--- title: "Shutter Island: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/shutter-island/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/shutter-island" critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 15 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Shutter Island (2010): what the critics said Critics' score 71 from 15 reviews: 9 positive, 4 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Shutter Island, with praise clustering around Scorsese’s command of atmosphere, the gothic imagery and Leonardo DiCaprio’s strained, obsessive central performance. The favourable reviews find an engrossing blend of noir and psychological horror, drawing on older Hollywood forms without losing its capacity to unsettle. Even several mixed assessments admire the visual craft and performances, finding pleasure in the heightened style despite doubts about the story. The spread is wide, however, and the main disagreement concerns whether the elaborate plotting rewards the attention it demands. Reservations centre on length, over-explanation and a reliance on trickery that some find predictable or emotionally distancing. Slant Magazine argues that the institutional thriller and psychodrama never fit together convincingly. The New York Times likewise finds that the early dread gives way to overdone artifice and disappointment, while the enthusiasts regard the excess as central to the film’s appeal. ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Rating A-. 18 February 2010. Scorsese amplifies the pulp intensity of Lehane's novel into a vivid waking nightmare, using every tool to create fevered Grand Guignol horror that aligns the audience with DiCaprio's obsessed character. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/shutter-island-1798164409) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 3.5/4. 17 February 2010. Scorsese crafts a gripping, atmospheric haunted-house thriller set on a remote island asylum, evoking classic noir and Hitchcock with flawless command and a focus on dread and sensory unease. The director's control and the film's cohesive vision stand out even amid twists that may divide viewers on first viewing. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shutter-island-2010) ## Los Angeles Times — Betsy Sharkey Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 19 February 2010. Scorsese delivers a divinely dark and devious brain-tease noir with smart cops, tough cases, and clever genre nods that make for pure pleasure in watching the unraveling. The film stands as a new noir classic centered on DiCaprio's twisting performance. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-feb-19-la-et-shutter-island19-2010feb19-story.html) ## Total Film — Neil Smith Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 12 February 2010. An impeccably assembled genre thriller that negotiates familiar noir territory with fresh insight and a fiendish rug-pulling reveal; the journey is satisfying thanks to strong performances (especially DiCaprio) and striking visuals from Richardson and Ferretti. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/shutter-island-review/) ## Radio Times — Alan Jones Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). The critic notes the psychodrama twist may be predictable but there is fun in the operatic thrills and gothic style drawn from classic horrors and melodramas. It is overlong and overly explained yet weaves an impressive spell through pure style. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-qiwppc/shutter-island/) ## The Independent — Andrew Cooper Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 14 March 2010. A hyper-devious mind-game movie executed with panache and a superb cast that is more audacious, challenging and entertaining than most Hollywood genre films, though flawed by sensationalism and a lapse of taste in its Dachau backstory. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/shutter-island-martin-scorsese-138-mins-15-1920891.html) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 1 March 2010. Scorsese revives B-movie energy and dread with tremendous style in this 1954-set asylum mystery, but the allusions and gestures feel light and rhetorical rather than deeply meaningful, resulting in something no better than a B-plus. The focus stays on the maddening spectacle rather than a tight whodunnit. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/01/behind-bars) ## Little White Lies — Adam Woodward Rating 5/3/3. 11 March 2010. The critic finds it a frustrating cobwebbed box of tricks and twists despite strong atmosphere and performances. Scorsese comes close to horror but the film fails to reward rewatches. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/shutter-island) ## Time Out — Tom Huddleston Rating 3/5. 9 March 2010. The critic calls it a berserk meandering story taken seriously by all involved, making it ludicrous yet entertaining. It lacks the power of earlier Scorsese works but is his most enjoyable in a decade. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/shutter-island) ## Slant Magazine — Andrew Schenker Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 17 February 2010. Scorsese delivers strong visual signatures and set pieces but the film fails to balance its institutional thriller and psychodrama elements, resulting in an ungrounded narrative undermined by hallucinations and exposition. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/shutter-island/) ## The New York Times — A.O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 19 February 2010. Scorsese amplifies every detail into frantic, demented spectacle in this twisty thriller, but the result feels like a catastrophe of overdone artifice and unreliable narration that ultimately undermines itself. The atmosphere of uncertainty and dread is conjured effectively at first but gives way to disappointment. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/movies/19shutter.html) ## Empire — Kim Newman 8 March 2010. Scorsese enjoys himself in this nearest thing to a horror film since Cape Fear, delivering sumptuous, enthralling gothic filmmaking with a hardboiled heart and sly asylum humour after the trickery of the plot is set aside. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shutter-island-review/) ## Screen Daily 13 February 2010. The critic finds it clearly flawed but entirely involving as a superb genre thriller elevated by Scorsese's skill. It weaves an impressive spell and remains too engrossing to deny despite overstaying its welcome. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/shutter-island/5010671.article) ## Sight and Sound — Graham Fuller The critic sees the film as Scorsese's homage to 1940s and 1950s cinema and a return to paranoid interior worlds. It is praised as a genuine study of madness that elevates pulp material through kinetic classical stylisation. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49610) ## The Guardian — Philip French 14 March 2010. Scorsese triumphs with a powerful noir pastiche that sends Leonardo DiCaprio into a world of madness and paranoia. It is a dazzling pastiche of a Hollywood movie of the 1940s and 50s, hugely enjoyable, the work of a master. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/14/shutter-island-review-philip-french) ## The Hollywood Reporter 14 February 2010. Festival review. The critic calls Scorsese's film a technically dazzling high-wire act of paranoia that grips from the start and showcases the director's skills, but questions whether it represents a commercial digression from his more serious work. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/shutter-island-film-review-29275/) ## Collider — Matt Goldberg Rating A. 18 February 2010. The critic calls Shutter Island a singular, unforgettable psychological horror that solves madness rather than a mystery, praising Scorsese's technical mastery and DiCaprio's worn, compelling lead performance as the damaged marshal. [Read the review](https://collider.com/shutter-island-review/) ## Eye for Film — Anton Bitel Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 25 February 2010. Scorsese delivers a masterful blend of gothic ghost story and pulpy noir that approaches the Platonic form of the genre. The critic praises the director's absolute mastery of his art through deft craftsmanship and metacinematic allusions that make the film a pleasure even when the twists are anticipated. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/shutter-island-film-review-by-anton-bitel) ## Den of Geek — Michael Leader Rating 4/5. 13 February 2010. The critic finds Scorsese's psychological thriller gripping and entertaining, with dazzling aesthetic effects that explore madness and the blurring of reality and imagination through striking dream sequences and a disquieting score. It melds classical Hollywood reverence with fresh flair and an understanding of cinema's surreal properties. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/shutter-island-review/) ## The Playlist — Rodrigo Perez Rating C. 19 February 2010. The film is an overlong and over-the-top B-movie exercise in noir tropes and Hitchcockian paranoia that lacks subtlety and emotional engagement. While admiring the music, some performances including Ben Kingsley's, and visual flair, the critic finds it slow, predictable, and ultimately not thrilling or dramatic enough. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/shutter-island-another-take-20100219/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/shutter-island.md