Ben Affleck’s Critically-Panned Political Thriller Is a Massive Netflix Hit

Published Oct 15, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he’ll watch anything once. He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Such is the state of originality in Hollywood that even director-driven movies released a year apart are remakes of the same classic. One year has passed, almost to the day, since Spike Lee debuted his acclaimed Apple TV movie, Highest 2 Lowest, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic thriller High and Low. This past week, Netflix debuted the thriller Animals, which wasn’t marketed as another remake but was soon revealed to be one. Animals is the latest directorial effort from Ben Affleck — unfortunately, it has also turned out to be his lowest-rated film as a director, according to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the mediocre reviews, Animals emerged as an instant hit, and is a hot contender to join a slew of mid-budget Netflix originals to pass 100 million views this year.

In fact, Netflix began its success streak with another thriller produced by and starring Affleck: The Rip. It was soon joined in the 100-million-views club by Thrash, Apex, Swapped, and War Machine. Netflix has successfully pivoted from producing mega-budget tentpoles, and is now investing in mid-budget genre movies that draw huge viewership. More recently, the streamer found success with three thrillers — The Last House, The Whisper Man, and Unabomber. Animals is well-positioned to keep the streak going, given its tremendous performance so far. The movie follows a mayoral candidate in Los Angeles whose life and career come apart when his child is kidnapped for ransom.

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

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