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The creature feature might be slowly swimming its way back into popularity. Netflix has released its mid-year What We Watched Report, and it has crowned Tommy Wirkola's Thrash as one of the most-watched films of 2026 so far.
The Jaws-inspired action thriller has allegedly garnered 100 million views from its April release to June, or 143.3 million hours. Given the negative reviews the shark movie received, reflected in the 45% Rotten Tomatoes score, this marks a surprising success for Thrash and Netflix.
Thrash Took Natural Disasters to a Whole New Level
Thrash takes place in a quiet coastal town right as a Category 5 hurricane slams through it. While its residents aren't surprised by its arrival, it is nonetheless devastating and traumatizing for pregnant Lisa (Phoebe Dynevor), agoraphobic Dakota (Whitney Peak), along with her marine biologist uncle Dale (Djimon Hounsou), and a trio of neglected foster siblings (Stacy Clausen, Alyla Browne, Dante Ubaldi).
However, what makes a terrible situation worse is the arrival of sharks in the flooded town through the destroyed seawall. While the sharks could be docile on their own, they become motivated to kill thanks to the streets being conveniently flooded with animal blood, and soon, human blood.
Thrash Was Successful, But Could Have Done a Lot More
While Thrash was an overall success for Netflix in terms of viewership, its reviews remained tepid. Even the more positive reviews were mixed at best, calling it unambitious, garbage, and other negative terms, but in a somehow endearing way. The common thread in many of the reviews, whether positive or negative, was that Thrash does the bare minimum for the concept it laid out, keeping with Netflix's reputation for mediocre original thrillers. But what really seemed to doom Thrash from a critical standpoint was that it somehow played the concept of "hurricane bringing in a bunch of sharks to a town" too safe.
Regardless of what the critics think, Netflix subscribers obviously think differently, or else Thrash would have been dead in the water. However, as the What We Watched report has shown, that is obviously not the case, and perhaps the movie's cliffhanger could lead to a sequel that truly reaches its true potential.
Thrash is streaming now on Netflix.
