Edward Blank of the "Pittsburgh Press" called the film a "cheap-jack movie of no discernible merit" and "riddled with awkward, self-conscious performances." Roger Ebert, however, gave the film three and a half stars out of four, and described it as "about four times as good as you'd expect." "The Christian Science Monitor" News Service referred to the film as a "desperately sordid melodrama" and a "vulgarized" version of "The Virgin Spring" and drew comparisons to Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" (1971). Brian Nelson of "The Daily Dispatch" deemed it the worst film of the year, writing: "Producer Sean S. Cunningham has somehow managed to make what is possibly 1972's most worthless general release film and, with a sensational and overblown advertising campaign, parlay it into a major moneymaker. In doing so, he may be in line for the Cy Dung Award for the movie most offensive to the intelligence of an audience." The "Lubbock Avalanche-Journal"s Bill Towery suggested the film should have received an X rating, adding in his review: "Films such as these give the movie ratings system a bad name. But if your cup of tea is assault, murder, maiming, revenge, and violence, the movie is going to be perfect."