Netflix's number one film Don't Say a Word is giving viewers 'chills'

A 22-year-old movie has somehow ended up taking top spot for the current most popular film on Netflix and people are equal parts confused and thrilled.

Don't Say a Word is a 2001 flick starring Michael Douglas as psychiatrist Dr Nathan Conrad, who is invited to examine patient Elisabeth Burrows (Brittany Murphy) and is told she's only pretending to be insane to hide from a gang.

Speaking of the devil, the movie's villain is recently released criminal Patrick Koster (Sean Bean), who kidnaps Nathan's daughter to force him to get Elisabeth to reveal an important clue.

The action goes from there as Nathan tries to save his family from Patrick and figure out what's so important about this clue Elisabeth has buried somewhere in her brain.

MARKA / Alamy Stock Photo

When the movie first came out it didn't receive very good reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes indicating that only 24% of critics and 49% of the audience liked it, but that's not stopped it from becoming incredibly popular on Netflix.

This is the thing with Netflix, it can give old movies a new home and allow them to have a second chance with a new audience, and plenty are liking what they're seeing with Don't Say a Word.

Newer viewers tuning in have said the movie is giving them 'chills', and one person said 'Don't Say a Word on Netflix is fire', while another exclaimed 'what a film'.

Another person revisiting the movie said it was 'badass back in the day' and admitted it 'scared the living s**t out of me', and someone else said they 'miss these kinds of movies now'.

More comments praised Don't Say a Word as being 'very good, so intense and quite a few sad scenes', and declared it a 'must see'.

Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

Others were pretty confused how 'a 20-odd year old Michael Douglas thriller is suddenly number 1 film on Netflix' and whether this was a sign that 'we're truly lost', and to that we can do nothing but shrug and ponder the mysteries of the Netflix audience.

While we haven't seen the movie and wouldn't want to spoil anything for you, the fact that Sean Bean is playing the villain is probably a sign that he gets killed at some point.

The actor has quite the habit of not living through his movies so if you haven't worked your way through to Don't Say a Word yet it's probably worth heading into without high hopes of Bean still being alive when the end credits are rolling.

Topics: Netflix, TV And Film

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker