The Criterion Collection

Bergman for Halloween? Critics seem to be picking up on the horror elements in The Magician, out now on DVD and Blu-ray. At DVD Talk, Jamie S. Rich explains, “The gorgeous black-and-white movie tells of a night in a remote Swedish village, where a troupe of traveling magicians are locked away and asked to prove they are what they say they are. The movie toys with horror tropes, challenging what we see and what we believe, and dissecting the nature of entertainment.” He calls the film “a glorious ruse,” adding, “It’s spooky and challenging, and Bergman uses all the mechanics of a good fireside ghost story.”

And for the website Suite 101, Martin G. Wood singles out the film’s famously spooky climax, praising Bergman’s “masterful series of shocks and scares . . . Set alone, the rapid-fire series of events wherein the nonbelieving doctor is trapped in an attic with reanimated body parts and the walking dead would make for a great horror film short, comparable to John Carpenter (Halloween) or even William Castle (House on Haunted Hill).” Wood also writes that “The Magician may be the great auteur’s most complete film, mesmerizing audiences with dark humor, horror, psychodrama, and even a touch of farce.”

More magical reviews, from Time Out New York’s Joshua Rothkopf, giving it four stars, and Cinema Retro’s Raymond Benson, who calls it “exquisite, enigmatic . . . Every frame is a work of art.”