A largely groanworthy independent offering which is severely lacking in the pulpy charms it so desperately tries to emulate.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 3, 2019

A taut thriller with assured performances from its central core, the film eventually finds itself exactly where logic would expect it to be.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 27, 2016

It has a humid sense of place, a few effective twists, and most importantly a terrific primary villain.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 22, 2016

The brothers take a lean screenplay and turn it into a memorable thrill ride.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 15, 2015

Bad Turn Worse is a taut noir tale, bolstered by a trio of excellent lead performances and a well-plotted script.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2014

Directors Zeke and Simon Hawkins add air-quote references to Jim Thompson, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen brothers but are too proud of the movie's twists to make them truly snap.

| Original Score: C | Nov 26, 2014

Entertaining pulp.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 21, 2014

Another super-solid indie thriller along the lines of Blue Ruin & Cold in July. Highly recommended.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 21, 2014

Bad Turn Worse isn't bad, it's simply generic, but it owns its genre with such swagger one can't help but look forward to seeing these actors, directors and writer in action again.

| Original Score: 7.2/10 | Nov 21, 2014

Bad Turn Worse is an oddly blended heist-rom-dram, but a few memorable scenes will undoubtedly lead to some huge opportunities for those Hawkins boys.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 17, 2014

Bad Turn Worse doesn't quite live up to the Jim Thompson aspirations, but fortunately it doesn't live up to its title, either.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2014

A shambles of stereotypes and predictable plot points. ... However, there's something special and almost good in Bad Turn Worse.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 15, 2014

The Hawkins brothers make the action compelling, nicely capture small-town dead-endedness, and provide emotional voltage throughout. Peformances, too, are impressive, with Pellegrino a standout as the baddie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 14, 2014

Sparse and fraught with tension, "Bad Turn Worse" is a smart character piece with a deadly edge.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 14, 2014

It's a confident, engaging film, undone by some narrative sag in the middle but worth seeing for its opening and closing acts.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 14, 2014

"Bad Turn Worse" simply peters out by the night of the big heist, never achieving more than being imitative of small-town noir instead of getting inside it.

| Nov 13, 2014

A juicy neo-noir like "Bad Turn Worse" doesn't have to make total sense to grab you. All it has to do is spit like a snake enough times to show that it means business.

| Nov 13, 2014

This cowboy noir works fine as a genre riff, but screenwriter Dutch Southern draws so liberally on the work of Jim Thompson, Cormac McCarthy, and the Coen brothers that he ought to take them all out for drinks.

| Nov 13, 2014

Had the film not been so open about its ambition, maybe its mediocrity wouldn't seem quite so galling.

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 13, 2014

Southern does a nice job balancing out the super-obvious plot twists with the ones you don't see coming, and even when the characters more cannily constructed than realistic, the Hawkins brothers and the cast play it pretty straight.

| Nov 12, 2014