39
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 72Film.comFilm.comThe film’s finely tuned middle act, a fast-paced and quick-witted journey into (possible) madness, eventually gives way to an unsettlingly over the top final section that relies far too much on larger setpieces and supposed “big scares” that are never as good as the smaller, weirder stuff.
- 60Total FilmTotal FilmBoasts sporadically electrifying visuals but a frustratingly messy mythology.
- 50VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeIt all makes for clumsy-fun escapism, not bad as end-of-summer chillers go.
- 50Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezThe film predictably alternates in scaring its characters by tapping into their deepest fears and having them rub shoulders with the relics of a past that insists on being undisturbed.
- 40The TelegraphMike McCahillThe TelegraphMike McCahillThese catacombs are just an echo chamber into which any rubbish can be pumped, and while this gives carte blanche to production designer Louise Marzaroli, the relentless flow of subterranean non-sequitur becomes at least as trying as the whirling, jerky non-cinematography.
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThere are some interestingly contrived moments of claustrophobia and surreal lunacy, but this cliched and slightly hand-me-down script neither scares nor amuses very satisfyingly.
- 40New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNew York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriThere are moments of welcome tension amid the inchoate lunacy, but these in turn merely highlight why the rest of the film doesn’t work.
- 38McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreIt’s more unpleasant than scary, and ever so slow in getting up to speed.
- 30The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerThe Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerThis low budget effort from director John Erick Dowdle and writer-producer-brother Drew Dowdle provides a few late scares after plenty of eye-rolling setup, with said scares due more to the heavy sound design than the action itself.