Empire by Jonathan Pile

Brutal in its depictions of violence, Brimstone is tough to watch at times, but never less than gripping, even as the clock creeps up to the 150-minute mark.

The Playlist by Jessica Kiang

In a way it’s a shame that film builds backwards, because while it adds layers of tricksy narrative intrigue, that trajectory somewhat simplifies the thematic texture as the movie wears on.

The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij

It feels like a sermon delivered by an extremely cine-literate preacher.

The Guardian by Andrew Pulver

Brimstone is hampered somewhat by its ponderous, doom-laden pace, and resultant bloated running time, but remains an intriguing slant on the spaghetti western.

CineVue by John Bleasdale

Dark, lurid, sadistic and powerful, it is at the least a fascinating and bold debut, and promises better to come.

IndieWire by David Ehrlich

If, for all of its godawful men, “Brimstone” has a hard time sewing its feminist fervor into anything more than a thin shawl over its bleak spectacle, this disturbingly watchable religious Western makes a solid case that hell is a place on Earth.

Screen Daily by Lee Marshall

What’s lacking here, mostly, is a clarity of vision and control of tone that would give this prestige Euro-Western’s mannerisms a focus.

Variety by Owen Gleiberman

The film has gruesomely effective moments, and one at times gets caught up in the gears of its big interlocked narrative, but it also has serious longueurs.

Screen International by Lee Marshall

What’s lacking here, mostly, is a clarity of vision and control of tone that would give this prestige Euro-Western’s mannerisms a focus.

The Film Stage

Director Martin Koolhoven shows the heaviest of hands in approaching the story.

The Film Stage by Tommaso Tocci

Director Martin Koolhoven shows the heaviest of hands in approaching the story.

Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden

However heroic a figure Fanning’s Liz may be, however much this fine actress makes us feel her terror and determination, any sense of triumph is steadily, grindingly undone.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

This grimly unpleasant two and a half hour endurance contest is an almost unwatchable, frustrating smorgasbord of blood, guts and gore.

Slant Magazine by Carson Lund

Its bid for social correctness does nothing to make the juvenile and numbing fixation on brutality any more palatable.