Hold the Dark
Netflix | Release Date: September 28, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
9
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
UproxxVince ManciniOct 1, 2018
It’s not the kind of film you watch waiting for “the answer.” Saulnier isn’t going to solve the equation for you in Hold The Dark. But he is going to kick your ass. Read full review
90
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 13, 2018
It may take a while to acclimate to the film’s off-kilter rhythms and strange happenings — not unlike the film’s protagonist, an outsider entering the forbidding Alaskan wilderness — but Saulnier has crafted his most mature effort to date, mixing his love for pulp fiction with a sombre examination of the inexplicable evil all around us. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 13, 2018
As Hold the Dark sputters to an unsatisfying finale, Wright’s character promises to explain everything that came before. The movie’s great punchline is that he’ll never be able to sort it all out — and we’re right there with him, reeling from a disquieting saga that has no patience for anyone in need easy answers, but keen on leaving us gasping for breath. Read full review
81
The VergeTasha RobinsonSep 14, 2018
This is a film about the wilds — internal and external — and Saulnier shoots both the natural and the human side of the story with his usual sharp instincts for startling and engaging images. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearSep 27, 2018
An extraordinary high-pulp potboiler, one that mixes elements of indigenous mysticism, Greek tragedy and rural revenge flicks, along with a genuinely showstopping centerpiece. Read full review
80
VarietyAndrew BarkerSep 13, 2018
Boasting the sort of shocking brutality and unnerving menace that has become Saulnier’s signature, Hold the Dark is also a strangely seductive film, and one that understands the difference between simple plot resolution and catharsis, leading us on a journey into Alaska’s frigid heart of darkness that poses more questions than it answers. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleSep 26, 2018
An incredibly evocative film and one of the most evocative neo-Westerns of the past decade. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 17, 2018
Watching Hold the Dark isn’t quite as interesting as ruminating on it afterwards, which is probably both a critique and a compliment. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 27, 2018
Its determined ambition and atmospheric skill keeps Saulnier firmly in the category of directors to watch. Read full review
67
Original-CinJim SlotekOct 1, 2018
Considering the (pardon the expression) glacial pace of much of the lead-up, Hold the Dark’s eruption into massacre-level violence is jarring. Once it takes hold, it is relentless and grueling. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 27, 2018
If Hold The Dark lacks the sheer razor-wire tension of Saulnier’s earlier crime-horror corkers, it still knows how to make the carnage count—to force us to experience, on a gut level, every casualty. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJason BaileySep 13, 2018
At its best, it’s a moody, scary, post-Peckinpah meditation on masculinity — and an all too rare opportunity to see Mr. Wright fronting a feature. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 28, 2018
It makes for intriguing and often gripping viewing, but delivers a more confounding experience than is necessary. Still, the director knows how to break those bones real good. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 13, 2018
It’s a brutal slog of a film, admirable in its fearlessness in terms of dark subject matter, but the brutality doesn’t feel worth it in the end. Read full review
60
EmpireAlex GodfreyOct 1, 2018
Hold The Dark is rather unwell. Both intimate and epic, it is appropriately cold, resisting warmth at every turn, more a philosophical adventure than an emotional one. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 26, 2018
The movie keeps moving, the story keeps flowing, but these images — which feel suspended between cinema and still photography — create a pause in the action that your anxious imagination can’t help but fret over. That’s especially true because Mr. Saulnier’s images are often in service of spooky, blood-drenched tales. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 13, 2018
While the shifts in genre, plot and location do prove intriguing for much of the film, they ultimately result in a feeling of mild dissatisfaction, the whole never quite the sum of its parts. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKeith UhlichSep 13, 2018
The mystery surrounding the Slones and their missing child is much less interesting than Core's burgeoning friendship with the local sheriff, Donald Marium (James Badge Dale), who assists with the investigation. Read full review
59
TheWrapSam FragosoSep 13, 2018
Hold the Dark is a perfectly adequate film made by an especially talented director, Jeremy Saulnier. Alternately pulse-racing and somnambulant, it’s a thriller that starts strong before running out of gas. Read full review
58
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanSep 30, 2018
The problem is that something never adds up to much of anything. Even thematically, the whole picture feels all over the place, oscillating hazily between half-baked meditations on man vs. nature and unfinished portraits of family values. Even so, Saulnier’s scope and visual endurance is admirable, to say the least, and it’s clear that he could do something this brazen eventually with a much stronger script. Read full review
57
IGNRafael MotamayorSep 25, 2018
Hold the Dark is a beautiful-looking bore. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 30, 2018
Wright is one of the great character actors working these days, and losing track of him and his character hurts the film. Read full review
45
The AtlanticDavid SimsSep 28, 2018
There are moments in Hold the Dark, none of them directly related to the plot, that are just as unsettling and searing as the best moments of Blue Ruin and Green Room. Still, the film never coheres outside of those flashes, ultimately delivering a disappointing, confusing, but undeniably fascinating experience. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 26, 2018
Hold the Dark's ludicrous seriousness comes to feel like a mask for what's essentially a genre story of murder and mayhem. Read full review
38
The Associated PressLindsey BahrSep 26, 2018
You can see why Hold the Dark might have made a compelling book, but the film is one grim and pitiless journey. Read full review
25
The Film StageEthan VestbySep 14, 2018
Getting the chance to be an exceedingly dull stab at Elevated Horror, Elevated Thriller, and Elevated Action all in one fell swoop, Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark is nothing but a staggering failure in both the realm of art and entertainment. Read full review
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