Even the most diehard of Nicolas Cage fans would find it tough to keep track of all of his movies, as the once iconic actor’s descent into bargain basement territory has seen him feature in a whopping 37 films in the last seven years, the majority of which have been pretty terrible.
However, every once in a while Cage will deliver a performance that reminds us why the Academy Award winner is still so beloved and cited by many as an extremely talented individual when he wants to be. Unfortunately, though, these instances don’t occur often enough and as mentioned above, most of his work these days is pretty forgettable.
Perhaps one of his better performances from the later stage of his career though came in 2013’s The Frozen Ground, which is now on Netflix and surprisingly, dominating the platform. It currently sits as the 10th most-watched film in the US and given that it only debuted the other day on the streaming site, it’ll surely continue to climb up the charts. But what can explain its sudden popularity?
Before we look at that, let’s go over the plot for those who might be unfamiliar. The Frozen Ground brings us the story of the real-life hunt for a serial killer in Anchorage, Alaska in the early ’80s. Cage plays State Trooper Sergeant Halcombe, while John Cusack portrays the killer, Robert Hansen. It’s a chilling and enjoyable enough crime thriller, with a solid performance from Cage, but at the end of the day, it’s nothing special and follows the same beats as so many of its peers in the genre. So, why is there so much interest from Netflix subscribers?
Well, as usual when it comes to the platform’s Top 10 list, it’s often hard to say why any given movie starts surging in popularity. You could perhaps point to the fact that it just arrived on Netflix on August 27th, but there’s been a healthy amount of new releases lately on the streaming site and many of them fail to crack the charts.
Whatever the reason behind so many people flocking to The Frozen Ground, it at least shows that even despite some terrible career choices, there’s still a lot of love out there for Nicolas Cage.