On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck, and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe.
A film of two halves in more ways than one: critics were broadly won over by an opening act that generated genuine dread, then sharply divided over whether the monster-revealed second half collapses into formula or remains watchable enough to earn its keep. Mixed reviews overall, with audience reaction running even cooler than the critical response.
“scariest opening sequence of any horror picture in recent memory”
Kevin Thomas·Los Angeles Times
“unsettling, gory, but intelligent horror flick”
Nev Pierce·BBC News
“surrenders its imagination to formulaic plot filler”
Stephen Holden·The New York Times
“goes right down the pan”
Peter Bradshaw·The Guardian
“the movie is good enough to put a chill into the late-summer air”
David Edelstein·Slate
Horror
On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck, and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe.
A film of two halves in more ways than one: critics were broadly won over by an opening act that generated genuine dread, then sharply divided over whether the monster-revealed second half collapses into formula or remains watchable enough to earn its keep. Mixed reviews overall, with audience reaction running even cooler than the critical response.
“scariest opening sequence of any horror picture in recent memory”
Kevin Thomas·Los Angeles Times
“unsettling, gory, but intelligent horror flick”
Nev Pierce·BBC News
“surrenders its imagination to formulaic plot filler”
Stephen Holden·The New York Times
“goes right down the pan”
Peter Bradshaw·The Guardian
“the movie is good enough to put a chill into the late-summer air”
David Edelstein·Slate
Horror
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