David Fincher’s New Psychological Thriller Clinches One Of Highest Rotten Tomatoes Scores For Netflix In 2023

The Killer, David Fincher’s new thriller movie starring Michael Fassbender, has debuted to a Rotten Tomatoes score that handily beats most 2023 Netflix films. Telling the story of an assassin who sets out to take revenge against his employers after a job gone wrong, The Killer continues Fincher’s partnership with Netflix after 2020’s Mank. The film, which reunites Fincher with Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. Now, as The Killer releases on Netflix, Rotten Tomatoes reveals the film’s critics’ score to be an impressive 87%. This is not only the fourth-highest score of Fincher’s career, but one of the best scores for a Netflix original movie in 2023. The thriller beats Extraction 2 (79%), Murder Mystery 2 (45%), The Mother (43%), Heart of Stone (30%), Bird Box Barcelona (52%), Reptile (44%) and Fair Play (86%), among others, but falls short of They Cloned Tyrone (95%), Nimona (94%), and You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah (91%).

The early buzz out of Venice was positive regarding The Killer, and the film even received a six-minute standing ovation. Festival reception, however, is not always indicative of a broader critical response to a film. In this case, however, it very much is, and critics have praised the film as a stylish and highly effective thriller, a response that has continued Fincher’s “fresh” Rotten Tomatoes streak of the last three decades. Fincher is a filmmaker who is known for being very exacting and calculating, often making actors do dozens upon dozens of takes for a seemingly straightforward scene as he strives to achieve perfection. It’s these qualities that seemingly make The Killer feel like a personal film for Fincher, with the similarities between Fassbender’s unempathizing protagonist and the director not lost on reviewers. Brain Tallerico of RogerEbert.com writes, for example, that “by telling this story of a deadly perfectionist…Fincher leans into his reputation as a precise—almost obsessive—filmmaker.”

While many critics have shared positive thoughts on The Killer’s cast (which includes Tilda Swinton) and Fincher’s assured directing, a common thread throughout even the most glowing reviews is that The Killer does feel somewhat conventional in terms of its script, perhaps coming across as a safe choice for Fincher. The story of a hitman facing off against his own employers is nothing new, after all. Clearly, however, The Killer’s Rotten Tomatoes score suggests that there’s something to be said for a talented director who is working firmly within his comfort zone.