The tension soon engulfs you: the suspense is so skillfully manipulated that you scarcely dare breathe. And when the movie's over, you'll find yourself overcharged with adrenaline and exhausted at the same time.

| Apr 5, 2024

Even with John Frankenheimer at the helm, Black Sunday will keep you pretty close to the edge of your seat.

| May 9, 2023

The junky Two-Minute Warning arrived first, which largely doomed the box office chances of the far more complicated -- and far superior -- Black Sunday.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 1, 2023

For better or worse, Black Sunday is a thriller of its time.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 28, 2023

...erratically-paced yet predominantly entertaining...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 10, 2022

While it may be considered second-tier Frankenheimer, it remains an effective and tightly-made thriller well worth experiencing.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 16, 2021

The performances are faultless, the direction is slick; the terror and suspense builds, and the music works suitably on the nerve endings. But I'm getting sick of round-the-clock violence.

| Oct 23, 2019

The plot is childish and the narration is cold and impersonal. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jul 24, 2019

Black Sunday may well make a bundle, thanks to the technical skill with which it manages its long-delayed payoff. But it is getting tiresome to be forced to admire, for want of anything else to do, the skill with which moviemakers jerk audiences around.

| Aug 23, 2016

Violence (more than 30 on-screen deaths) makes a poor substitute for suspense, while sloppy, rear projection work drains most of the excitement from the climax.

| Aug 23, 2016

The clash between police helicopters and a hijacked blimp is the highlight of the outstanding set pieces -- it's the sort of thing that Frankenheimer can do with one hand tied behind his back.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2016

The acting is good -- especially from Dern in his over-the-top mode -- and parts of the film are exciting. But I draw the line at finding it to be any sort of a classic.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 23, 2016

Bruce Dern gives one of his best edgy performances as a Vietnam veteran recruited by the terrorists, while Robert Shaw, Marthe Keller and Fritz Weaver all impress their personalities on the action.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2016

One of the best of the disaster films of the 1970s, the genuinely disturbing Black Sunday is likely to cause nightmares long after you've seen it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2016

Black Sunday takes such a plodding literal-minded approach with an extravagant thriller premise that we have more than enough time to watch the gears working and all too often jamming.

| Aug 23, 2016

John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday did not convince or move me, even in its occasional tense moments.

Full Review | Mar 11, 2015

Super-abundantly produced terrorism thriller.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 9, 2015

John Frankenheimer's film of Black Sunday is an intelligent and meticulous depiction of an act of outlandish terrorism -- the planned slaughter of the Super Bowl stadium audience.

| Mar 26, 2009

A film that was 25 years ahead of its time, John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday is an intelligently written, complex and constantly intense thriller that builds to an extremely exciting climax.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jun 4, 2007

Unfortunately, all the major characters have a whiff of Hollywood artifice, largely because (as has happened too often before in his career) Frankenheimer gets carried away by their verbosity.

| Feb 9, 2006