Killer Joe
LD Entertainment | Release Date: July 27, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
10
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireIan NathanJul 18, 2012
Family dysfunction to make Jeremy Kyle blush, but thanks to McConaughey's oily power and Friedkin's unflinching purpose it's a compelling beast. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 18, 2012
It is up to McConaughey's crooked cop to carry the picture: a sleek, loungingly casual loner whose hunger for violence, like his hunger for fried chicken, is finally and horribly gratified. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 24, 2012
You end up feeling sorry for all the actors forced to humiliate themselves, except for McConaughey, whose portrayal of sadistic, manipulative evil is mesmerizing, in part because it was so unexpected. He continues to surprise. Friedkin, sadly, continues to coast. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 2, 2012
The bone-crunchingly violent film has luridly entertaining moments. But by its resolution, this sleazy Southern Gothic nightmare has simply gone off the rails. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 30, 2012
Even if you like your movies sick and black, as many people do, it's hard to miss the irony: in the very act of trying to intensify his Southern tale, Friedkin dilutes the impact. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 26, 2012
Mr. Friedkin, a director with a talent for kinetic screen violence, never finds his groove with Killer Joe, which lurches from realism to corn-pone absurdism and exploitation-cinema surrealism. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJul 25, 2012
Killer Joe throws down a dare by expecting its audience to be the cool connoisseurs of the story's "comic" outrageousness, then rubbing viewers' faces in close-up scenes of brutality that reasonable people ought not to be able to watch. That up-close experience, however effectively done, is a movie specialty that's its own kind of mean. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJul 24, 2012
When this sick, ludicrous cocktail of sex, violence and mayhem was first unveiled a year ago at the Toronto International Film Festival, one wag aptly described it as "the ghost of Tennessee Williams meets the spirit of Quentin Tarantino." Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensJul 28, 2012
The pleasure of watching McConaughey strut, preen, and menace his way through this Southern-fried black comedy (at least I think it's a comedy) isn't quite enough to save Killer Joe. The whole movie has something tonally off about it, not to mention a theatricality that works against it in a way Bug's didn't. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoJul 28, 2012
Killer Joe isn't as outlandish in premise as it is in execution, which is saying something. Read full review
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