Stoker
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: March 1, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
14
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireOlly RichardsFeb 25, 2013
An intense mix of horror, thriller and domestic drama, this is exquisite film making. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 28, 2013
The chilling and stylish and aggressively creepy Stoker begins at the end and takes us on a shocking and lurid journey before we land right where we started, now seeing every small detail through a different lens. It's disturbingly good. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 20, 2013
Stoker operates in a perpetual state of dread, a sophisticated Southern gothic that starts out confusing and winds up as a perversely humorous coming-of-age yarn. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonFeb 27, 2013
Anyone already planning on seeing Stoker, the English-language film debut of Oldboy and Thirst director Park Chan-wook, shouldn’t read this review. Or watch a trailer. Or read anything about it at all, really...It’s best taken one tense, exhilarating moment at a time, without anticipation or expectation. Read full review
83
Film.comWilliam GossFeb 26, 2013
Park allows this macabre coming-of-age tale to be defined by mood and style above all else. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 5, 2013
More blatantly an exercise in style than anything on par with the director's crowning achievements, and suffers to some degree from the predictability of its premise. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 7, 2013
Stroker slips down the gullet with less fuss, but there are enough blood sprays and snapped vertebrae to pacify the director's clamorous fan club -- and, for the rest of us, plenty of chances to reconsider his style. It is, unquestionably, something to behold. [8 March 2013, p.80]
80
NPRScott TobiasMar 1, 2013
For as long as Park and Wasikowska keep it burbling, it's an intoxicating brew. Read full review
80
The GuardianJeremy KayFeb 22, 2013
Literary references and symbolism abound in Stoker. You can get tied up trying to figure out who is what. That is the idea. All the clues are there. You just have to look closely. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyFeb 22, 2013
Park Chan-wook brings operatic finesse to generic material in his tight-wound, wickedly weird US debut. And Mia Wasikowska nails it. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFeb 5, 2013
Park's unsettling visuals and his handling of the cast make the occasional holes in Wentworth Miller's script practically irrelevant. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 5, 2013
A splendidly demented gumbo of Hitchcock thriller, American Gothic fairy tale and a contemporary kink all Park's own. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleMar 25, 2013
Stoker is the sort of stylish, cerebral movie that engages your brain instead of your emotions, and yet you’re never less than intrigued by the breathtaking visual artistry of this slow-burn thriller. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 14, 2013
A beautifully twisted, slow-burning psychothriller that may or may not all be taking place inside India's head. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMar 14, 2013
Once Wentworth Miller's screenplay starts to provide answers for Charlie's mysterious menace, though, expectations are left unfulfilled. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 13, 2013
Stoker is deliciously demented, and that's a good thing. This twisted coming-of-age tale takes us into "Carrie" territory without the supernatural element. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartFeb 28, 2013
Sure, it’s got its horror aspects. But for my money, this movie belongs alongside “Secretary,” “Ginger Snaps” and “Thirteen” in the family of deliciously dark female coming-of-age stories. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 28, 2013
The performances are excellent, but it’s the direction that lifts the movie up and spins it around. Like Hitchcock, Park storyboards everything ahead of time, and while that level of control might seem claustrophobic in theory, it ends up freeing Stoker to sail into zones of malevolent visual sensuality. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 28, 2013
Stoker is Park's darkly funny, deliciously depraved riff on Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt." Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreFeb 26, 2013
The Hollywood debut of Korean filmmaker Chan-Wook Park (“Oldboy”) is a vivid, short exercise in tone, a movie lacking shocks and huge surprises, but one that makes up for that by creeping us out, from start to finish. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 14, 2013
There is something immensely rewarding about being in the hands of a director whose confidence is such that he can lead us to uncomfortable places and we’ll go eagerly along for the ride, just to see where it leads. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 14, 2013
Like a taxidermied owl, Stoker is lovely to look at, but in the end it’s hard to give a hoot. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 28, 2013
Wasikowska is a fine, intriguing actress, though I'm not sure anyone could make actual psychological sense of this woman. Nobody on screen — not Kidman, not Goode, not Wasikowska, not Jacki Weaver as Auntie Gin — seems entirely at home in the chosen (or guessed-at) style. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedFeb 27, 2013
It does have a dark, satisfyingly sinister feeling of gothic creepiness that I somewhat reluctantly admit appealed to my enjoyment of perversity as entertainment. Read full review
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