"Pure magic. Every fashion film and NYU undergraduate thesis takes its cues from this lyrical masterpiece. In college I tried to make a satirical remake entitled
Lunchtime at Dangling Boulder, but all my actors slept too late." --
Lena Dunham, on the film adaptation "[From the] Victorian hothouse atmosphere and fetishism . . . and its focus on the burgeoning sexual curiosity of the girls (and the women) . . . to Gothic terrors, supernatural wonder, divine mysticism, or the imperialist unconscious . . .
Picnic actively encourages a host of fantasies." --
Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me, The Fever, and Dare Me, in an essay for The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray/DVD edition of the film "A sinister tale . . . laced with touches of other-worldliness" --
The Guardian "Deliciously horrific." --
The Observer "The fact that most people believed that this palpable fiction was a record of a real event is not merely a tribute to the writer . . . but a testimony to the atavistic power of its theme." --
The Spectator "Beautifully haunting." --
The Sun Herald (Australia)