Anna Hoang Boston Hassle Jul 16, 2025 3.5/5

The experience in watching THE ORIGIN OF EVIL is akin to that horror-like uneasiness, where you are certain that something colossally bad will finally present itself and ruin everyone’s lives. Even the interior of this mansion is notably off-putting.

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Megan Fisher Loud and Clear Reviews Jan 11, 2025 3/5

Where the film does succeed is in conveying the particular, illicit delight of watching people be nasty to one another.

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Kevin Wight The Wee Review Jun 2, 2024 3

Entertaining cuckoo in the nest thriller ultimately plays it a little safe

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Steve Morrissey Radio Times Apr 12, 2024 4/5

While it nods to the misanthropic Patricia Highsmith, The Origin of Evil also boasts some twisty Agatha Christie-style plotting and a touch of Hitchcock glamour.

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Hilary A White Sunday Independent (Ireland) Apr 4, 2024 4/5

Marnier attains a great feeling of side-stepping and evasion, allowing the juicy reality of the set-up to declare itself gradually.

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Gemma Creagh Film Ireland Magazine Apr 4, 2024

The Origin of Evil is a flavoursome cocktail of Succession mixed with Saltburn garnished in a unique French sensibility.

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Wendy Ide Observer (UK) Mar 31, 2024 4/5

[An] enjoyably pulpy, devious, Highsmith-esque thriller in which nothing and nobody are quite what they seem.

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Bren Murphy RTÉ (Ireland) Mar 29, 2024 4.5/5

There's skulduggery afoot in this fun and twist-filled French psychodrama.

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Paul Whitington Irish Independent Mar 28, 2024 4/5

Some currently fashionable split-screen effects are intended to keep you guessing till the end, and a subplot involving Stephane’s imprisoned girlfriend adds spice to this hugely enjoyable film.

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Markie Robson-Scott The Arts Desk Mar 28, 2024 3/5

This thriller has an excellent cast and looks wonderful, although the plot-line is somewhat preposterous and soap-opera-esque. Nevertheless, it’s stylish and gripping.

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Cath Clarke Guardian Mar 27, 2024 3/5

Without a doubt this is easy entertainment, never dull, and it has some shrewd things to say about class and money – though the satire might have been sharper and the running time shorter by a good 20 minutes.

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Alison Willmore New York Magazine/Vulture Dec 9, 2023

Everybody in this movie seems to be lying through their teeth. In less sure hands, this could have resulted in annoyance.

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Nadine Whitney FILMINK (Australia) Dec 8, 2023 18.50/20

A gloriously snaking crime thriller which hooks the viewer almost immediately and doesn’t let go until the final frame.

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Jason Blake Limelight Dec 8, 2023 4/5

For my money, Laure Calamy is France’s most versatile film star, a winning presence in anything from high comedy to realist drama... Here, in Sébastien Marnier’s identity theft thriller The Origins of Evil, she’s brilliant again.

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Craig D. Lindsey Nashville Scene Dec 8, 2023

Even when you see a lot of the twists coming, this decadent, dark-hearted mix of opulence and deceit may win over those who’ve been once again craving the kind of stylish, sensual thrillers that Hollywood used to drop all the time in the ’80s and ’90s.

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Caspar Salmon Sight & Sound Dec 8, 2023

If The Origin of Evil were only lurid camp it would pall fairly quickly, but Marnier is careful to weave a fine vein of pathos through this narrative.

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John McDonald Australian Financial Review Nov 13, 2023

The gothic mansion, the feared but wounded patriarch, the ghastly family, the scheming grifter who takes her chances… we’ve seen these things a thousand times, but they never lose their appeal.

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Sean P. Means The Movie Cricket Oct 30, 2023 3.5/4

Marnier mines humor from the oddball behavior of these rich women… and the “Succession”-like maneuvering. … And when the thriller elements kick in, he handles the Agatha Christie-style reveals, the crosses and double-crosses, masterfully.

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Owen Gleiberman Variety Oct 28, 2023

Based on “The Origin of Evil,” I’d call Sébastien Marnier a filmmaker to watch.

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Andiee Paviour Nobody's Reading This But Me Oct 21, 2023 4/5

The loopy reveals are progressively anarchic, held together by a cool ensemble cast.

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