This astonishing masterpiece really has no shortage of impressive details.

| Feb 5, 2025

In one of his greatest roles, Mitchum makes as indelible an impression...

| Jan 2, 2024

Charles Laughton’s sole directorial work hauntingly laid the groundwork for “from hell” movies of the ’80s and ’90s.

| Dec 16, 2023

Daringly daunting, The Night of the Hunter is a beautifully dark dose of cinema’s best.

| Sep 2, 2023

A redemption for those poor souls who didn't escape in the real world but found solace in this story.

| Jun 26, 2023

A unique blend of fractured fairy tale, Southern Gothic grisliness, and striking German expressionism.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 6, 2023

…one of American cinema’s most daring, poetic and downright artistic masterpieces…

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 5, 2023

The Night of the Hunter is a confusion of real and false film art: at moments startlingly original, at others desperately phoney. It might have done better with a different actor in the leading part.

| Sep 14, 2022

[Director Charles Laughton] is experimenting with the medium and, if he fails more of often than he succeeds, this does not make his attempt less admirable. The Night of the Hunter is frequently bad, but it is never less than interesting.

| Jun 7, 2022

That The Night of the Hunter was Charles Laughton's first effort as a director is remarkable. That it was his only film behind the camera is one of cinema's most unfortunate tragedies.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 12, 2022

One of the most iconic American Gothic films and delves deeply into the fear and anxieties of small-town inertia.

| Jun 25, 2021

It is a true original, unable to be categorized in any specific box or genre, existing within parameters set only by itself.

| Apr 15, 2021

The Night of the Hunter doesn't altogether, as they say, "come off," but it is a film of extremely individual flavour, and its daring, its indifference to convention, make it uniquely surprising for a Hollywood production today.

| Oct 2, 2020

Mr. Charles Laughton directs, and, since Mr. Laughton is a highly intelligent man, nothing that he does is without interest. The Night of the Hunter is indeed none the less interesting for being a failure.

| Oct 2, 2020

The strong dramatic values inherent in the plot have been dissipated by the director's striving for symbolic touches and for unusual camera effects, as well as by the fact that the characterizations are not clearly defined and lack conviction.

| Oct 2, 2020

If you enjoy a moody, and often evocative drama, The Night of the Hunter will appeal to you. When Mr. Laughton learns to tell a story through his actors rather than symbolism, something very fine will result.

| Oct 2, 2020

Mitchum's devilish reverend is the most impressive aspect, rapidly surpassing the uniqueness of the strange account itself.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 23, 2020

Like the best horror, it eschews jump scares in favor of creeping dread and unsettling elements.

| Jul 1, 2020

Few [films] reach the level of magnificence and genius as the suspenseful, alternately lyrical and visually jarring American gothic creepfest, The Night of the Hunter.

| Jul 25, 2019

It is an atypical jewel that still maintains all its appeal. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jul 24, 2019