Murderous Maids
Rialto Pictures | Release Date: April 19, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Denis and Testud, in a wondrous collaboration of a gifted director and equally gifted actress, succeed in making Christine a tragic figure. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie avoids sensationalism. What it requires and what it delivers is performance. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Troubling and powerful film, lingering on screen well into the final credits and in the minds of its audience long after the house lights have come on. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
A true rarity, Murderous Maids is an intelligent, moral shocker. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Genuinely unnerving movie. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Doesn't shy away from the social or psychological explanations of the Le Mans murders, but never comes down on one side or another. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Nearly 75 years after the fact, the matter still hasn't given up all its secrets, but Denis' film comes close to a definitive, deeply disturbing account. Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Jean Oppenheimer
The film proves unrelentingly grim -- and equally engrossing. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Sylvie Testud gives such a ferociously controlled performance that the messy murder seems like a necessary release. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Ms. Testud's performance, which earned her a César, the French Oscar, for most promising actress, is the source of the movie's lingering, troubling power. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The old saying, "It's hard to find good help nowadays" takes on a new meaning in Murderous Maids. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
May ultimately be no more than the sum of its (body) parts, but it's still a ghastly service-industry horror story - a film to make you wonder what might be roiling beneath the surface of the placid young woman who hands you your Grande Latte every morning. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Director Jean-Pierre Denis doesn't explore psychological motives, which are, finally, unknowable. What he accomplishes in his chilling, unnerving film is a double portrait of two young women whose lives were as claustrophic, suffocating and chilly as the attics to which they were inevitably consigned. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Lucidity, austerity and quiet compassion are peculiar virtues to ascribe to a movie about a horrific real-life murder case, but those are among the best qualities of Jean-Pierre Denis' Murderous Maids. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Denis' slow, deliberate style shuns typical suspense techniques, relying instead on something far more effective: a stunning performance by Testud. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderFred Camper
Julie-Marie Parmentier is fetching as the vulnerable younger sister, and the duo generate considerable erotic tension; unfortunately Denis' detached and indifferent camera never gets inside the story, its characters, or its milieu. Read full review
70
VarietyLisa Nesselson
Rigorous but creepy drama. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
There's a curiously ho-hum quality to the murders, despite the fact that the two victims are bludgeoned, sliced, chopped and jabbed, and also (the movie suggests) get their eyeballs gouged out. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Never inspires more than an interested detachment. Read full review
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