Nearly two hours long and smothered in portent, this is either just no fun or straight-up overwrought.

| Jan 4, 2023

Episode 11: Moving On

| Original Score: 90/100 | Sep 1, 2021

Wright looks confused the entire film, things get very weird late, and at the end, you are depressed and wondering what you watched.

| Nov 10, 2020

An absorbing movie that deals, if only obliquely, with American capitalism's historic crimes against indigenous peoples and, more recently, the Iraqi population.

| Aug 5, 2020

Hold the Dark doesn't feel as organic as Blue Ruin, but it's a worthy addition to Saulnier's filmography nonetheless.

| Jul 24, 2020

[Jeffrey] Wright does what he can with a thinly-written part.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 29, 2020

Hold the Dark is the type of film you allow your brain to pluck at before fully deciding how enjoyable it is. The film is gorgeous to look at, but its meaning, purpose, and entertainment value lie strictly within how ominous you prefer your films to be.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 2, 2019

Hold the Dark is a step back for such a stimulating director (Saulnie). [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 2, 2019

The performers and Saulnier's eye for unconventional framing keep you glued to the screen in this exploration of trauma, violence, and isolation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 19, 2019

So much in the film is set up to make you think there's going to be a big showdown by the end - and sure, that would have been satisfying. However, it wouldn't be a new film. It wouldn't be a Saulnier film. It wouldn't be the curious animal that it is.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 30, 2019

By no means Saulnier's best (that title still belongs to Green Room), but it's still a good piece of cinema.

| Mar 3, 2019

I found the story fairly involving, even though it did not make much sense to me. It has a fine sense of place, and there is a lot of suspense because the murders seem so random and sudden you don't know who is going to die next.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 4, 2019

The director has made conflict in rural American outposts his own, but needs to perhaps turn on the lights at some point.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 8, 2019

Ambitious pulp fiction thriller.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 30, 2018

It's a shame that the masses won't get to see this on the big screen, but those looking to access a meditative campfire tale will be more than thrilled.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 16, 2018

Hold the Dark is a frustrating disappointment that shows flashes of what we've come to expect from Saulnier while also failing to live up to the standard he's set.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Nov 27, 2018

Alternately gorgeous and foreboding, Saulnier deftly doles out breadcrumbs for a tense and dark mystery

| Oct 31, 2018

While Hold the Dark isn't as enrapturing as his previous two films, it is still a brutal, tense journey through the snow into the heart of darkness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 29, 2018

Holding the dark - embracing it within, or keeping it away - is what all of Saulnier's films are about.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 29, 2018

Hold the Dark feels like a mask which, when removed, reveals little underneath.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 29, 2018