A brutal thriller starring Dylan O’Brien and Michael Keaton has reached number one on the Netflix top 10 chart, and its shocking opening has left viewers “traumatized.”
If you want to take a viewer’s breath away, set the toneearly. Don’t build up to bloodshed or heartbreak: deliver it straight away.
Drew Barrymore’s babysitter being gutted like a fish in Scream, Amity Island’s first victim being rag-dolled around the water in Jaws, and Up’s devastating montage; these are some of the most iconic sequences in all of cinema, and they all come within the first few minutes.
Dylan O’Brien’s American Assassin climbs Netflix chart
American Assassin is currently number one onNetflix’stop 10 movies in the US. Check out the full chart below:
The film opens on a beach in Spain, where Mitch Rapp (O’Brien) proposes to his girlfriend. She says yes, so he goes to the bar to get some drinks. Moments later, a jihadist terrorist cell storms the resort and opens fire on everyone there – including his fiancée, who’s murdered right in front of him.
It’s incredibly graphic, with the scene showing several people torn apart by bullets as they try to escape. “That one scene in American Assassin traumatized me so much I can’t stop thinking about it,” one usertweeted. “American Assassin’s beginning literally traumatized me, I cannot not think about it everyday,” anotherwrote.
Yet, despite its 34% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix viewers are loving it. “American Assassin might be one of my top 5 favorite movies ever. Sh*t is damn near perfectly written with the acting to match. One movie I can watch over and over,” one userwrote.
“American Assassin is top tier,” anotherposted. “American Assassin 10/10,” a thirdwrote. “It’s a shame they never made more Mitch Rapp movies beyond #AmericanAssassin. So much material to make a series of movies out of,” a fourthtweeted.
Cameron Frew is Deputy TV & Movies Editor on Dexerto’s UK team. He’s an action movie aficionado, ’80s obsessive, and Oscars enthusiast. He loves Invincible, but he’s also a fan of The Boys, the MCU, The Chosen, and much more. He has previously written for LadBible, UniLad, and Flickering Myth. You can contact him at: cameron.frew@dexerto.com.
