What Bertino ultimately delivers is a time capsular movie with an enduring, if not routine, story.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 23, 2023

I can't think of another American film propelled by such razor-sharp and hopeless fatalism, but there will be more.

| Sep 10, 2021

Relentless and brutal, The Dark and the Wicked builds a pervasive sense of dread that reaches almost unbearable peaks in its torment of the estranged, emotionally repressed family featured within.

| Aug 28, 2021

The Dark and the Wicked continues the current mainstream horror trend of half an idea (sometimes known as 'a simple premise') filmed and stretched out to a feature-length running time on the pretence of offering up something we haven't seen before.

| Jul 25, 2021

In a genre awash with modestly budgeted independent fare, The Dark and the Wicked easily rises to the surface.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 9, 2021

The underwhelming ending makes clear that Bertino had no intention of committing to the film's obvious metaphor, an especially galling development given its potential.

| Jun 5, 2021

Steady interlacing of generational resentment with supernatural menace-each feeding, zombie-like, off the other-gives The Dark and the Wicked a subtext that's almost strong enough to offset its largely generic scares.

| May 3, 2021

A terrifying horror film set apart by its malignant atmosphere. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 25, 2021

The movie doesn't provide conventional horror scares, but provides an unsettling air of dreadfulness that comes adjacent to distance and grief.

| Mar 16, 2021

Increasingly suspenseful thanks to the unpredictable edge of the story, The Dark and the Wicked is an incredibly bleak and sometimes cruel tale.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 9, 2021

Not to detassel these children of the corn, but expectations should be reasonably set going in. This is neither "the scariest movie in years" nor deceptively profound. It is just an icky bit of rural terror, well planted.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 5, 2021

Religion and horror seem to play well together often, but what makes Dark/Wicked interesting is the blending of different beliefs (atheism and Christianity) in a horror setting, and exploring the outcome.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 4, 2021

This is a movie operating on a scares-per-minute quota that it always meets.

| Mar 1, 2021

THE DARK AND THE WICKED took a hammer and tongs to the audience's soul.

| Feb 28, 2021

Well-paced, there isn't a single frame wasted, and Bertino's subtle hand makes the shadows breathe and the very air a character of sinister intent.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 26, 2021

[I]t take elements from The Exorcist and The Shining, but comes at this story of an estranged, secular family confronting unexplainable forces in a stripped-down fashion that's unsettling because of how lacking in bombast it is.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 25, 2021

There is possibly not a single scary moment here that will be new to horror fans, but Bertino directs with such technical flair that I yelped at most of them - and half-missed the others, eyes squeezed tight shut.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 24, 2021

If Bertino's ability to stray from the norm is refreshing, it's his attention to details, both prosaic and ominous, and masterful ratcheting up of tension that really impresses...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 22, 2021

Striking, scary, and at times beautiful rural horror film from Bryan Bertino. Watch it if you like your horror somber and atmospheric; avoid if you have any fondness for sheep or carrots.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 17, 2021

Another successful outing from writer/director Bertino.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 17, 2021