Critic Reviews

• Kyle Smith, New York Post

  Dreadfully paced, with the shoddy acting of everyone but Biehn magnified to punishing degrees in talky, lengthy, predictable scenes.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  Labeling a film grind house doesn't excuse soap-opera emoting and laughable dialogue.

• Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

  This is the kind of junky, hard-to-watch thriller that apologists claim is part of a long line of tough, grindhouse-style thrillers, but which is actually just amateurish gristle.

• Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

  It is dreary to envisage the viewer who could become emotionally involved in The Victim ...

• Brent Simon, Shockya.com

  Extra helpings of off-kilter and off-key melodrama sink Michael Biehn's bewildering directorial debut, the nasty little down-and-dirty thriller The Victim.

• Scott Weinberg, FEARnet

  While it pains me to say unkind things about an actor I admire, I don't think Michael Biehn is destined to be a director.

• Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Dread Central

  The Victim is a film that will most likely be ignored by those who can't handle the explicit yet chilling prologue, but those who can survive it are in for an unexpectedly amusing sleazefest.

• R. L. Shaffer, IGN DVD

  The Victim is a labor of love, and despite the thin narrative and low-budget shortcomings, the film makes for an interesting midnight movie. It's a bit light on humor, sans the film's amusing finale, but there's just enough here to keep genre fans smiling.

• Devon Ashby, CraveOnline

  Considering how little he had to work with and how harried the production schedule was, that the film plays as well as it does is truly impressive, despite occasional hiccups.

• Jeremy Lebens, We Got This Covered

  Michael Biehn's directorial debut disappointingly crumbles under its own cheap production. The Victim is nothing more than a nude-heavy bore-fest that claims to be a thriller.

• Matt Donato, We Got This Covered

  Missing the point of what true grindhouse fans are looking for, don't expect much life to be found in this stale, monotonous, mind-numbing tale, making Biehn's audience the sole victim in this whole debacle

• Paul Mount, Starburst

  Despite its brief running time it could do with a little tightening up... but as an homage to a very particular style of filmmaking it's a quiet, commendable triumph.

• Scotty McKellar, The Skinny

  Despite a story that flatlines too often and a last second twist that comes too late, this is still a nice first effort from Biehn who clearly has more to give us.

• Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com

  The Victim isn't so much a classic-style horror movie - it's more a crime thriller - but fans of the genre will probably enjoy the sex, drugs, and death scenes.

• Anton Bitel, Little White Lies

  with so many longueurs, meandering repetitions and futile flashbacks, you will easily find yourself drifting, no longer seeing the trees for all the wood - and wooden acting.

• Shaun Munro, What Culture

  A disappointingly self-indulgent offering from veteran character actor-turned-writer-director Michael Biehn.

• Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

  Seems determined to stick with mediocrity, resembling a production that was more interested in surviving the filmmaking process than creatively participating in genre demands.

• Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

  Not much happens in The Victim, but the events that do manage to transpire consistently support a reading of the film as an older man's fantasy of virility.

Read all 18 critic reviews