Critic Reviews

• Rex Reed, New York Observer

  The writing tanks while the actors try to stay above water, but nobody leaves a trace on the radar.

• Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com

  This is a lean and mean variation on a familiar theme, tense throughout, with some terrific performances.

• Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

  It seemed that Black Rock might take its very basic premise and use it as a platform to explore larger ideas. But even on its own terms as just a lean-and-mean genre exercise, this one's not all that interesting.

• Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times

  Aselton, you sure have a purty mouth, but what are you trying to say?

• Sara Stewart, New York Post

  This indie, female-centric riff on "Deliverance" is spare, smartly written and shot through with moments of twig-snapping tension.

• Tom Long, Detroit News

  It works because Aselton and Bell turn in wildly physical, primal performances. You do not want to mess with these women. "Black Rock" is ferocious stuff.

• Glenn Lovell, CinemaDope

  ... a feminist reworking of 'Most Dangerous Game' and 'Deliverance,' with the friends soon stripped down and armed, like a tribe of Amazonian huntresses ... has the visceral appeal of early Kathryn Bigelow.

• John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

  Perhaps Aselton is unfamiliair enough with genre history to believe she is blazing a virgin trail through not just the picturesque forest of her island location but the gruesome thickets of her violent narrative.

• Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

  An exploitation thriller with feminist overtones - ala "I Spit on Your Grave," but nowhere nearly as gutsy - "Black Rock" disappoints on various levels.

• Robert Levin, amNewYork

  Efficient thriller that's practically a feature-length evocation of Thomas Hobbes' notion of life in nature: "nasty, brutish and short."

• Marc Mohan, Oregonian

  The concept is there, but a movie like this needs a much more polished execution that "Black Rock" gets.

• Marshall Fine, Hollywood & Fine

  It feels amateurish, as though it was made up as they went along. The violence - because that's what most of the action consists of - feels phony.

• Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies

  It's a very short experience but one that hits its beats with a sense of urgency and a feeling of helplessness.

• Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal International

  Nifty little genre gem with its share of surprises has three damsel campers in distress on an isolated island they didn't know they'd be sharing with three hunters back from overseas battle and with too much fight left in them.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Turns out Aselton doesn't have much to say other than that women will fight for their lives as tenaciously as men, which is not exactly news.

• Brian Tallerico, HollywoodChicago.com

  The what-if scenario that incites the action of "Black Rock" is captivating but Aselton and co-writer/husband Mark Duplass don't build on that scenario enough to make the venture successful overall.

Read all 16 critic reviews