A Critically Panned Thriller Has Become a Guilty Pleasure Obsession on Netflix

Charlie Ridgely

08/13/2023 09:46 pm EDT

Over the past week or so, Netflix users have seemingly found themselves a new guilty pleasure movie. Fatale, starring Hilary Swank and Michael Ealy, was largely panned by both critics and fans back when it was released in December 2020. It hardly made any money at the box office, though you can't blame that all on the film when it debuted before COVID-19 vaccines were readily available and most people still weren't venturing out to theaters. Despite it's lack of acclaim or headlines three years ago, Fatale has somehow become popular on Netflix here in 2023.

For most of last week, Fatale held onto the number one overall spot on the Netflix Top 10 Movies list here in the United States. The combination of Swank and Ealy drew in new viewers, as did the potentially steamy, Fatal Attraction-esque premise. In the film, Ealy plays a sports agent who has an affair with Swank's police detective, only for her to turn his life upside down as part of a murder investigation.

What most viewers have found, however, is that fatale isn't nearly as thrilling as advertised. If you search "Fatale Netflix" on social media, you're sure to see plenty of reactions from Netflix subscribers talking either about how bad the movie is, or how wild its story gets. One viewer asked how Swank, an Academy Award winner, could "get herself caught up in this."

The quality didn't stop many people, though, as Fatale has stuck around on the Netflix Top 10 Movies list for quite a while. Perhaps the early minutes are enough to get folks hooked. One viewer wrote that they knew Fatale would be "predictable and terrible" after watching for just two minutes, but that they'd be seeing it through because they already started the movie. Another noted that nothing looked believable "not even 20 minutes in," but that they were going to keep watching anyway.

As of Sunday, Fatale is still hanging around the Netflix Top 10 Movies list. New titles have come out but Fatale is still the seventh-most popular film in the United States, at least for now. You can check out a rundown of Sunday's Netflix Top 10 Movies list below!

1. Heart of Stone

(Photo: Netflix)

"An intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable — and dangerous — weapon."

2. Untold: Johnny Football

"This documentary traces the meteoric rise and precipitous fall of football star Johnny Manziel via interviews with friends, coaches and Manziel himself."

3. Despicable Me 2

(Photo: Illumination)

"More gadgets, more minions, more mayhem! As Gru turns his back on his baddie ways to care for his girls, a secret agency recruits him to fight evil."

4. River Wild

"A group of whitewater rafters becomes stranded in raging rapids when they're targeted by a saboteur intent on keeping shocking secrets buried."

5. Safe

"A former cage fighter's rescue of an abducted 12-year-old girl pits them both against Triad gangs, the Russian Mafia and a bunch of corrupt cops."

6. The Fast and the Furious

(Photo: Universal Pictures)

"An undercover cop infiltrates a Los Angeles street-racing crew suspected of big hijackings and unexpectedly falls for the gang leader's sister."

7. Fatale

(Photo: Lionsgate)

"A one-night stand in Las Vegas turns into a nightmare for a married, successful sports agent when the stranger he cheated with wreaks havoc on his life."

8. Despicable Me

(Photo: Illumination)

"A villainous mastermind's plan to steal the moon from the sky veers off course when a trio of orphans looking for a dad capture his heart instead."

9. Bee Movie

"A worker bee stuck in a dead-end job making honey sues humans when he learns that they've been stealing bees' nectar all along."

10. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

"Next stop: New York! But to get back home, Alex and friends must hitch a ride with a traveling European circus and evade and evil animal-control officer."

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