With “The Moogai,” Bell wrestles with the horrors of the past and acknowledges the history of the Aboriginal children who never had a chance at a future.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 9, 2025

The monster itself is quite an accomplishment, but the boom in horror movie-making has made us pretty blasé about the grotesque creations the genre can conjure up. Unfortunately, this well-intentioned film isn’t as scary as it’s trying to be.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2024

The horror works on multiple levels, with the scariest moments informed by the lived experience of Aboriginal people.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2024

This film, with its strong Indigenous themes, is a solid addition to the recent burst of well-received independent Australian horror movies.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 26, 2024

Not everyone has understood exactly why this is such a brave, confident movie, but everyone needs to know that – despite this – Jon Bell is exactly the kind of filmmaker Australia is lucky to have right now, and desperately needs.

| Jun 10, 2024

Sadly, its attempts to express the lingering pain and far-reaching historical trauma behind these experiences are rendered moot by dull and tensionless filmmaking.

| Jan 31, 2024

A film that comes apart relatively early due to an unconvincing lead performance and shallow writing before it really spins off the rails with creature design that should be a cautionary tale for anyone who tries to make a film like this in the future.

| Jan 26, 2024

What saves The Moogai is its haunting final image, a variation on the same closing shot from the short film.

| Jan 22, 2024