choking screams in one particularly intense, symbolically loaded sequence—was the ludicrousness of its plot. Read full review
75
The Film StageJake HowellFeb 1, 2019
Once the film wrestles itself from the confines of its spiritual predecessor [Hereditary], The Lodge is able to chew on some truly mind-bending ambiguities that kept me guessing—suspended in relatively effective tension—on what was actually happening. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 1, 2019
An ambitious, expertly crafted, and admittedly kind of ludicrous horror movie. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 26, 2020
It all falls ultimately to Keough, who is outstanding at portraying the duality of a character, a duality the story demands. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 6, 2020
The movie’s strongest asset is Keough, an actress who can seize and hold the screen with electrifying force (check out her terrific turns in “American Honey” and the forthcoming “Zola”), but who is no less powerful in her quieter, more recessive moments. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaFeb 1, 2019
As a psychological down-is-up horror movie, The Lodge has a few solid tricks up its sleeve. But when the smoke and mirrors clear, it’s ultimately a story about trauma, and a rather bleak one at that. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 19, 2020
The Lodge isn’t a perfect treat. But for those who like their movies dark and disturbing, it does the trick. Read full review
63
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpFeb 11, 2020
The atmosphere that Franz and Fiala maintain isn’t a replacement for thoughtful writing, and their visual inventions are undone by the secrets that inspire them. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineHenry StewartJan 31, 2020
It’s best appreciated not with the parts of your brain responsible for reason and judgment, but in the unthinking terror centers, where the film’s style of God-fearing fanaticism also resides. Read full review
60
IGNTom JorgensenFeb 6, 2020
If The Lodge had focused as much on its three leads as it did on building a creepy atmosphere to put them in, it may have been as terrorizing an experience as it aspired to be. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 5, 2020
The Lodge strains credulity beyond the breaking point; “contrived” is the mildest word you could use to describe the plot. Luckily, Franz and Fiala are masters of setting a mood that makes your skin crawl. And Keough — she’s Elvis’s eldest granddaughter — is a subtle sensation. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveyFeb 4, 2019
There are too many explanations dangled here, to ends somewhat frustratingly contradictory rather than usefully ambiguous. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 1, 2019
While the filmmakers' control of mood, menacing atmosphere and unsettling spatial dynamics remains arresting, their story sense grows shaky in a chiller that starts out strong but becomes meandering and repetitive. ... Still, this is classy, intelligent horror. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 1, 2019
The Lodge seems more content to hover in the disquieting mood than make anything substantial out of it. ... As it continues along an aimless trajectory, The Lodge proves that even horrible events can be a deadly bore. Read full review
55
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsMar 26, 2020
The Lodge falls into the more common trap of spinning its wheels in a mudbath of obviousness and red herrings, dredging up anxieties and questions that it doesn’t quite know how to push forward, or inward. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 6, 2020
The most horrible thing about The Lodge, a horror flick set mostly in a snowbound vacation house, is that it’s no fun. Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesFeb 6, 2020
Despite the lofty and even admirable aspirations of this particular entrant to the ever-growing genre, what it has to offer bears little difference from all the rest: namely, a couple of really bad nights in a very bad house. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisFeb 6, 2020
Despite its visual flair and unrelentingly taut atmosphere, The Lodge is more successful in sustaining unease — like the eerie, unexplained shots of a spooky dollhouse — than in building a convincing narrative Read full review
50
Film ThreatNorman GidneyFeb 1, 2019
As a bitter commentary on family, truth, trust, and above all, the religion, The Lodge is a serviceable mood piece that ends up leaving you feeling cold, and not in a good way. Read full review
40
The AtlanticDavid SimsFeb 10, 2020
Fiala and Franz can’t find a compelling purpose for the uncanny yarn they’ve spun. When all its ominous frights flame out in narrative chaos, The Lodge becomes a bore, more invested in the ghoulishness of its final reveal than in examining its unpleasant moral implications. Read full review
34
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiFeb 6, 2020
It’s a frustratingly superficial, judgmental, surface-level thriller that undermines all its scariest moments by getting distracted at all the wrong times. Read full review
More From This Movie

64 Critic Reviews

6.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL