The film received generally positive reviews. "Newsweek" magazine wrote of Carpenter: "has a deeply ingrained B-movie sensibility – which is both his strength and limitation. He does clean work, but settles for too little. He uses Russell well, however". In "Time" magazine, Richard Corliss wrote, "John Carpenter is offering this summer's moviegoers a rare opportunity: to escape from the air-conditioned torpor of ordinary entertainment into the hothouse humidity of their own paranoia. It's a trip worth taking". Vincent Canby, in his review for "The New York Times", wrote, "film is not to be analyzed too solemnly, though. It's a toughly told, very tall tale, one of the best escape (and escapist) movies of the season". On the other hand, in his negative review for the "Chicago Reader", critic Dave Kehr, wrote "it fails to satisfy – it gives us too little of too much".