An unrelenting disaster thriller that beats Hollywood at its own game rises from the depths to become one of the biggest movies on Netflix

If ever there was an entirely bespoke and niche subgenre to have consistently knocked it out of the park without gathering much in the way of mainstream attention, then the Scandinavian disaster epic would have to be near the top of the list, even if Netflix users have finally taken heed of The North Sea.

Per FlixPatrol, director John Andreas Andersen’s oil rig extravaganza has become one of the biggest hits on the market-leading streaming service, having held on for dear life and risen up to sixth place on the worldwide charts, a phenomenal return for a sorely underrated slab of escapism that does a much better job of creating tension and thrills than a huge number of Hollywood’s mega-budget attempts.

A spiritual successor of sorts to The Wave and sequel The Quake, Norway churning out three acclaimed and widely popular features all revolving around cataclysmic natural catastrophes in a short space of time wasn’t on anybody’s bingo card, but we’d be happy to keep seeing it if they maintain this level of quality.

In The North Sea, a 50 year-old rig suffers at the hands of a crack on the ocean floor, leading to much in the way of explosions and falling debris. Unfortunately, that’s a relatively minor issue once scientists discover a global event could be the endgame, scrambling a crack team into action to prevent untold devastation.

Boasting better reviews than anything Roland Emmerich has done in decades at a fraction of the cost, The North Sea might be a disaster on a storytelling level, but on Netflix it’s anything but.