Thanks to our collectively morbid fascination with murder and mayhem, the serial killer thriller has become about the most bulletproof subgenre in the entertainment industry. That extends to feature films, TV shows, documentaries, podcasts, and even more besides, but 2002’s Murder by Numbers is proof that nothing is infallible.
Even though it boasts a proven star in Sandra Bullock, a future A-lister in Ryan Gosling, and an intriguing premise that finds the discovery of a body in the woods spiraling into a full-blown investigation leading directly to a pair of fresh-faced geniuses with a penchant for plotting and pulling off the perfect crimes – or so they think – reception was muted to say the least.
As well as a meager 31 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, Murder by Numbers barely recouped its $50 million budget at the box office to go down as a major dud. Even now, more than 20 years on from its initial release, it’s become clear that time has not been kind to the movie after a Reddit thread opened the door to a renewed wave of vocal criticism.
To be fair, Murder by Numbers isn’t very good, but it it’s also far from the medium’s worst entry. Maybe people were expecting more based on the sum of its parts, but not every serial killer thriller gets to succeed, and this is just one of many to fall through the cracks and end up missing the mark by a substantial distance. Then again, at least people are still talking about it.