Red Lights
Millennium Entertainment | Release Date: July 13, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
10
Negative:
9
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistWilliam GossJul 25, 2012
The truth is, while Red Lights isn't terrifically scary, it is thrilling in other ways, constantly playful and often tongue-in-cheek as it works through the hokey conventions of the genre. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 11, 2012
As a sinister ESP showman, Robert De Niro is corny and fun. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 25, 2012
Red Lights also shows a director who knows how to construct a story and build interest, but at the end, it flies apart. I wonder if there was an earlier draft. I suspect most audiences would prefer a film with an ending that plays by the same rules as the rest of the story. Read full review
60
MovielineAlison WillmoreJul 12, 2012
The movie muddles to a rug-pulling ending that doesn't, despite its efforts, shed new light on what's come before. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam LitovitzAug 10, 2012
It works best when it doesn't take itself seriously, and some of the ways in which ESP is faked are briefly engaging, like short con games or magic tricks revealed. But, finally, the film doesn't offer the sense of release, or of surprise, that it seems to take for granted. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliAug 2, 2012
When its biggest trick is finally revealed, it is not entirely satisfying. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 12, 2012
It's mystifying how such a muddled and silly movie drew the talented cast it did. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJul 12, 2012
Before Silver hijacks the plot, Rodrigo Cortés's smart, talky screenplay and tense direction hold our attention, as much for the unpredictability of the story as the ease with which Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy slide into their roles. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianShawn LevyAug 2, 2012
By the time the film reaches its convoluted, bombastic and preposterous climax, any sense of real magic that it once conveyed has utterly vanished. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayJul 11, 2012
Red Lights' setup is silly but fun, with a fair degree of self-awareness that the film's entire "super-scientists vs. celebrity spiritualists" premise is a hoot. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 2, 2012
A lot of talent comes up empty in Red Lights, a thriller that doesn't thrill. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonJul 10, 2012
Much as I want to believe in Cortés, who is clearly talented and ambitious, there is just too much in Red Lights that encourages agnosticism. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 7, 2012
Instead of adding to the experience, the picture's ill-conceived twists amount to a severe miscalculation on Cortes' part. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 26, 2012
The storytelling proceeds in such a halting manner, with De Niro's speeches going on and on and on, that before long you'd kill for an easy scare. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineMichael NordineJul 12, 2012
That all the good things--and there are several--Red Lights has going for it are ultimately in service of an ending that might even make M. Night Shyamalan cringe represents one of the year's biggest missed opportunities. Read full review
30
TimeMary PolsJul 12, 2012
Red Lights reaches for a "The Sixth Sense"-style twist and whiffs it completely. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 2, 2012
This is ultimately a movie about highly intelligent people in pursuit of trivial nonsense: At least Mulder and Scully caught a real monster every once in a while. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickJul 13, 2012
Gets sillier and sillier as it goes along. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJul 11, 2012
Red Lights goes astray on so many levels that I gave up trying to figure it out before the end of the second reel. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 13, 2012
Veering between tonal and narrative extremes, it's the kind of film that makes you long for the grim pomposity of something like "Signs." Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 12, 2012
A ghost-busting drama set in a world of mystics, mind-benders and various and sundry fake-psychic gobbledygook. But the weirdest thing is how all the fun gets lost in a bottom-drawer "X Files" story. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 10, 2012
Never do you sense an overriding intelligence; Cortés once found laughs and shocks within the coffin-confined Buried, but here's he's got too much room to wander into realms of the ridiculous. Read full review
More From This Movie

36 Critic Reviews

5.7 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