Dillard and co-writers Alex Hyner and Alex Theurer’s script cleverly turns expected tropes on their head and refuses to burden Jenn with the type of dumb decision making to inflict many a horror heroine.

| Mar 5, 2025

The film itself could've used more of an edge. Because once you carve out the lead performance and the central theme, Sweetheart is just your run-of-the-mill-sole-survivor-stranded-on-a-deserted-island-fending-off-a-carnivorous-aquatic-monster movie.

| Original Score: B- | Nov 5, 2024

In many ways, Sweetheart is a very simple but effective story; a gorgeously shot creature-feature-survival-horror that does a lot with a little, elevates the genre, while also building sustainable tension around a terrific lead.

| Apr 20, 2022

The filmmakers overlook that a stranded-on-an-island concept sinks or swims on the strength of its main character, who never entirely comes to life in a compelling way here.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 23, 2022

It is solid, entertaining pulp, and there is always an appreciative audience for that.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 22, 2020

Writer/director JD Dillard crafts such masterful suspense.

| Oct 2, 2020

This taut little thriller from genre specialists Blumhouse starts off as a Castaway-type survival adventure and then turns into a gulp-inducing horror movie.

| Sep 25, 2020

Sweetheart blends Survival Horror and Monster Movie tropes to create a small but effective supernatural thriller, resting upon the shoulders of Kiersey Clemons superb performance, delivering a crafty one girl show.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 23, 2020

A beautifully shot and made aquatic monster horror that is short yet taut and achieves that ultimate accolade all films of this kind hope for, having a fantastic character facing an amazing monster. A future classic of its kind.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Apr 30, 2020

At its heart, it is about abuse and fighting back, about rebelling despite the apparent futility of such attempts when what's threatening you has height, strength, and speed on its side.

| Feb 24, 2020

A film that conveys volumes with a masterful amount of restraint.

| Feb 11, 2020

Sweetheart is equal parts monster survival movie and social commentary film.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Dec 31, 2019

A solid showcase for rising star Kiersey Clemons.

| Oct 25, 2019

Watch this film. Tell your friends and spread the word about this great indie horror with a black female character done right.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 24, 2019

Sweetheart is a solid creature feature film that digs deeper into themes such as isolation and discovery of one's self.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 21, 2019

It remains fierce work with stretches of fascinating stillness, adding a little curveball when it comes time to explore the engine that drives self-preservation.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 18, 2019

Clemons' engaging performance is the film's biggest strength, as it finds inventive ways to blend tropes to keep the audience engaged in its thrills.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 15, 2019

"Sweetheart"has a magic to it that only the Fiji landscape, monster design, and Clemons' performance can create.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Oct 2, 2019

One woman, one gilled foe, one gorgeous escape ploy that rations tension as to sustain all 90-ish minutes.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 29, 2019

Not only fully delivers the conventions of genre and storytelling that audiences expect from the film's premise, but it also elevates and refines them to a sharp point.

| Sep 27, 2019