Scott Fairgrieve’s review published on Letterboxd:
I'm a big fan of Guillermo del Toro, who co-wrote and produced this remake of a 1973 TV movie. Despite that, I waited a long time to watch this, because it has received very mixed reviews (although Roger Evert loved it) and I knew it contained lots of little CGI creatures, which didn't sound scary to me and could come off laughably bad unless done just right.
As it turns out, I liked this move more than I thought I would. As you would expect from GDT, it has lush and beautiful sets and cinematography, It builds tension and has a creepy atmosphere and a story based on an ancient legend. The ending was just dark enough to keep you from feeling like you just saw a Disney movie. All of that worked for me. What didn't was those little creatures. I found them more annoying than scary, and we saw way too much of them. Better to keep them more in the shadows and let the imagination fill in the blanks. There were also a few plot holes that detracted a bit from the movie's effectiveness. But overall, this is a solid effort that doesn't deserve the harsh criticism that it often receives.