Night Of The Hunter is a gut-churning Gothic frightmare that is part religious allegory, cautionary tale and fairytale that warns of false prophets and predatory wolves. This "nightmarish Mother Goose tale" (as Laughton described it) is inspired by the work of D.W. Griffith and stunningly shot in the German expressionist style, with emphasis on minimum light and long, creeping shadows. The studio (United Artists) knew not what to do with this chilling and timeless masterpiece. They threw it away on a double bill with a B western, but it traumatised kids at matinees and was banned in Memphis. Laughton was so devastated by its box-office failure that he never directed another film.
- Keith Lofthouse, Urban Cinefile.

"The Night of the Hunter" is one of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. For his first film, Charles Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled by it, the public rejected it, and the studio had a much more expensive Mitchum picture it wanted to promote instead. Yet what a compelling, frightening and beautiful film it is! And how well it has survived its period.
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times.