The Things You Kill
Cineverse | Release Date: November 14, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireRyan LattanzioJan 31, 2025
This film is about the contagious power of storytelling — which includes lying and self-deception — and what a potentially lethal device it can be in the wrong or even right hands. Read full review
90
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 18, 2026
In its bold aesthetic courage and rigid thematic spine, Khatami’s movie is a full-body experience that leaves you fully alive. Read full review
90
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergNov 13, 2025
Debts to Luis Buñuel and David Lynch are obvious, but The Things You Kill has its own way of getting inside its protagonist’s head space — and yours. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 31, 2025
It’s absorbing, suspenseful, and deeply moving — a case study in how to make an effective psychological thriller. Read full review
90
VarietyCarlos AguilarJan 31, 2025
With The Things You Kill Khatami turns in an absorbing and twisty take on introspection. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsNov 14, 2025
An unnerving character study that often borders on thriller territory, “The Things You Kill” is a psychologically intense piece of genre filmmaking. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineJim VorelFeb 6, 2025
A dark, percolating family drama that eventually takes a stunning turn into the savagely metaphorical, writer-director Alireza Khatami’s The Things You Kill proved to be one of the most impressive overall features at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 25, 2025
A quiet and formally rigorous portrait of a paternalistic society, the crimes it breeds, and the fury, shame, regret, and self-loathing that follows. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerJan 31, 2025
Impotence and violence, two terrifying poles of threatened masculinity, rage throughout The Things You Kill, while its women more readily accept uncomfortable complexities. Read full review
80
IONCINEMA.comNicholas BellNov 13, 2025
Dedicating the film to his sisters, Khatami dives into the toxic attachment styles fostered and reinforced through repressive gender roles in a traditionally heteropatriarchal culture, where the absorption of oppression cements endless intergenerational trauma. But Khatami explores the aftermath of a reckoning, the consequences of which prove to be significant. Read full review
80
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannJan 31, 2025
The Things You Kill may seem like a simple revenge drama, but it allows itself to be so much more through form and story. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiz BraunMar 18, 2026
The Things You Kill is a challenging movie about the world men inhabit, about patriarchy, about intergenerational trauma and about all the exigencies of “masculinity.” Iranian-Canadian writer/director Alireza Khatami presents a family drama that has rich social and political underpinnings. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDerek SmithJan 27, 2025
Alireza Khatami’s third feature is a subtly enigmatic examination of the nature of masculinity. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerJan 31, 2025
The drama does eventually come full circle, but it’s gone so far off the rails by that point that it’s hard to bring us back. Read full review
42
The PlaylistBrian FarvourFeb 3, 2025
It’s difficult to classify The Things You Kill properly, a film drifting into the revenge genre as much as it possesses an undeniable overtone of mystery, simultaneously knocking on the door of a slight psychological element. Read full review
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