According to the DVD supplement "Footprints of a Spirit" in the Criterion Collection's presentation of The Spirit of the Beehive, when the film was awarded first prize at the prestigious San Sebastian Film Festival, there were boos of derision and some people stomped their feet in protest. The film's producer said many in the audience offered him their condolences after the first screening in late 1973.
Years later, when the film was re-released in the United States in early 2007, A. O. Scott, film critic for The New York Times, lauded the direction of the drama: "The story that emerges from [Erice's] lovely, lovingly considered images is at once lucid and enigmatic, poised between adult longing and childlike eagerness, sorrowful knowledge and startled innocence."[15]
Film critic Dan Callahan praised the film's cinematography, story, direction and acting. He wrote, "Every magic hour, light-drenched image in Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive is filled with mysterious dread....There's something voluptuous about the cinematography, and this suits the sense of emerging sexuality in the girls, especially in the scene where Isabel speculatively paints her lips with blood from her own finger...[and] Torrent, with her severe, beautiful little face, provides an eerily unflappable presence to center the film. The one time she smiles, it's like a small miracle, a glimpse of grace amid the uneasiness of black cats, hurtling black trains, devouring fire and poisonous mushrooms. These signs of dismay haunt the movie."[16]
Tom Dawson of the BBC wrote of how the film handled using its lead child actors to portray children's point of view, praising the young actresses Ana Torrent and Isabel Tellería. “Expressively played by its two young leads, it's a work which memorably captures a child's perspective on the mysteries of everyday life.”[9]
A Variety review at the time of the film's release applauds the film's actors, Ana Torrent and Fernando Fernán Gómez in particular, and points to the simplicity of the scenes in the film as a source of its charm.[17] Critic John Simon wrote "For total incompetence, however, there is nothing like The Spirit of the Beehive".[18]
In 2007, Kim Newman of Empire praised Ana Torrent for her performance, saying she "carries the film with a remarkable, honest performance — perhaps the best work ever done by a child actor." Newman refers to the emotion carried in Ana's and the film's final line, "Yo soy Ana/It's me Ana." Newman also commended the film's lack of explanation for the events happening on screen, "or, indeed, precisely what is going on in Ana's family, the village or the country."[2]
In 1999, Derek Malcolm of The Guardian wrote "It is one of the most beautiful and arresting films ever made in Spain, or anywhere in the past 25 years or so." He describes the film as "an almost perfect summation of childhood imaginings," and also points out that the effect of the Franco regime on Spain is a topic covered by the film. Malcolm also praised the work of cinematographer Luís Cuadrado calling it "brilliant," mentioning the "atmospherically muted colors."[11]
In a 1977 review, Gary Arnold of The Washington Post gave a more critical review of Erice's film. He writes that Erice has a problematic belief in using "long, ponderous, static takes," and goes on to say that Erice "overstocked" this film with those kinds of takes.[19]
By 20 November 2012 the film had been entered into Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" selection.[20]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 96% approval rating based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 9.00/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "El Espíritu de la Colmena uses a classic horror story's legacy as the thread for a singularly absorbing childhood fable woven with uncommon grace."[21] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim”.[22]
The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films.[23]
