"This isn't a film you'll forget easily."
— Kim Newman,Empire Magazine
"Races along with the swift, brutal precision of a samurai sword cutting through cotton."
— Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
"Stylistically it's a beauty, with khaki-uniformed waifs fighting for their lives to a crashing classical score."
— Sara Stewart, New York Post
"[Fukasaku's] genius is finding the overlap between teenage dreams and nightmares, between the intensity of first love and the terror of extinction."
— Eric Hynes, Village Voice
"Japan's maestro of mayhem, Kinji Fukasaku has delivered a brutal punch to the collective solar plexus with one of his most outrageous and timely films."
— Robert Koehler, Variety
"This is a heart-stopping action film, teaching us the worthy lessons of discipline, teamwork, and determination, but wrapping them up in a deliberately provocative, shockingly violent package."
— Jason Korsner, BBC.com