The Shack
Lionsgate | Release Date: March 3, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
32
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
9
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshMar 9, 2017
Though the dialogue is written with all the finesse of a self-help book, and the visuals are a garish technicolor explosion, there are some nuggets of wisdom that do resonate, regardless of personal belief. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredWill AshtonMar 9, 2017
The Shack isn’t quite as bad as expectations might lead you to believe, but it’s not divine, either. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerMar 2, 2017
A bit more editing to remove some of the airiness would have made for a better film. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 2, 2017
The strangest thing about The Shack, and the reason it’s finally a so-so movie, is that all the rage and terror and dark-side vengeance that Mack has to learn to transcend is something we’re told about, but we never actually see him mired in it. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 2, 2017
The Shack is a well-acted and sometimes moving but far too often slow-paced and unconvincing spiritual journey. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandMar 2, 2017
Spencer and Alush turn in the film’s best performances, and Spencer’s natural warmth and Alush’s deep charm keep The Shack hammering right along. Read full review
40
EmpireHayley CampbellJun 12, 2017
Good intentions, but far too earnest to appeal to anyone beyond those who believe you can fight a true crisis of the soul with a campfire and some Kumbaya. Read full review
40
Time OutTomris LafflyMar 2, 2017
For a faith-based film that aims to promote spiritual healing and prescribe forgiveness, The Shack is almost unforgivably joyless and visually bland. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 2, 2017
As directed by Stuart Hazeldine, even its jolts of surrealism feel curiously stilted; what it needed was a director whose reverence would be tempered by a healthy sense of the ludicrous, an ability to tap into and draw out the material’s stranger undercurrents. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 7, 2017
While I appreciate any faith-based film that isn’t all about the anger and intellectual dishonesty of “God’s Not Dead,” there’s no endorsing a fairy-tale this literal and insipid. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiMar 3, 2017
The Shack wants to be a sincere exploration of faith and forgiveness but somehow manages to be both too innocuous and too off-putting for its own good. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyMar 2, 2017
For faithful and faithless alike, The Shack may seem stupid, laughable, blasphemous, poorly acted and totally banal. And yet there are probably worse things then being told it’s righteous to forgive and that love is good. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 8, 2017
"Avatar’s" Worthington is adept at playing a tortured soul, but his American accent and dramatic range are both wanting in this movie. Read full review
30
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczMar 2, 2017
It takes its sweet time to achieve anything beyond being a grueling snoozefest. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenMar 2, 2017
However universal the perennial questions and struggles that The Shack illuminates, under Stuart Hazeldine’s plodding direction, its faith-based brand of self-help feels like being trapped in someone else’s spiritual retreat — in real time. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMar 2, 2017
There’s nothing about this unconscionably long movie (it runs a whopping 132 minutes) that suggests anyone involved ever watched it from start to finish. But it looks nice enough, like a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, with lots of flowers and flannel. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubMar 2, 2017
The Shack is unshakable in its religious message, and that’s admirable in a cynical world. But viewed objectively as cinema, it’s just not a very good film. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 2, 2017
After seeing The Shack — after enduring, that is, its 132 minutes of blissed-out New Age religiosity — I’ve become a believer. I believe there is no role Octavia Spencer can’t play with convincing feeling and an impeccably straight face. Read full review
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