David Fincher’s New Movie Continues His Remarkable 28-Year Rotten Tomatoes Run

David Fincher’s latest movie The Killer continues his impressive streak of Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh ratings. As just the third feature film directed by Fincher over the past decade, The Killer marks the acclaimed director’s highly-anticipated return to the big screen after 2020’s Mank received a limited theatrical release in November of that year. Before The Killer and Mank, Fincher’s last directorial effort was the celebrated film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s captivating novel Gone Girl (2014). During the 2010s, Fincher also spearheaded two renowned series for Netflix, House of Cards (2013 – 2018) and Mindhunter (2017 – 2019).

A positive critical score for The Killer is outstanding news for longtime fans of the groundbreaking director, who made a significant impact in the world of independent cinema in the 1990s and 2000s. Some of Fincher’s most magnificent films during that time include Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999), and Zodiac (2007). Fincher continued to break new ground with the 2008 epic The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and 2010’s generation-defining The Social Network, which both earned him his first two Oscar nominations for Best Director. The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender as a methodical assassin, appears to be another iconic and masterful work by Fincher, as proven by the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score.

The Killer Continues The Fresh Rotten Tomatoes Streak That Se7En Started

With a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 87% at the time of writing, The Killer is already expected to be one of Fincher’s greatest directorial achievements. The rating is consistent with the 83%, 88%, and 86% of Fincher’s three films before it, Mank, Gone Girl, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011), respectively. Despite the popularity of his now-classics of the 1990s and 2000s, Fincher’s golden stretch of critical acclaim ignited after the overwhelming success of The Social Network, which marks the director’s highest Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 96%.

All of Fincher’s directorial efforts have earned the rank of Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes except for one. The impressive streak has spanned nearly three decades, beginning with the massive success of Se7en which earned nearly $330 million at the worldwide box office on a $30 million budget. The lowest-rated film of his that’s still considered Certified Fresh is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with a Tomatometer score of 71%, which also happened to be Fincher’s second highest-grossing movie of all time. Fincher’s other lowest-rated Certified Fresh movies include 2002’s Panic Room (76%) and 1997’s The Game (77%).

Why Alien 3 Is David Fincher’s Only Rotten Movie On Rotten Tomatoes

Alien 3 is the only film directed by Fincher that is considered Rotten on RT. It was also his first feature film, which should cut the director some slack, especially considering the magnitude of the movie that he decided to take on as his directorial debut. The success of the original Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, and Alien 2, directed by James Cameron, was incredibly difficult to follow up, making Fincher’s desire to join the ranks of two living Hollywood legends at the age of 27 ambitious to say the least. Ironically, Alien 3 lacked the intense thrills of the other films, which Fincher must have taken to heart considering his broad filmography of elite thrillers over the past three decades, including 2023’s The Killer.