It’s a sordid publicity stunt that leads to disaster and forces the creator — a la Frankenstein and “Misery” — to face his own monster.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 23, 2022

General audiences may find the film's imbalance of gore and aesthetic debates tiresome, whereas genre enthusiasts will surely embrace the discussion.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 18, 2022

Random Acts of Violence has the familiar slasher movie trappings...but theres a freshness to what Baruchel is going for too. A broad attempt to look at how violence manifests, not just within the film but in how were made to confront it as viewers.

| Feb 13, 2022

...Baruchel the director knows how to execute (in both senses of the word) an unflinching set piece or two.

| Sep 10, 2021

Beneath the blood, guts, and screams lies a fascinating conversation, one that viewers are bound to be engaged in long after the credits roll.

| Original Score: 4 / 5 | Jun 25, 2021

Its weighty subtext adds heft to what might have been another disposable slasher flick. Well done, Shudder.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 10, 2021

Sadly, there is not a single substantial thing we can take away from all of this in the end.

| Mar 6, 2021

What sets it apart is self-awareness. Baruchel confronts the audience with the kind of graphic murders that might even make Rob Zombie uncomfortable, just as the story confronts its own use of violence.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 4, 2021

The film tries to subvert horror tropes, but does a better job showcasing them than rising above them.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 24, 2021

It's trying too hard to say something, it doesn't have much violence at all, and the only thing evil about it is how boring it is at under 90 minutes.

| Dec 22, 2020

...a progressively unwatchable thriller that strikes several wrong notes right from the get-go...

| Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 3, 2020

While laudable in its ambitions, this is by no means the sharpest or most original take on the fetishization of murder or violence in the media, and it still leaves something to be desired in doing these big ideas their full justice.

| Sep 22, 2020

A loathsome film that seems to hate its characters, creators, and audience in equal measure.

| Original Score: D- | Sep 3, 2020

A great slasher that is able to stir feelings of discomfort in its discourse alone. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 31, 2020

The movie often seems uncertain just how meta to be about this material: Is it a serious slasher movie, or a semi-satirical commentary on the genre? Hence a lot here doesn't quite work.

| Aug 28, 2020

While the actors bring raw emotion into scenes that are funny and nightmarish, the characters never feel very deep. So it ends up as little more than a grotesque bloodbath.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 27, 2020

Jay Baruchel's adaptation of a 2010 comic delivers lots of gore and a few relatable characters. But its main theme, a meta meditation on violence in media and in real life, remains curiously superficial.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 27, 2020

The largely improvised dialogue does light up the relationships between the foursome crammed into the car, so the viewer is offered some sense of these characters’ personalities before the slashing starts.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 27, 2020

What Random Acts of Violence has to say, it says clumsily, rushing to make its points before moving on to the next kill. There's nothing at all random about Baruchel's writing. He has designs. What he's lacking is purpose.

| Original Score: 6.1/10 | Aug 27, 2020

As the title may imply, Random Acts of Violence foregoes sustained, slow-burn scares for outright, energetic, blood-soaked murder.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 27, 2020