The production line of Netflix thrillers never slows down, but the streaming service has at least found a decent enough balance between quantity and quality. That being said, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything to release on the platform this year more agonizingly intense than Accused.
As much as the company’s constant churn of in-house originals split critical opinion down the middle, director Philip Barantini – who knows a thing or two about extracting maximum tension from a narrative looking at the harrowing kitchen-set story Boiling Point – has found nothing but acclaim, with his latest feature currently boasting a perfect 100 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Having opted to sit out the fourth and final season of Sex Education, Moordale High alumni Chaneil Kular has already seen his decision well and truly vindicated by a knockout performance that’s star-making in every sense of the world. Living alone at a remote country house, the young man suddenly finds himself being named as the number one suspect in a terrorist bombing through the means of social media misinformation.
Trapped and helpless to do anything about it as his name, face, and information go viral all across the internet, social media threats soon threaten to turn into real-world violence as the false accusations spiral out of control. It might be a Vertigo Releasing production and not a Netflix exclusive, but snapping up distribution rights in many key markets has already proven to be a masterstroke.
Per FlixPatrol, Accused has been facing up to its tormentors on the global Top 10, having risen up to become the sixth most-watched movie on the entire content library, and it’s well worth watching.
