A movie constantly finding itself among the Top 10 most-watched titles on Netflix is by no means an indicator of quality, with the list of features that have proved hugely popular with subscribers over the last few months running the entire spectrum from critically acclaimed favorites to arguably the worst of the year.
Extraction, Da 5 Bloods, The Old Guard and most recently, Project Power all found big success after becoming available on Netflix, and they fully deserved their spots after proving to be gripping and massively entertaining entries in their respective genres. However, The Last Days of American Crime and steamy Polish thriller 365 Dni also found themselves among the most popular movies that Netflix had to offer, and yet both of them hold the rare and unwanted distinction of a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Then there was Animal Crackers coming out of nowhere after spending years on the shelf, The Help controversially rising to the top spot at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests and, of course, the continued popularity of Adam Sandler. The point is, viewing numbers aren’t always a sign of something great, but Netflix can certainly help an underrated gem find a whole new audience, which is exactly what’s happened to We Summon the Darkness.
The horror flick was released on VOD back in April and didn’t make much of an impact, but after it arrived on Netflix earlier this month, it quickly shot straight into the streaming service’s Top 10 most-watched movies list, with the pic consistently holding a spot on the charts for almost an entire week. A feat made more impressive by the fact that there’s been some pretty great content on the platform lately.
For those unfamiliar, the movie is a love letter to both the 1980s heavy metal scene and the slasher genre, and while it doesn’t boast much in the way of originality, We Summon the Darkness is made with obvious love for the material and a streak of dark humor that makes it well worth checking out. Assuming you’re not one of the countless Netflix subscribers who’ve already done so, of course.
