Secret Obsession. Peter Sullivan. 2019. ☆☆★★★★
Secret Obsession is a soulless lump of generic mush that aspires to the cheese level of a Lifetime original joint but doesn’t come anywhere close.
So this is a slasher flick? As has happened before with these Netflix movies, I’m not at all confident that this isn’t a parody of whatever it’s supposed to be: The movie (on a shot by shot basis) is so risibly inept that it’s difficult to tell. But if it’s a parody, the jokes don’t really land, and if it’s not, it’s… just bad.
I mean, even the hairdressing is awful.
OK, after watching a bit more, this is neither a slasher nor a parody. Instead it’s just a, well, made-for-TV movie, by a directory who’s churning them out by the buttload.
It’s one of those movies apparently made for people who’ve never seen a movie before. The plot is the standard “woman wakes up from amnesia and there’s a guy who says he’s her husband BUT IS HE REALLY THE KILLER (he’s totally the killer)” thing. The only way anybody could possibly feel intrigued by the plot is if they’ve never seen a movie before, which I guess a lot of people haven’t.
I’ve seen worse movies, but this leaves me wondering: Why is Netflix going down this route? Just filling up their coffers with low-budget movies nobody would want to see if they had a choice. Is this Netflix’ end game? Being able to say “yes, we have two hundred thrillers, so keep being subscribed!” when the movie companies withdraw all their movies from Netflix?
If so, I think that’s a bad plan. Two hundred thrillers that nobody wants to watch is two hundred thrillers nobody wants to watch. On the other hand, it’s difficult to see what else Netflix could do.
This post is part of the NFLX2019 blog series.