Don't Leave the Kids Alone: reviews

What the critics say average 7.2 from 16 outlets

• 9.0 SpoilerLuis Toriz In the end, 'Don't Leave the Kids Alone' makes for a powerful, suffocating horror story, full of MacGuffins that play with the audience's expectations while building a relentless atmosphere. Read
• 8.0 The Scariest ThingsJoseph Perry Don’t Leave the Kids Alone sets out to entertain, and does just that with its fingernail-chewing set-ups and jaw-dropping payoffs — and what a climax. Read
• 8.0 La EstatuillaLalo Ortega The horrors are real, the officials make them worse when they don't cause them, and families pay the price. And once again we find in Mexican horror cinema both a pointed allegory and excellent entertainment. Read
• 8.0 Acotación ItineranteMiguel Vázquez 'Don't Leave the Kids Alone' may not reinvent the haunted house film, but it does manage to turn it into something far crueller and more atrocious. Read
• 8.0 CorrecámaraLorena Loeza For those of us who analyse films, it's always tricky to start talking about a film like 'Don't Leave the Kids Alone' by saying there's nothing really new in it and, even so, to admit that it's among the most remarkable and effective contemporary Mexican horror. Read
• 8.0 FilmfilicosIxquic la Bruja A pleasant surprise from Mexican horror cinema, on a par with the country's classics. Read
• 7.0 Daily DeadMatt Donato Portes treats the "children in peril" subgenre with a refreshing sense of mercilessness. Read
• 7.0 The Film VerdictBen Nicholson Whether all horror audiences will be able to get on board with this high-energy, somewhat anarchic version of a haunted house film is debatable, but it is incredibly effective. Read
• 7.0 NightTide MagazineMichele Schultz The film ditches cliché and instead of mischief, we get a slow boil of sibling tension that drives the film’s creeping suspense. Read
• 7.0 Dom on FilmDominic Hastings Instead, Emilio Portes’ film is a lot more sinister and thematically darker than initially seems. Read
• 7.0 Un Mundo FelizDiegoberto Maldonado All of this comes together in a generally stimulating exercise that aims to turn these characters' ordeal into an ideal experience for genre lovers and a very appealing one for the more cautious. Read
• 7.0 EscribiendoCineSantiago Echeverría Even so, the film manages to sustain an atmosphere in which the fear comes less from the apparitions than from its characters' emotional fragility. Read
• 7.0 QuieroTVArturo Garibay This Mexican film offers an uncompromising horror experience that pushes its characters to total breaking point, bringing them close to an ill-fated end and leaving viewers bewildered along the way. Read
• 6.0 Celuloide de TrapoCeluloide de Trapo Emilio Portes delivers an effective domestic horror film, with a very oppressive atmosphere and utterly convincing kids, though it can't keep up that sense of dread for its whole running time. Read
• 6.0 El Ojo del HorrorAlex Hdz 'Don't Leave the Kids Alone' is entertaining. A film with ups and downs, but one you can have a good time with. Read
• 5.0 Pegado a la butacaAlberto Villaescusa Rico I don't want to belittle the parts of 'Don't Leave the Kids Alone' that work, only to point out that it's the film itself that takes away their chance to shine as they should. Read