Henry Cavill's 2018 Action Thriller Flop Gets A Second Life As A Streaming Hit

If you're traversing the streaming landscape and aren't interested in stirring documentaries that feature 3D animation or a Ben Stiller-directed true crime miniseries, there's always a heap of forgotten action/crime thrillers. Netflix in particular has made a whole industry out of churning up old action movies and throwing them in the "Recently Added" category as if they're new films, only for audiences worldwide to stream themselves silly having seemingly forgotten these movies ever came out in the first place.

Now, we have a forgotten Henry Cavill action thriller flop that's causing a stir on streaming. "Night Hunter" is a 2018 effort from British-born director David Raymond, starring Cavill, Ben Kingsley, Alexandra Daddario, and Stanley Tucci. The film revolves around a serial killer who, despite being captured at the offset, continues to kill from custody as Cavill and Daddario's detective/psychologist duo try to figure out what in the name of direct-to-DVD movies is going on.

The trailer for "Night Hunter" looked somewhat promising, with Cavill and Daddario in full-on "True Detective" mode amid a film that gives off a distinct Scandi-noir tone. Unfortunately, critics weren't impressed with the final result. "Night Hunter" currently bears a wretched 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and made just $919,000 in its modest theatrical run. Is the film really that bad? Well, I'm sure I've seen "Night Hunter," based on the fact that watching the trailer stirred some seemingly repressed memories. But I don't remember watching "Night Hunter" at all, so take that for what it's worth.

Meanwhile, Cavill's under-the-radar thriller is finding new life on streaming, where a whole new audience will have the surreal experience of "Night Hunter" entering, and immediately exiting, their consciousness.

According to streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, "Night Hunter" is having something of a worldwide renaissance on streaming. The film is a global hit on Paramount+, where it has been at number one in 18 countries for more than a week. Granted, all of those countries are South American, suggesting that this is less a global resurgence and more a localized one, but it's not insignificant that "Night Hunter" has been at number one for more than a week in all 18 countries, from Argentina to Venezuela.

What's more, FlixPatrol reveals that the Czechs have been streaming Henry Cavill's 2018 misstep in earnest on something called Voyo, on which the film has also occupied the number one spot for a full seven days. In that sense, "Night Hunter" is, I suppose, seeing renewed popularity worldwide.

For anyone in the United States that might have a morbid curiosity about "Night Hunter," the film did hit Prime Video on October 1, 2024, and is available to stream at the time of writing. Though, you may want to rethink that idea when considering that Times reviewed the film and determined it's "defined by a constipated performance from Cavill and a debut screenplay from the film director David Raymond that's so titter-inducing and derivative that it appears to have come straight from the Spike Jonze satire 'Adaptation.'"