New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

63 11th Hour, The
47 27 Dresses
29 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
39 Alvin and the Chipmunks
81 Bamako
84 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
47 Bella
68 Business of Being Born, The
69 Charlie Wilson's War
64 Cloverfield
30 Cover
68 Delirious
92 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
43 Final Season, The
41 First Sunday
51 Golden Compass, The
49 Good Night, The
65 Great Debaters, The
63 Hannah Takes the Stairs
52 Hollywood Dreams
7 Hottie and the Nottie, The
60 I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
15 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
81 Juno
70 Lars and the Real Girl
47 Lions for Lambs
41 Mad Money
71 Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
xx Moondance Alexander
53 Music Within
77 Nanking
44 Nina's Heavenly Delights
24 One Missed Call
74 Orphanage, The
30 Over Her Dead Body
39 P.S. I Love You
37 P2
46 Reservation Road
55 Resurrecting the Champ
57 Romulus, My Father
85 Savages, The
78 Starting Out in the Evening
83 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57 Teeth
92 There Will Be Blood
38 Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
32 Untraceable
63 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
68 War Dance
71 Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
43 Youth Without Youth

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Night of the Hunter, The (re-release)
MGM Distribution

Night of the Hunter, The (re-release) reviews


8.8

based on 6 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 6 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, and Peter Graves

In this re-release of 1955's eerie meditation on good and evil, a demented preacher (Mitchum) relentlessly torments two small children in the Depression-era Bible Belt in order to get at their dead father's stolen fortune.

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	James Agee Davis Grubb (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Charles Laughton
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 1, 2001 Video: January 4, 2000 Theatrical: October 26, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, B/W
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This is the only film Laughton ever directed, and he packed it with a mixture of eerie chills, ingenious suspense, and absurdist humor. It's a genuine classic.

100

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Laughton understood Agee's proximity to Grimm vaudeville, and fashioned the most intensely expressionistic movie of its day.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Part fairy tale and part bogeyman thriller -- a juicy allegory of evil, greed and innocence, told with an eerie visual poetry.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

One of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. Many "great movies'' are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial failure long overshadowed by his acting career.

100

Chicago Reader Dave Kehr

An enduring masterpiece--dark, deep, beautiful, aglow.

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

This start for Gregory as producer and Laughton as director is rich in promise but the completed product, bewitching at times, loses sustained drive via too many offbeat touches that have a misty effect.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a10:
Awesome lone directorial effort by the great Laughton.

Edmond W. gave it an 8:
This is a very odd, mannered film which takes highly-stylized stage-like settings and turns them into an eerie montage of a sinister but familiar upcountry banality moved by the singular obsession of a mad preacher man searching for his stepchildren - who have their murdered mother's money hidden in a doll. Mitchum is superb and looney. A moody film with unexpected riches.

Jesse L. gave it an 8:
Mitchum's performance is excellent, although the rest of the cast is a bit mediocre. The river boat night sequence, however, is absolutely beautiful!!!

Mike M. gave it a 7:
It would rate as a classic thriller but for the schmaltzy final 15 minutes.

Judd S. gave it a 10:
Quite simply the scariest movie I have ever seen. There are movies that are designed to give you nightmares, and then there are movies that are the nightmares themselves. This movie is the nighmare.

Michael F. gave it a 10:
Heart-pounding. Mitchum's spine-tingling performance is one of the greatest performances ever.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Night of the Hunter, The (re-release) MGM Distribution

Night of the Hunter, The (re-release)
MGM Distribution