Original-Cin by Liz Braun

The Girl with The Needle is a harrowing drama based on real-life crimes that took place in Copenhagen around 1920. Directed by Magnus von Horn, the film is beautiful to look at but difficult to watch — this is dark, gripping, Bergman-esque fare.

The Irish Times by Tara Brady

The ever-reliable Dyrholm is both charismatic and curdling as the grubby matriarch. But most of the film is writ large and affectingly in Sonne’s agonised face.

Variety by Guy Lodge

The extremity of suffering on display here makes for difficult viewing, scarcely leavened by the expressionistic beauty of its presentation. But von Horn’s film never plays as empty miserablism, in large part thanks to its grave understanding of the moral and spiritual reasoning behind unimaginable acts of violence.

Los Angeles Times by Katie Walsh

The film is a harrowing and eerie horror fairy tale from another time, even as it feels startlingly fresh and always unpredictable.

Paste Magazine by Jim Vorel

Regardless of how you approach it, The Girl with the Needle remains an absolutely harrowing piece of historical horror, with an atmosphere of coldness and all-too-real misanthropy that captures a searing sense of truth.

The Film Stage by Savina Petkova

It is surprising, stylish, and unabashedly brave.

IndieWire by Sophie Monks Kaufman

Von Horn, however, cares for his characters and each is allowed a hardwon grace note. One leaves the cinema entertained and reeling, very unsure of what in any other context would be so easy to judge.

The Daily Beast by Nick Schager

As grim, and transfixing, as they come.

The Playlist by Brian Farvour

The haunting atmosphere of The Girl with the Needle lies in equal measure with the acting masterclass that serves as the film’s primary source of fuel.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

There’s no doubting the shiver of pure fear that runs through this movie from beginning to end.