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Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezIf the stock concessions made to genre cliché by The Woman in Black can be charitably viewed as deliberate tips of the hat to the heyday of Hammer Films, then John Pogue's period-set exorcism yarn The Quiet Ones more interestingly upends those tropes.
- 60EmpireEmpireMessier than recent Hammer output, but effectively chilling when it’s not making us feel the noize.
- 60Total FilmPaul BradshawTotal FilmPaul BradshawThere’s creepy dolls, cameras tipped on their side, blasts of white noise and a horny teenage Scooby gang helping Jared Harris’ Oxford prof stir up a poltergeist in the mind of a moody emo girl (Olivia Cooke).
- 60The GuardianMike McCahillThe GuardianMike McCahillThe arrestingly fierce Cooke, in particular, is surely a star in the making.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonThe Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonThe film relies on high production values and sense-battering shock tactics to make up for wooden performances and an illogical, silly script. As an exercise in retro pastiche, it impresses. But as a postmodern genre reinvention, it fails to deliver.
- 50The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisThere are nice touches... Yet many of the movie’s more nominally horrific elements are too familiar.
- 40Time Out LondonCath ClarkeTime Out LondonCath ClarkeThere are a couple of decent jumps and a few giggles, but nothing armrest-clenchingly scary about The Quiet Ones.
- 30Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleIt's a junky, unscary genre piece with a misleading title, because director and co-writer John Pogue jacks up the decibels so often to manufacture frights that you fear a punctured eardrum more than anything else.
- Ah, wait — it’s an ancient Sumerian curse. That seems like poppycock to everyone but this film’s four screenwriters, who also unfortunately go for crashes and yelling instead of a frightening story.