An overlooked airborne thriller soars on the Netflix charts

When you think of Wes Craven, the chances are high the first thing that comes to mind are his seismic contributions to the horror genre.

Of course, that’s perfectly understandable when he was the brains behind a laundry list of classics including the Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises, along with The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and many more. Craven didn’t step out of his smart and subversive horror wheelhouse all that often, but when he did, the results tended to be fairly mixed.

However, that sentiment doesn’t apply to 2005’s Red Eye, which did a decent turn at the box office and won solid reviews at the time, even if it hardly ever comes up whenever the filmmaker’s back catalogue is being discussed. Which is a shame, because it’s an effective thriller that wrings the maximum tension out of a taut premise.

Rachel McAdams catches a late flight home from her grandmother’s funeral, where she encounters Cillian Murphy’s handsome and charming stranger. Once they’re seated together on the plane, she discovers that it’s far from a coincidence, with a nefarious plot in play that involves an assassination attempt, a kidnapping, and much more.

As per FlixPatrol, Red Eye is beginning to soar on Netflix this week after entering the platform’s global most-watched lift, and it’s definitely worth checking out for the first time or revisiting if you’re a fan of psychological stories.