The Killer

2024 marks ten years since David Fincher's last true film that best displays his style, Gone Girl, which was a dark and thrilling twisted tale of a relationship gone very wrong. However, just before 2023 came to an end in the final few months, Fincher released on Netflix a new thriller about contract killer appropriately called, The Killer. Three years after his lacklustre first film with the streaming service, Mank, I really hoped we would get to see more of what makes him one of the best in the industry or would the red N be pulling the wrong strings and see this thrown onto the heap of other shoddy Netflix originals? 

Adapted from a French comic of the same name, the story follows a contract killer who organises every aspect of his work down the desired heartbeat at which he pulls the trigger on his mark. Yet on one mission in Paris, he misses his target and hopes to make for a clean getaway but is unaware of the severe consequences that are about to unfold.

Reuniting with his Mank cinematographer, Erik Messerschmidt, The Killer is a suitably slick return to Fincher's darker films with which he made his name. The story runs at just under two hours and the result is a simply told yet perfectly executed thriller from start to finish, which benefits from an excellent lead performance from Michael Fassbender, returning to acting after a hiatus racing cars. Much of the first twenty minutes is spent with him preparing for a job and the film pulls you in effortlessly.

Streaming films do run the risk of being paused for a day or two but not here; The Killer had me hooked and I enjoyed it all within one sitting. It is a shame that the likes of Fincher's films would quite likely release on streaming services if released today but I didn't find too much was lost in my experience here. It still looks and sounds great, and is easily a film I can recommend. Fincher is tied to making more films on Netflix and I hope we don't have to wait too long for another like The Killer.