A Forgotten Horror Movie Is Finding Lots Of Love On Netflix

The Netflix Top 10 most-watched list is nothing if not predictably unpredictable, with a rotating cast of titles floating in and out on a daily basis. There’s almost always a forgotten action thriller or two to be found, whatever the streaming service’s most buzzworthy new original title is at any given moment will typically post a strong showing for about a week, and then there are the outsiders that come completely out of nowhere.

Mortal Engines, which is one of the biggest box office bombs in history after losing Universal an estimated $178 million, has been nestled in the Top 10 for a good few days now, while Thomas Jane’s widely panned mystery thriller The Vanished has done incredibly well for itself over the last week, too.

The latest surprise entrant is 2018 slasher Hell Fest, made all the more impressive by the fact that horror movies rarely manage to crack the most-watched charts, never mind at the beginning of February. The pic follows three women and their boyfriends who head to the titular traveling carnival, before things take a turn for the gory when they find themselves trapped inside with a serial killer.

Director Gregory Plotkin is a veteran of the genre having worked on countless Blumhouse productions including the Paranormal Activity franchise, Happy Death Day and Get Out, while his career as an editor began over 30 years ago and has seen him involved with projects as diverse as Weekend at Bernie’s II, Flipper, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and World War Z.

Hell Fest received so-so reviews from critics and made just over $18 million at the box office on a $5 million budget, but has now become today’s left field Netflix smash hit, where it currently ranks as the eighth most popular movie in the United States.