Michael Fassbender's Notoriously Awful The Snowman Proves Netflix Users Will Watch Anything
An odd by-product of the streaming revolution is the way in which these platforms churn up previously overlooked films and give them a second life. Most of the time it's probably because viewers mistake a new addition to the library for an entirely new movie, especially since the film most likely didn't make all that big an impact when it was first released.
Often, this can be a good thing. A great thing, in fact. Sometimes streaming platforms can introduce a whole new generation to certified classics, such as when "Heat" started climbing the Netflix charts and a million "Dark Knight" fans spontaneously combusted. Unfortunately, such success stories aren't indicative of the general trend, as you'll soon see when I start laying into "The Snowman."
This 2017 Michael Fassbender-led thriller didn't have to be the flop it became (just look at that RT score). But for some reason, the adaptation of Jo Nesbø's novel took the unique approach of identifying everything cool about the book and discarding it in favor of making a devastatingly forgettable crime thriller. Which is why it was somewhat surprising to see its withered remains exhumed from beneath the glacier of time and propped up at the top of the Netflix charts back in April. Yes, Netflix viewers were either apparently completely unaware of this film and decided to give it a go, or will literally watch anything if it pops up in the "Recently Added" category.
Missing pieces
"The Snowman" follows inspector Harry Hole as he tracks a serial killer with a penchant for leaving snowmen at crime scenes. And I can vividly recall seeing the trailer for this movie and immediately buying the book, which is a decent read if you're wondering. The film, however, is not very good. Mostly because so many of the interesting and important elements of the original story are missing from the on-screen version, which also diverges from the source material in major and bewildering ways.
Following the film's release, we got an insight into why all this came to be when director Tomas Alfredson claimed 15% of the script wasn't even filmed. He went on to tell the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation how he had little time to prepare for filming and explained:
"We had a far too short a recording period in Norway. We didn't get the whole story, and when we started cutting, we discovered that there was a lot missing. It's like when you put together a big puzzle, and then there are missing pieces that mean you don't see the whole picture."
"The Snowman" made $43 million at the global box office, which technically means it made back its budget $35 million budget, but seeing as studios only get around half the gross from theaters that's a flop by any measure. Especially if you consider the movie was projected to make $10 on its opening weekend and ended up bringing in just $3.2 million. That and the abject 6% RT score should give you some idea of how big a disappointment this film was. So why were Netflix users watching it back in April?
Returning to the scene
Following its disastrous debut, "The Snowman"' reemerged in April 2023 — dredged up by Netflix and presented to its users as a new delectable piece of "content" to consume. And like the discerning consumers we are, we lapped it up, causing "The Snowman" to hit number six on the Netflix global top 10, and number one in the US. I'm not entirely sure how long you have to watch a movie for it to trigger Netflix's Top 10 algorithm, but it's likely somewhere around 70%. Which means "The Snowman" didn't find its way into the charts because people watched a few minutes and then turned it off.
That's a troubling development as it suggests we're just kind of passively consuming whatever the streaming overlords present. Or, perhaps it suggests "The Snowman" is better than we gave it credit for? No, it's the first thing.
The Netflix effect, as I've just dubbed it, whereby overlooked and forgotten films get a second life on streaming platforms, can be a real force for good, highlighting movies that either deserve a revisit or need a little more publicity than they were initially afforded. But in this case, like some obsessed serial killer, Netflix returned to the scene of a crime so egregious it deserves to remain lost amid the case files of film history. You know what the top movie on Netflix was for the week of Jun 5 to June 11, 2023? "Prisoners," which with a brilliant ending worth sticking around for, is a crime thriller actually worth your time.