Master
Amazon Studios | Release Date (Streaming): March 18, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ColliderTherese LacsonApr 25, 2022
With a stellar cast and inspired direction, Master is a thrilling and potent horror story about academia that has made its impact. Read full review
91
IndieWireRobert DanielsJan 26, 2022
Detailed and deliberate, assertive but rarely obvious, Diallo’s Master is a towering, inventive shot in the arm for Black horror. Read full review
91
The PlaylistMarya E. GatesJan 26, 2022
Diallo has crafted an incisive, intelligent, and stridently political horror film that is distinctly all her own. The terror at the heart of this film reverberates far beyond the myths of this academic institution. Master excavates the very roots of our country’s foundation and dares us to face the haunted ground on which it is built. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfJan 26, 2022
Diallo, an inspired stylist with bold things to say, strikes the balance between thrills and ills in a way that's wholly her own. Read full review
90
Film ThreatBrittany P. WitherspoonJan 27, 2022
Master builds up to one of the most emotionally explosive horror finales I have seen in a while. Read full review
90
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJan 26, 2022
Diallo has a lot of things to say here. Yet sometimes words aren’t enough: a straight-up drama won’t bring audiences to the place where Diallo wants to take them. Rest assured she makes her points crystal clear within the genre trappings: the only question left is where next for this talented new director. Read full review
80
EmpireBen TravisMar 21, 2022
Well-performed, especially by Regina Hall, and directed with real flair and intention by Mariama Diallo, Master transcends its two-dimensional opening to become a complex, character-driven horror with much on its mind. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyMar 15, 2022
Master is a tensely effective, terrifyingly affecting drama that’s also a virtual vision of the power and the purpose of the modern right-wing war on truth. Read full review
80
VarietyTomris LafflyJan 26, 2022
Not all of Diallo’s thematic queries land, and at times, she weakens her ideas by over-explaining them. Nevertheless, her fearless interrogation resonates like a penetrating scream you can’t unhear. Read full review
80
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJan 25, 2022
With a layered performance by Regina Hall as the university’s first Black dean of students, the film plays with familiar tropes and images from American horror, but re-fashions them into an unexpected, subdued story with a chilling emotional payoff. Read full review
79
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJan 26, 2022
Writer-director Mariama Diallo’s debut feature Master doesn’t just blur the lines between the horror genre and institutionalized racism; it convincingly argues that there’s no meaningful difference. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMar 17, 2022
An arresting feature debut from director Mariama Diallo, Master gingerly walks the tightrope between outright supernatural horror and a criticism of the enduring power of monied white privilege. Read full review
75
PolygonOli WelshJan 28, 2022
As Jasmine, Zoe Renee gives Master its naked emotional center. But its anchor is the terrific Regina Hall, as quietly magnetic here as she was in the underseen Support the Girls. Read full review
71
Paste MagazineJacob OllerJan 24, 2022
Diallo undoubtedly strikes at potent topics with skill and sets her collaborators up for success...but its storylines and characters don’t convincingly coalesce. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJan 28, 2022
Diallo knows how to create a deeply disconcerting atmosphere. Read full review
70
Film ThreatRob RectorJan 26, 2022
Diallo’s dramatic horror film is rich with atmosphere and subtext and deserves recognition, despite its narrative shortcomings. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeJan 26, 2022
Despite its hiccups and frustrations, Master is inventive in finding fresh ways to package familiar observations about American racism; even the most clichéd sentiments are delivered with a nudge and a wink. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyMar 17, 2022
Open-endedness in a narrative can be a good and challenging thing; or it can be a sign of having gotten in too deep and not being able to figure out how to get out. “Get Out” knew how to get out. “Master” doesn’t. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckMar 17, 2022
Master ultimately suffers the fate of many promising films with many good ideas and not enough time to develop them — some paring down would have improved the latter part of the film. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 16, 2022
Master is something of a mixed bag but and, for those hoping to find the next Get Out, the search must go on. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMar 16, 2022
With a more streamlined narrative, it would have been stunning. As is, the movie certainly marks Diallo as promising. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansMar 20, 2022
Diallo utilises the visual language of horror – red lighting, empty shower stalls, a gnarled hand that emerges from under the bed – to express the terror of racism and the rot of its legacy. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 16, 2022
The movie shrewdly creates a shiver of nausea in the institutional use of “diversity” as another prestige-marker. Read full review
60
Time OutDave CalhounJan 25, 2022
This is a smart, meaningful first film, with nods all over the place to classics like The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby, as well as more recent obvious touch points like Get Out. It’s not all subtle, but then neither is prejudice. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 21, 2022
Master never shakes the feeling that we’re seeing a collection of tropes and ideas that never come together in a coherent narrative. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJessica KiangMar 17, 2022
Master ends up a genre film in which the outlandish generic elements — the witches and the maggots, the fizzing bulbs and out-of-sync shadows — are far less frightening than its portrayal of this real, everyday world in which racism isn’t a long-dead bogeyman; it’s alive, breathing, banal. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 16, 2022
Master might be a horror film, but its scariest elements are off screen, in the form of the persistent social realities that inspired it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussMar 16, 2022
The thing that may be most chilling about “Master” is how its three protagonists want and need to support one another but ultimately cannot due to internal as well as external forces. Read full review
50
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 27, 2022
Master is ultimately undone by its overreaching scope. Read full review
40
Little White LiesCheyenne BunsieMar 17, 2022
Buoyed by a strong performance from Regina Hall, it’s a thought-provoking debut from Diallo, but one, unfortunately, weighed down by hokey jump scares that undermine its much more interesting commentary. Read full review
40
The GuardianLisa Wong MacabascoJan 26, 2022
Hall, always a joy to watch, shows yet another, more subdued, side of her prodigious craft. But the film fails to build real suspense, and the scary scenes feel rote and often inelegant, like ticking off a college-horror-movie shot list. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonMar 21, 2022
Black folks don’t need the classes in Racism 101 “Master” offers; life gives us PhD’s early on. It’s not for horror fans because it’s a complete failure as a horror movie. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJan 25, 2022
Mariama Diallo’s film never seems to fully buy into its horror trappings and ends up treating its characters as avatars for multiple grievances. Read full review
More From This Movie

66 Critic Reviews

4.7 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL