Published Sep 19, 2026, 7:45 PM EDT
Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.
For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider’s news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.
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His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan’s work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.
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Serial killer thrillers have long been a reliable source of nightmare fuel, particularly when they combine a grisly investigation with something more personal. True crime is a huge boon for the streamers and, through that, viewers start looking for simply… crime. And it works for them. Netflix has leaned heavily into the genre over the years, and its latest entry brings Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) to the fore.
Their newest thriller, based on **Alex North’**s best-selling novel The Whisper Man, has become a huge streaming hit since arriving on Netflix, climbing all the way to No. 1 on the streamer’s weekly global movie chart. When his 8-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer (Adam Scott) looks to his estranged father (De Niro), a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as “The Whisper Man.”
The cast is led by Scott with De Niro alongside him, while Michelle Monaghan (The White Lotus), Michael Keaton (Birdman), Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass), and **Owen Teague **(Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) round out the cast.
Four action series. One of them is built around exactly the way you handle pressure, people, and a room that has just gone very quiet. Here is where you would survive the trilogy, and probably headline it.
You are precision with a grudge. You don’t posture, you don’t escalate, and you don’t warn anybody twice. That is exactly why the people who know you are so careful never to be the reason you start.
You understand the thing the whole franchise is secretly about: the cars are spectacular, but the crew is the point. You collect people, you keep them, and you’d drive through a building for any one of them.
You over-prepare and then take the dangerous part yourself anyway. It looks like control, but it’s really responsibility. You have never worked out how to ask somebody else to carry the risk.
You are not the most trained person in the building, the best equipped, or the one anybody would have picked. You are simply the one still standing at the end, which turns out to be the only qualification that matters.
According to the streamer’s latest viewership report, the movie amassed 33 million views in its second week. In its opening frame, The Whisper Man debuted with 23 million views, putting its two-week total at 55 million views. So it’s certainly a success in that respect. But in terms of critical response, less so. In his review, Collider’s David Caballero cited The Silence of the Lambs, Copycat, and The Bone Collector as influences on the film, while De Niro is cited as a highlight: “He brings a convincing weariness to his performance that reminds you just how great he is, even if he’s functioning at about 60% of his full capacity here.”
The Whisper Man hasn’t received the same level of enthusiasm from critics as it has from Netflix viewers. The serial killer thriller currently holds a 46% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes from 78 reviews, leaving it firmly in “Rotten” territory, while its 39% Popcornmeter score from more than 500 audience ratings is even lower.
The Whisper Man is streaming exclusively on Netflix.
The Whisper Man ](/tag/movie/the-whisper-man/)
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Ben Jacoby, Chase Palmer, Alex North
Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Michael Disco, Angela Russo-Otstot, Mike LaRocca