Chicago Tribune

An engaging character study, steeped in religion, demonology and community politics.

Boston Globe

An odd but original, at times even poetic, film about a vanished world.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

For all it's warmth and wonder, it carries little more power than a storybook fable.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

May be reasonably diverting, but the story never matches the movie's fantastic visual imagination.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

The more I think about Simon Magus, the less I'm sure what it's trying to say.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

This historical fantasy is too ambitious for its own good, but contains some striking imagery and likable performances.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

Though the film ends on a surprising and genuinely magical note, it takes its own sweet time getting there; some viewers will have lost patience before the denouement arrives.

San Francisco Chronicle by Wesley Morris

The film has a persuasive murkiness and one extended mythopoetic final sequence that's almost moving in its silence.

Film.com by Robert Horton

The brainchild of English director Ben Hopkins, who takes his time getting going. Too much time, really, as the first hour passes rather antsily, without quite achieving forward motion.

New York Post by Jonathan Foreman

Boring and irritating, and also mildly offensive in its ignorant depiction of both Judaism and Catholicism.