We’re not even halfway through 2021 yet, and it’s already shaping up to be a banner year for sci-fi on Netflix, with both the film and television slate of originals looking to be in rude health.
Anthony Mackie’s Outside the Wire drew in 66 million viewers in four weeks, South Korean blockbuster Space Sweepers reached the Top 10 list in over 80 countries worldwide, recent debutant Stowaway claimed the top spot on the most-watched rankings, and Chris Hemsworth’s Escape from Spiderhead and the live-action Cowboy Bebop series will both arrive before the end of the year.
The latest sci-fi original to hit the platform’s library is Alexandre Aja’s Oxygen, which is now streaming and also has shades of a horror thriller to it. After all, the filmmaker’s name will be familiar to fans of the genre given that he broke out almost two decades ago with controversial slasher High Tension before going on to helm The Hills Have Eyes remake, Piranha 3D, Daniel Radcliffe’s Horns and severely underrated creature feature Crawl.
Oxygen marks his first French-language effort since 2003, and stars Inglourious Basterds’ Melanie Laurent as a woman who wakes up trapped in a cryogenic pod with no idea how she got there, and tries to piece her memory back together and figure out a method to escape as her air supply begins running dangerously low. Aja has already touted the film as a cross between Danny Boyle’s modern zombie classic 28 Days Later and Ryan Reynolds’ claustrophobic thriller Buried, which means that it might be too intense for some subscribers, but will no doubt please those who love a good scare.
It’s also virtually guaranteed to post a strong showing throughout the rest of the week, as Netflix’s lineup of originals always tend to play very well during their first couple of days, and Oxygen could even hold steady if the word of mouth buzz is strong enough.