This Most-Watched Netflix Thriller of All Time is a Chilling Gem You May Have Missed
Noomi Rapace is truly one of this generation’s untapped talents. After captivating the world with her turn as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish adaptations of the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, she’s popped up in dozens of different properties. She’s often the best thing about them. Her Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus is no Ellen Ripley, sure, but she’s the closest the franchise has come to creating a worthy successor. Plus, both Lamb and You Won’t Be Alone are two of the strongest genre releases of the decade, and Rapace more than capably anchors them both. It’s fitting, then, that Black Crab, in which she stars, is the most-viewed non-English thriller on Netflix of all time. Yeah, all time.
Per Netflix: In this dystopian action thriller, a solider embarks on a mission across a frozen sea carrying a top-secret cargo.
At first glance, Black Crab looks like little more than most of Netflix’s algorithm-gaming, high-concept slop. The kind of movie you watch on a whim, marginally enjoy, and then forget about before the next thing comes around. At the time of release, that’s certainly how some critics felt. Black Crab, despite commanding an estimated 53 million unique viewers, critically flatlined. The consensus was “been there, done that.”
And, sure, Black Crab’s dystopian tropes aren’t anything new. If not for the skating across the frozen Stockholm Archipelago, it would reasonably look like a dozen other similar movies. But those movies don’t have Noomi Rapace. Noomi Rapace is eminently watchable. Powerful, vulnerable—such a boon, she keeps Black Crab’s more familiar elements afloat even as the movie threatens to sink into the ice below.
There’s something admirable, too, about Black Crab’s resistance to fully explaining everything. The post-apocalyptic scenario is contextual at best. Instead, Black Crab’s focus is squarely on Rapace’s Caroline Edh and her desperation. The conditions are dire, time is running out, and she’s got an entire archipelago to skate across, dammit. It’s more than the passable thriller it first appears to be, and more than earned its spot among Netflix’s most viewed. That’s no small feat, and if anyone deserves it, it’s Rapace.
I want to know what you think, though. Have you had a chance to catch Black Crab? Any interest in seeing it now? When first released, fans couldn’t get enough of it, so odds are, you’ll find something to like. Either way, let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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