There’s so much entertainment to choose from on Netflix that you’d be forgiven for being left all at sea. But sea is exactly what more than four million Netflix viewers have chosen this week, catapulting a shark attack thriller into the platform’s top 10, alongside some of the best Netflix movies.
Jaws undoubtedly holds the crown when it comes to the best shark movies – after all, it’s one of the best movies ever made – but there have been numerous pretenders to that title over the years. One of those is the 2022 thriller Shark Bait, which has caught the attention of subscribers to one of the best streaming services.
Between August 7 and August 13, 4.4 million people watched Shark Bait on Netflix, earning it eighth place in the top 10. The movie isn’t even available on the service in the USA, but got a spot on the global chart due to being in the top 10 across 20 different countries.
Shark Bait follows a group of young people who steal a pair of jetskis so they can race them out of sea. Their dangerous hijinks lead to a serious crash, which leaves them injured and in the water as sharks begin to circle.
It’s fair to say that film critics weren’t wowed by Shark Bait on its initial release, with the movie sat at just a 30% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Damningly, The Guardian wrote that “there is more charisma in the shark’s cold dead eye than in the entire cast”. Ouch.
But it’s worth checking out Shark Bait yourself if it’s on Netflix in your country. For our US readers, Shark Bait is on Tubi or Kanopy and, if you’re in the UK, it’s available to stream via Sky Cinema and NOW. So there are plenty of options.
Unsurprisingly, one of Netflix’s biggest new movies topped the chart for this week, with 33 million people watching Gal Gadot‘s spy adventure Heart of Stone.
If you can’t get enough of shark-based mayhem, find out about the Jaws scene so gory Steven Spielberg didn’t include it and learn how the best Jaws scene was written over the phone. Or for the most recent addition to the canon, read our Meg 2 review.
For more recommendations, find out about everything new on Netflix and look ahead to the likes of the Stranger Things season 5 release date and the Red Notice 2 release date.