Society of the Snow
Netflix | Release Date: December 22, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Roxana HadadiJan 5, 2024
What elevates the film above trauma-porn gore and pushes it into transcendence, though, is how its philosophical script and unshakeable performances navigate the question of whether survival is a transgression against God. Read full review
90
PolygonSiddhant AdlakhaJan 4, 2024
Bayona’s approach to the “triumph of the human spirit” arc — often a broad, four-quadrant, feel-good cinematic flattening of real events — is both scrutinous and rigorous. It turns the concept inside out, presenting the ordeal of 571’s survivors as a murky scenario that we’ve been granted secret, intimate access to. Read full review
90
Film ThreatAlex SavelievOct 30, 2023
When it comes to survival tales, Society of the Snow sets a standard that will be difficult to top. Read full review
88
ObserverEmily ZemlerJan 2, 2024
It’s a tearjerker at times, sure, but what remains is how much a person can endure under impossible circumstances. How can someone be this resilient? It seems unknowable, but movies like this help us to get closer to the truth of our existence. It’s a difficult watch, but an important one. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 18, 2023
Gifted with a surprisingly large budget (reportedly ~$70M), Bayona is able to effectively recreate not only the crash but the dangers faced by the survivors while seamlessly incorporating on-location footage with studio-based material. The remarkable accomplishment results in a breathtaking motion picture that enthralls across the length of its 140+ minute running time. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 3, 2024
Ambitious, impressive, and genuine, with a great sense of vast scale and awe, as its title suggests, Society Of Snow is not only a three-dimensional cinematic feat of wonder, terror, and emotion-stirring courage but a deeply felt portrait of togetherness, brotherhood, and survival, poignantly commemorating the painful memory of indescribable loss and tragedy. Read full review
80
Little White LiesEmma FraserFeb 16, 2024
Even if you know how this famous story ends, the final act is an exercise in tension-building that makes this visceral survival drama memorable long after the credits finish. Read full review
80
The AtlanticShirley LiJan 19, 2024
As a film that attempts to honor its victims while simultaneously offering graphic details, it both improves upon previous iterations of the material and exposes the limits of the story itself. The result is a movie that wrestles with its very existence—and, perhaps, the existence of based-on-a-true-disaster tales. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 10, 2024
While there are moments in which the film’s generous running time starts to take its toll, Bayona’s smart decision to make this a tale of both the survivors and victims brings a nervy uncertainty to the story, even if we all know broadly how it ends. Read full review
80
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 4, 2024
[Bayona's] finest film to date, and a fitting tribute to those who both perished and managed to escape their fateful mountain tomb. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyJan 2, 2024
A welcome innovation is the foregrounding of the dead; previous iterations have focused only on the survivors. The casting of mostly unknown Argentine and Uruaguarn actors adds to the novelty, as does the film’s compelling depiction of survivors’ guilt after the “Heroes of the Andes” return to their home country. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyDec 22, 2023
Society of the Snow is wrenching, deeply harrowing, but crucially dispenses with sappy takeaways about the triumph of the human spirit. Read full review
80
EmpireAmon WarmannDec 20, 2023
A viscerally rendered plane crash gives way to an affecting story of humanity and survival. Bayona is on impressive form here. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 19, 2023
This is a fervent film, heartfelt and shot with passion and sweep. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenSep 18, 2023
Society of the Snow is careful to memorialise the dead in a moving, meaningful way. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 18, 2023
It’s up to the individual whether to see this story as a miracle or a tragedy, Numa says in voiceover; Bayona’s film, for all its forceful feeling, doesn’t decide for us. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerJan 8, 2024
Disaster is horror, and Bayona’s direction allows for a deeper comprehension of a tragedy that exists beyond our grasp. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 8, 2024
Bayona also made one of the most visceral and moving survival epics in film history, the tsunami story “The Impossible.” He tells this tale of battling impossible odds with compassion and an empathy that make it quite moving at times. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJan 5, 2024
Bayona's film avoids many of the mistakes made in earlier versions (particularly Frank Marshall's 1993 film), but Ebert's cautionary words remain true. There's something elusive in this story, something which eludes expression. Read full review
70
IGNRafaela Sales RossJan 5, 2024
Society of the Snow humanizes the gruesome tale of a group of rugby players trapped in the Andes. Read full review
70
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJan 4, 2024
No film could fully capture the awfulness of this experience. But despite some of Bayona’s irksome flair, Society of the Snow does a sturdy enough job getting the point across. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJan 4, 2024
The length of his film is an essential element in Mr. Bayona’s message about desperation and hope and, dare one say it, the resilience of the spirit. The soiled, ailing, sunburned husks of men who emerge from the mountains are heroes, though they look every bit like ghosts. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenDec 22, 2023
Bayona mixes a sense of survivalist adventure with an otherworldly spirituality — the idea that they were somehow touched by something bigger, but also that the answers to what they needed were there with them all along. Read full review
70
ColliderChase HutchinsonDec 22, 2023
In the end, Bayona’s film takes us right into the heart of this story with clear-eyed focus and the necessary technical craft to make it work. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 18, 2023
J.A. Bayona’s adaptation of this much-filmed story is elevated by bracingly muscular action sequences. It manages to sustain a degree of tension despite an overlong running time and the fact that the outcome of the incident is unlikely to be a surprise to anyone. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergJan 4, 2024
The material is fundamentally gripping, and parts of it are tough to resist . . . But Society of the Snow is a perverse movie to watch the way most people will see it — on Netflix, in the comfort of their homes, with a refrigerator nearby. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 18, 2023
As compelling as the life-and-death situation is, it becomes a bit of a drag in a movie pushing two-and-a-half hours that could definitely benefit from a tighter edit. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubCourtney HowardJan 4, 2024
Society Of The Snow may be the best version of this saga told so far. Still, it feels incomplete and doesn’t dig deeper even as it hints at greater pathos beneath the surface. Read full review
58
IndieWireRyan LattanzioDec 22, 2023
This muscular and often brutal depiction is chiseled with authenticity, but it’s too psychologically schematic to make much in the way of an emotional impact. Read full review
58
The Film StageSavina PetkovaSep 18, 2023
On the one hand, Society of the Snow is a perfectly watchable film punctured by affect and empathy, and on the other it taps into the power of cinema to bear witness––even in the most conventional of genres––to those who no longer are with us. Read full review
55
CNNBrian LowryJan 4, 2024
Both in its cultural specificity and the passage of time, Society of the Snow delivers a credible take on a remarkable story – augmented by the prolific Michael Giacchino’s score – while hampered somewhat by the limitations imposed by how those events unfolded. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 2, 2024
Though “Society of the Snow” has its moments, it’s difficult to see what was gained by telling the story as a dramatic feature. Yes, in a documentary we’d lose the amazing crash scene, but the story would otherwise be better served by a straight laying out of the facts. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeDec 19, 2023
J.A. Bayona rarely lets his images speak for themselves, which is frustrating given his obvious gift for poetic, almost surreal succinctness. Read full review
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