ClickOnline writes: "Herzog states his opinion on the death penalty and leaves the rest of the film open to our interpretation, swaddling us in a lyrical and necessarily biased tale of how death affects us all"
The Wrap: "Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" opened to $270,000 at 19 locations, representing one of the director's better premieres."
Anthony of The Daily Rotation wrote, "Into the Abyss takes you on a journey of life and death just like the poster says. Herzog knows how to pull your emotional strings with the questions he asks throughout the entire movie. The array of interviews that are set up are exactly what is needed. He doesn’t stray much farther than the key characters. Granted that Werner Herzog is against the death penalty, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to pick that up throughout the entire film. He has his moments where what he says points in that direction. However he does a pretty good job at keeping himself non-biased."