Scandinavia on New Year's Day 1921. The film had its first screening abroad in London on 4 February 1921. In the United Kingdom, it was released under the title Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! The following year, Metro Pictures Corporation re-edited and released the film in the United States under the title The Stroke of Midnight. This version of the film alters its narrative structure in such a way that the legend of Death's carriage is not introduced until about halfway through its running time. This version of the film screened at the Criterion Theatre in New York City. According to Paul Mayersberg, the different titles under which the film was released "reflect the uncertainty of distributors at the time in identifying its genre: ghost story, horror, thriller, religious fable?" Critical reception Upon release, a reviewer for the magazine The Bioscope concluded that "Wherever [The Phantom Carriage] is shown it will help to add dignity and importance to the art of cinema". Legacy Retrospective assessments On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on , with a rating average of 8.9/10. In 1976, Justin Fox of Films and Filming wrote of The Phantom Carriage as being inferior to the 1920 German Expressionist horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, asserting that Caligari avoids "the melodramatic naïveties to be found in Sjöström's interesting but overly sober 'second chance' allegory". Years later, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader praised The Phantom Carriage, calling it Sjöström's masterpiece. In 2008, Marco Lanzagorta of PopMatters applauded the film's camera techniques and narrative structure; he noted elements of social commentary, citing the film's "politically charged storyline around the negative social effects of alcoholism and poverty in 1920s Sweden", and called it "arguably [...] one of the greatest films ever made". In 2012, The Phantom Carriage was voted the best Swedish film of all time by a poll of 50 film critics and academics conducted by Swedish film magazine FLM. In 2019, Colliders Dave Trumbore named The Phantom Carriage one of the best horror films released between 1900 and the 1950s. That same year, Jim Vorel of Paste named it the best horror film of 1921, calling it "a masterpiece of composition and a breakthrough in early practical effects (especially double exposures to simulate ghostly transparency) within the horror genre, although the film functions just as much as a morality