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Right at Your Door
Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17
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  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    91
    There are no zombies to distract from the plausibility of Right at Your Door. And that's what makes this smart, coolly horrifying American indie thriller one of the scariest movies you're likely to see all year - a post-9/11 nightmare about terrorism, panic, and paranoia with real, waking-life implications.
  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    80
    Ultimately a story about the American mindset post-9/11, Right at Your Door is also a much more personal tale, as it forces all of us to consider what we would do if the chips were down.
  3. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    78
    This is frightening stuff, ably helmed (by writer/director Gorak, art director on the nerve janglers Fight Club and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), viciously acted, and altogether horrific in ways George A. Romero could imagine only through the lens of the darkest sort of fantasy.
  4. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    While this is admittedly not lighthearted mainstream fare, the subject matter is interesting and is handled in a manner that offers a compelling and sometimes unsettling 95 minutes.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    The two actors are solid, never overplaying scenes and capturing well that slow realization that their lives are never going to be the same.
  6. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    70
    Grounded hard by some terrific smoking-skyline special effects and by Cochrane and McCormack's intensity.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    The movie has an ironic and unpredictable ending, but it doesn't wash away the sour taste of Brad's behavior.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    63
    As frightening as it intends to be, but not enjoyably so.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    63
    McCormack and Cochrane can't transcend the clichéd, meandering dialogue, so Brad and Lexi's dilemma never feels like anything but a didactic contrivance.
  10. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Pam Grady
    50
    Grows more and more incredible leading up to a twist ending worthy of an O. Henry short story that is as appropriate as it is ridiculous.
  11. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    50
    The characters devolve into boring narcissists. And the movie devolves into a broad-brush dark satire of emergency bureaucracy that feels a lot sillier than the post-9/11 panic attack of the first half-hour.
  12. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Neil Genzlinger
    50
    The film, especially in its resolution, feels a bit like a "Twilight Zone" episode and might have been better at that length, but the acting's pretty good, and the cinematography keeps things lively.
  13. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    50
    Chris Gorak grabs the viewer by the throat in the first few minutes, but quickly fritters away involvement by concentrating almost exclusively on two characters who are both annoying and boring.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    50
    First-time director Chris Gorak is no Rod Serling, and in his hands the enterprise tends toward the lurid, especially after his nifty third-act twist.
  15. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    This doomsday scenario takes up the first third of the movie, after which the tension dissipates badly and the husband and wife, now separated by plastic sheeting, wait for help to arrive.
  16. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    40
    A dumb twist can be excused, however, if your characters keep the thing afloat, which makes perhaps the most unforgivable sin of this claustrophobic terror scenario the fact that we have to spend it with arguably the two least interesting people in Los Angeles.
  17. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    38
    The film is low budget but puffed with self-importance, and it offers proof that Hollywood filmmakers should probably steer clear of topics that actually matter.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. CaptainBligh
    8
    If you like drama with a decent sci fi premise, good acting, directing, and dialogue, and do not mind a sparse, stage like but solid production, watch this movie. The story is primarily about two people who are close and familiar, (maybe too much so), and how the effect of a major catastrophic event affects their lives and relationship with each other. There is nothing new or unusual here. But it is the telling of the story, and the characters, that make this movie compelling. I was reminded of Romero's "The Crazies" and "Night (and "Dawn") of the Living Dead", as well as "The Thing", "Blindness", "Quarantine", and the superior and little known Indie film "Last Night". Also, to a lesser extent, I was reminded of "The Andromeda Strain" and "Outbreak", with just a a whiff of, (strangely enough), "Kramer versus Kramer". Depending on your perspective, these movies share a sense of dislocation for the characters from their familiar, comfortable, ordinary day to day realities due to special events beyond their control. These are movies where people as groups and/or as individuals are separated from each other by choice or by force, while the "humanity" the justification and the "reasoning" for these separations can be considered from an objective outsider as arbitrary, primal level, survival instinct. None, or all, of these movies mentioned adequately represent this movie. They each stand, or fall, on their own merits. And each has it's own distinct direction, dialogue, faults, flaws, and recommendations. The lead actors were familiar without being famous, which allowed for more personalized interpretation of the characters by the director and actors. This helped to provide a stage like experience on film with out looking like a stage play refilmed. The suspense for the most part is maintained with effective if uninspired use of camera angles, better than average dialogue between the two lead characters, and the clever use of the contradiction between what is really happening to the characters and what is being broadcast on the radio and TV news stations. This helped to make up for lack of effects and multi camera shots. edits and limited scene changes. Therefore the movie is a bit claustrophobic, and considering the scenario, that is appropriate. The introduction of other actors both on and off screen playing small parts are effective plot devices and reveal the effectiveness of the news on fooling both the victims and the unaffected population. The news reports misinformation, rumors and out right lies as fact, and the gullible population, like mice in a maze, are willingly lured into a sense of comfort and away from mass hysteria. At one point the truth of what is being witnessed is denied by the victims themselves in favor of accepting the more positive, if obviously inaccurate, news reports. When do we stop being human and start to become "news zombies" controlled by the media? In less deft hands this movie could have sunk to a stereotypical hackneyed overly political sub par soap opera. The viewer is presented with the situations, and is for the most part left to decide on the political, personal, philosophical reasons and blame for the incidents and the actions of the characters.… Full Review »
  2. NO
    2
    Boring, boring, boring. The first ten minutes promise a tense, suspenseful, thriller. Then, husband, wife, and audience spend the next hour or so waiting around for something to happen. Finally, after a long boring movie there is a twist ending that doesn't make up for time and money wasted.… Full Review »
  3. HWND.
    8
    Excellent low budget thriller. Well made and well acted. Definitely recommended!
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