[24] Christian Zilko of IndieWire wrote that "Zarrar Kahn’s genre-bending horror movie — which has the well-deserved honor of being the first Pakistani film to premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight in over four decades — is a Kafkaesque saga of niceties gone awry.

What begins as a story of a poor family relying on the kindness of their community quickly turns into a hellish tale of how the ground is always shifting underneath you when all of your benefactors have an angle.

"[25] Manuel Betancourt of Variety wrote that "Anchored by a dizzying central performance by Nawal, whose screen presence draws viewers into Mariam’s mind-melding reality with great zeal, In Flames finely straddles the line between a bold genre exercise and a bruising portrait of contemporary Pakistan to deliver a welcome story about resistance and resilience.

"[27] For The Hollywood Reporter, Lovia Gyarkye wrote that "In Flames teases out how the patriarchy — a large, unruly force — fractures the relationship between mother and daughter.

Mariam uses a sympathetic driver to help her figure out what happened to Asad, while Fariah attempts to seduce a lawyer she hired to fight Nasir into lowering his legal fees.

Production designer Matti Malik fills Mariam's home with rich red earth and terracotta colours, lending it the warmth of a sanctuary – albeit one that is increasingly under threat.

In the end, however, what lends this film distinction is the way it evolves into a story of female empowerment, and the bond between mother and daughter as they combat the pernicious evils of a patriarchal society.

"[29] Siddhant Adlakha of JoySauce.com described the film as "a fine-tuned, socially oriented character drama in the shape of a supernatural thriller, with personal demons that take the form of cultural fanaticism, as a woman struggles to make her voice heard in a society hellbent on suffocating her.