The memories of The Whisper Man are still fresh, and Netflix has already unveiled a replacement thriller. The new movie landed on the streamer this past Friday and immediately announced that it is here to stay. In recent months, Netflix has experienced tremendous success with mid-budget films — a strategic pivot from the mega-budget tentpoles that the platform had been putting its resources into before. The streamer’s biggest hit so far this year is War Machine, starring Alan Ritchson, followed by The Rip, featuring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Together with a handful of other mid-budget films, these titles topped the coveted 100-million-views mark. It remains to be seen if Netflix’s new thriller is able to match their success, but early signs are encouraging.
It comes on the heels of The Whisper Man and The Last House, both of which are on the cusp of cracking the 100-million-views mark despite mediocre critical response. Netflix’s latest release hasn’t exactly received positive reviews either. It currently sits at a 23% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which happens to be the worst performance of director Janus Metz Pedersen‘s career. He previously directed the sports drama Borg vs McEnroe, the Prime Video spy drama All the Old Knives, and episodes of the critically acclaimed Star Wars series Andor.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.
The Silence of the Lambs · Hannibal · 1991–2002
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.
Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on.
The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
Batman · The Dark Knight · 1989–2019
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for.
His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong.
He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Sherlock Holmes · The Final Problem · Since 1893
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room.
This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing.
It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
No Country for Old Men · 2007
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are.
No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
Call it. He will wait.
Russell Crowe Is Coming Off His Best-Reviewed Movie in Nearly 3 Decades
His latest film is Unabomber, a psychological thriller starring Jacob Tremblay as the infamous Ted Kaczynski and Russell Crowe as the Harvard professor who studied him as part of an academic exercise. The film unfolds in dual timelines; the first follows Kaczynski in college and the second during his years-long manhunt. According to FlixPatrol, Unabomber emerged as an instant hit on Netflix, replacing Best of the Best at the top of the streamer’s viewership charts. However, the poor reception definitely dents some of the goodwill that Crowe had earned only last week, with the release of his best-reviewed movie in nearly three decades: The Weight. You can watch Unabomber on Netflix, while The Weight continues to play in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
