As academic James Kendrick wrote, initial reviewers of the film "were confounded by boundary-crossing aesthetic." Its thematic content stirred controversy as well. A contemporary critic in "Variety", for example, praised the film's acting, production, and its many scenes of "unadulterated horror", but added that "wonderful though this picture is, it is absolutely unfit for public exhibition." A Copenhagen reviewer was likewise offended by "the satanic, perverted cruelty that blazes out of it, the cruelty we all know has stalked the ages like an evil shaggy beast, the chimera of mankind. But when it is captured, let it be locked up in a cell, either in a prison or a madhouse. Do not let it be presented with music by Wagner or Chopin, [... to young men and women, who have entered the enchanted world of a movie theatre." Conversely, a critic for "The New York Times" wrote in 1929, "The picture is, for the most part, fantastically conceived and directed, holding the onlooker in a sort of medieval spell. Most of the characters seem to have stepped from primitive paintings." The film also acquired a cult following among surrealists, who greatly admired its subversion.