The site's critical consensus reads, "The Aviary's adroitly assembled cast lends extra weight to an uneven depiction of how dangerous cults can be.

[6] Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times praised the cast and considered the film a "strong feature filmmaking debut" from Cullari and Raite.

Murray wrote, "If anything, the movie's biggest weakness is that much of the running time consists of Jillian and Blair's exhausted conversations out in the wilderness ...

"[7] Steve Davis of The Austin Chronicle wrote, "[The movie is] eventually undermined by an ever-exhausting concept that might have worked better as an hourlong episode in an anthology series.

With a little fine-tuning, the ending would have packed a bigger wallop in a truncated version eliminating a coda that only serves to explain the title.