75
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinAs fascinating as it is freakish. It confirms Mr. Lynch's stature as an innovator, a superb technician, and someone best not encountered in a dark alley.
- 100Los Angeles TimesSheila BensonLos Angeles TimesSheila BensonThe most brilliantly disturbing film ever to have its roots in small-town American life. [19 September 1986, Calendar, p.6-1]
- 88Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelOne powerful, mesmerizing thriller, a masterful exercise in controlling an audience's attention. [19 September 1986, Friday, p.A]
- 80Film.comJohn HartlFilm.comJohn HartlAn exhilarating piece of popular entertainment.
- 80VarietyVarietyHopper creates a flabbergasting portrait of unrepentent, irredeemable evil.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenYou either think it's dementedly wild at heart or a lost highway to nowhere.
- 50Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderIt's mostly fascinating, though the unconverted may be in for a rough two hours.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco ChronicleDark, menacing and sexual, with satanic overtones, like a Black Sabbath song, with many moments of genuine fright and harsh eroticism. [19 September 1986, Daily Notebook, p.76]
- Doesn't progress or deepen, it just gets weirder, and to no good end.
- 25Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSo strong, so shocking and yet so audacious that people walk out shaking their heads; they don't know quite what to make of it.