Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" gave the movie four out of four stars. He called it "an extraordinarily effective horror film". It was listed on Filmcritic.com as the 50th best movie ending of all time. Critics praised Donahue's apology to the camera near the end of the movie, saying it would cause "nightmares for years to come"; Roger Ebert showed how much different this sequence to Robert Scott's final journal entries as he froze to death in the Antarctic. Donahue said that there was a considerable backlash against her because she was starring in the movie. Her claims led to her having threatening encounters and difficulty obtaining employment.