The Girl on the Train is one of the 15 fall movies that we're excited for, and now critics have delivered their verdicts on the mystery-thriller movie. So far, the critical reception is all over the board.

　　The movie stars Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow) as Rachel Watson, a divorcee who takes the train to work, passing her old house every day. Her ex-husband and new wife and child still live there, so in an attempt to escape the pain, she watches a neighboring couple, Megan and Scott Hipwell, and uses her imagination to create a dream life for them. One day, she sees something that causes her to get angry and black out. She wakes up with no memory of the event, other than the feeling that something bad happened. She discovers Megan Hipwell is missing and becomes obsessed with trying to find out what happened to her.

　　We've collected a series of review scores and editor opinions and compiled them into an easy-to-read list below. For a wider view of the critical reception, visit GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

　　Film: The Girl on the TrainDirector: Tate TaylorDistributor: Universal PicturesRelease Date: October 7Rating: R

　　

Entertainment Weekly - A-

"Director Tate Taylor (The Help) doesn't bring the kind of stylistic dazzle that David Fincher, his fellow helmer in literary It Girl depravity, lavished on Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl. But he deftly translates the bleak, raw-boned menace and tricky time signatures of Train's intertwined plotlines, and draws remarkably vivid performances from his cast, particularly his two female leads. Blunt and Bennett aren't girls at all; they’re women on the edge of their own oblivion, wounded and furious and chillingly real." -- Leah Greenblatt [full review]

　　

We Got This Covered - 4/5

"It might be a tad light when matched against the wittiest mysteries, but for all intents and purposes, The Girl On The Train is a tightly-wound Hitchcockian ride wrought with tension. Elements of voyeurism, self-loathing, and murderous intent mix together in a volatile cocktail stirred gently by director Tate Taylor, who doesn't dilute a single ingredient. Some might claim that certain choices dull shock value a tad, but performances are good enough where someone's more obvious arc still beams with inherent intrigue (nameless as not to spoil). I'll be as 'Blunt' as I can be (heh)--thrills, chills, and (brief) gory spills await you in this seedily invasive literary homage. Punch your ticket and take a spiralling ride into madness that's lined by white picket fences…" -- Matt Donato [full review]

　　

Variety

"The Girl on the Train gets less convincing as it goes along--the climax, which features a man, two women, and a kitchen utensil, is borderline camp--yet the movie has just enough intrigue, and has been made with enough craft, to disguise (for a while) the late-night cable-thriller mechanics it ultimately succumbs to. It delivers a sense of hidden dark lives, which is why it should have no trouble connecting at the box office. Put in demographic terms, a movie like this one fills an essential niche for women moviegoers, and they will likely revel in every sneaky, lurid moment of it. But that same audience should also realize that it ultimately deserves better than decently executed female-gaze victimization pulp." -- Owen Gleiberman [full review]

　　

The Telegraph -- 3/5

"Blunt's Rachel might be a soused and broken bit of human wreckage, but she's better than all this: there are too many moments when you wish this raddled stalker had simply been allowed to direct her own film." -- Tim Robey [full review]

　　

Empire -- 2/5

"...[I]t's the thriller aspect that most lets the film down, failing to truly engage or offer enough plausible red herrings to send your mind whirring through different theories as to what could have happened. The twists rarely, if ever, have the impact that were intended. At the centre of this is Emily Blunt, who despite the recognisable cast around her, is rarely off screen. She's a fine actress, but obviously miscast here. It's not her fault particularly--she simply fails to adequately escape her star power to believably portray such a damaged character." -- Jonathan Pile [full review]

　　

The Wrap

"The uninitiated who see The Girl on the Train and wonder what the fuss was all about will have missed the breezy manipulations that made Hawkins' book so pleasurable. But they and disgruntled fans of the novel will certainly share one thing with its booze-addled protagonist: Lost hours they can't get back." -- Robert Abele [full review]

　　

IndieWire - D+

"Perhaps it's inevitable that The Girl on the Train plays like a flimsy, artificially sweetened version of David Fincher's lurid trash-terpiece--the source material, for all of its strengths, was still a less savvy and satirical version of the Gillian Flynn thriller that inspired one of 2014's best films. But no matter how basic Hawkins' book might be in comparison to some of the ones that came before it, it's hard to argue that it didn't deserve better than this, that any story so smartly attuned to the need for women to hear themselves and each other should be reduced to such flavorless swill. Gone Girl may have been trash, but The Girl on the Train is pure garbage." -- David Ehrlich [full review]