Among later assessments, "Entertainment Weekly" in 1997 wrote that the contemporary interpretation was that of a "serious exploration of humanity's ambivalent relationship with the dark side", but it now seems an "exploitation bloodbath". Nick Schager of "Slant Magazine" rated it 4/4 stars and wrote, "Sitting through Peckinpah's controversial classic is not unlike watching a lit fuse make its slow, inexorable way toward its combustible destination—the taut build-up is as shocking and vicious as its fiery conclusion is inevitable." Philip Martin of the "Arkansas Democrat-Gazette" wrote, "Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" is a movie that has remained important to me for 40 years. Along with Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange", "Straw Dogs" stands as a transgressively violent, deeply '70s film; one that still retains its power to shock after all these years." Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 83% of 40 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 8.46/10. The consensus reads: "A violent, provocative meditation on manhood, "Straw Dogs" is viscerally impactful -- and decidedly not for the squeamish".