“Joker: Folie a Deux” may have just proven that even big-budget movies won’t always top the box office when they have terrible reviews and little love from fans, but apparently the streaming world is still operating on a different level. For nearly three weeks now, the Shailene Woodley and Joseph Gordon-Levitt led film “Killer Heat” has been topping the Amazon Prime movies chart (per FlixPatrol), despite earning an abysmal 15% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes.
It may just be a sparse season for new releases on Prime Video, but given that one of the year’s best films, Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis drama “Challengers,” is currently at number six on the most-streamed Prime Video films list, something about “Killer Heat” is clearly appealing to subscribers. The movie, which bypassed theaters and was released directly to Prime, tops a list that as of publication time also includes several kids’ films (go-to favorites for at-home viewing, according to all available data), including John Krasinski’s 2024 release “IF,” spooky season crowd-pleaser “Casper,” and even “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” The second and third spots on the list are occupied by decidedly adults-only films, the first two installments in Damien Leone’s “Terrifier” franchise. Given the continued hype for the most recent gorefest in that series, it makes sense that Art the Clown would hold a spot high up on the list. And yet, even he can’t defeat Philippe Lacôte’s “Killer Heat.”
The Jo Nesbø adaptation has viewers to spare, but few good reviews
In case you missed the marketing campaign for “Killer Heat,” here’s what you should know: Gordon-Levitt plays Nick Bali, a detective hired by a woman named Penelope (Woodley) whose husband’s twin brother allegedly died in a climbing accident on the idyllic Greek island they call home. Despite the sunshine and beach shores, the island has a seedy side, exemplified by the police who Penelope tells Nick are controlled by her rich husband’s family, hence her hiring of a P.I. to get to the bottom of the crime she believes took place. The film’s trailer makes a big deal of jealousy as a motive for the crime, teases a relationship between Nick and Penelope, and features an appearance from “Game of Thrones” alum Richard Madden as the doomed twin and the still-living one.
All of this sounds promising, but “Killer Heat” has been pretty horrendously received by viewers and critics alike. Depressingly, just over one fourth of the viewers who rated the film on Rotten Tomatoes said it was worth watching, while an even smaller fraction of critics gave it their seal of approval. The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee called the movie “a dull and predictable sunshine noir that wastes the time of those involved as well as ours” in his one-star review, while The New York Times’ Brandon Yu writes that “the twists and pedestrian dramatics are a stiff slog to get to, and Gordon-Levitt’s once innate charisma has vanished altogether here.”
So why are people still watching “Killer Heat”? It may have something to do with the film’s stars, who have both been great in the past — albeit not as consistently of late — but it’s just as likely that Prime subscribers are giving the film a try thanks to its popular source material. The movie pulls its plot from the short story “The Jealousy Man,” penned by ubiquitous Norwegian crime author Jo Nesbø. To date, adaptations of Nesbø’s work seem to never quite match up to the source material (lest we forget about “The Snowman,” which gave us all the clues), but plenty of his readers are still clearly tuning in to see if maybe the latest one will be the best of the bunch. “Killer Heat” doesn’t seem to be, but it is getting eyes on it, which is more than plenty of theatrical releases can say these days.
“Killer Heat” is currently available only on Amazon Prime Video.
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