‘Animals’ Faces a Rotten Tomatoes Reckoning as Critics Maul Ben Affleck’s Netflix Kidnapping Thriller

Ben Affleck has built a reputation as a director with a sharp eye for crime stories, and his latest project, ‘Animals’, arrives with serious expectations. The Netflix thriller is a high-profile return to the genre that made his name behind the camera. Critics, however, are not rolling out the red carpet.

The film opens today in select theaters and on Netflix, and the first wave of reviews has been rough, with scores moving as more critics weigh in.

At the moment, ‘Animals‘ holds a 44% Tomatometer score based on 25 reviews, firmly in rotten territory. The Popcornmeter has no score yet, with fewer than 50 ratings. The R-rated film runs 1 hour and 46 minutes and is classified as a mystery, thriller, crime and drama.

The number has crept up slightly from where it began. Earlier in the week, the film sat at 38% from just 16 reviews, which would have made it one of Affleck’s lowest-rated directorial efforts, ahead only of ‘Live by Night’ at 34%.

Those figures stand in sharp contrast to Affleck’s earlier work as a filmmaker. ‘Gone Baby Gone’ earned 94%, ‘The Town’ 92%, ‘Argo’ 96% and ‘Air’ 93%. Against that run, even a score in the 40s represents a notable fall.

It is the kind of comparison that makes the reaction sting. Audiences expected a return to form, and so far the critics have suggested otherwise.

The complaints are fairly consistent. The New York Times called it a flat political thriller, while The Daily Beast found it unoriginal and short on suspense, and the AV Club suggested it simply doesn’t work as a film. The Associated Press praised Affleck as a thoughtful filmmaker but described the story as underpowered and forced in its melodrama, giving it two out of four stars.

Vulture was harsher, calling it a catastrophe and criticizing the writing and underdeveloped characters. RogerEbert.com went further, calling it Affleck’s worst directing effort and arguing that its handling of political hypocrisy and immigration is unconvincing.

Not every review is negative. The Hollywood Reporter found the cast highly watchable and said the film works as background viewing on Netflix. The Financial Times gave it four stars, calling it a tightly constructed thriller and singling out Gillian Anderson, who plays a mysterious crisis fixer, as a highlight.

That split suggests the film may find more of an audience at home than the headlines imply. A strong ensemble can carry a flawed script, and viewers on Netflix are often more forgiving than critics.

Affleck stars as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped, with Kerry Washington playing his wife, Abigail. As the couple scramble to raise the ransom, they are drawn into a web of deception that threatens their lives. Steven Yeun, Anderson, Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez also star.

Affleck co-wrote the script with Billy Ray and Connor O. McIntyre, and it reworks Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime drama ‘High and Low’, relocating the story to Los Angeles during a mayoral race. The film is produced by Artists Equity, the company Affleck and Matt Damon co-founded, and Damon attended the Los Angeles premiere in support.

When their son is kidnapped, an LA mayoral candidate and his wife scramble to raise the ransom while making choices that could tear their world apart. Directed by and starring Ben Affleck, with Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez ANIMALS is in select theaters and on Netflix October 9

— Netflix (@netflix) September 15, 2026

The path to release was not smooth. Damon was originally attached to the lead role but became unavailable because of his work on Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’, and Affleck took the part himself. Reports say Affleck even halted the project about two weeks before filming after learning that Spike Lee was making a similar kidnapping film, ‘Highest 2 Lowest’.

He revived the idea a couple of months later, drawn to the idea of making a movie about Los Angeles, a city where he said he has now lived longer than in Boston. Looking back, the bumpy development adds a little context to the film’s uneven reception.

Rotten Tomatoes scores can shift quickly in the first days, and Netflix films often depend more on viewership than reviews. If the thriller climbs the streaming charts, the critical drubbing may matter less than it first appears.

Still, it is a bruising start for a director whose name used to guarantee prestige.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!