The Night House
Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: August 20, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 26, 2021
Rebecca Hall’s admirable refusal to soften the brittle edges of her recently widowed protagonist in The Night House makes her a compelling variation on the usual woman in ghostly peril. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerAug 19, 2021
Although let down by muddled plotting, The Night House is a low-key, well-made thoughtful horror flick, excellently played by Rebecca Hall. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeAug 16, 2021
There are enough crafty surprises buried within The Night House to just about outweigh the elements that don’t work quite as well, mainly because it’s all delivered with such fiery conviction by Hall. The house might be built on shaky foundations but its inhabitant is utterly unshakable. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveyJan 27, 2020
Though this tale of a new widow’s apparent haunting gets progressively lost in a narrative maze that’s complicated without being particularly rewarding, director David Bruckner suffuses the action with enough dread and unpleasant goosings to make this an above-average genre exercise. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeAug 18, 2021
The latest film from The Ritual’s David Bruckner seems to have forgotten that it’s supposed to be a horror movie first and a metaphor second. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 29, 2020
Unfortunately, the script by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski is clunky—in the convoluted nature of its reveals and also in the sometimes-baffling behavior on display. Read full review
58
The Film StageMatt CipollaJan 28, 2020
Whether it’s because of the script or David Bruckner’s so-so direction, its attempts at eschatological dread don’t quite stick. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedAug 19, 2021
Unfortunately, it’s a fairly unimaginative, largely unconvincing, often dull and always predictable example of the genre with few thrills and no surprises, and the only thing it raises is a surfeit of puzzling questions about why the wonderful actress Rebecca Hall can’t find a script to show off her abundant skills in a vehicle someone might remember. Read full review
50
Film ThreatNorman GidneyJan 26, 2020
Holding the entire movie together, Hall delivers an exceptional performance as a woman grieving, sliding in and out of reality. But her talents are eventually no match for a runtime that stretches things a bit and story beats that we have seen before. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 20, 2021
Hall strives to carry The Night House on her more-than-capable shoulders, but she can’t quite compensate for the moments when the movie is outright silly or, worse, boring. Read full review
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