The Order 2003

Loren King, Chicago Tribune: Schlock that could and should have been better. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Devout Catholics will be appalled; everyone else will be asleep. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: [Helgeland] beats up on the Catholic Church with the same brainless zeal and pointless histrionics as such Grade F noisemakers as Lost Souls and Stigmata. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Cast adrift with vague, improbable characters and a plot that's at once under- and overcooked, the actors struggle to find a steady tone, lurching from somber to silly as the director tries to figure out what he's doing. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The picture is so lethargic that I began to think of watching it as a form of atonement. Read more

Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News: It's a horror movie that isn't frightening and a thriller that isn't thrilling. Read more

Jon Strickland, L.A. Weekly: All the fine cinematography can't hide the sad fact that the second half of the film delivers none of the shocks and starts required of atmospheric horror. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: A supernaturally silly drama about priests, exorcism, sin-eaters and Heath Ledger struggling with such pious problems as how to keep his fake Euro accent in place. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: May be the nadir of the subgenre that produced The Exorcist (at its high end) and Stigmata (at its middle-to-low end). Read more