'Fatal Affair': Viewers tired of 'overused' script on obsession but find Omar Epps scary good as stalker
Spoilers for 'Fatal Affair'
Peter Sullivan’s directorial debut of a script he co-wrote with Rasheeda Garner, ‘Fatal Affair’, is out on Netflix and it has seen some adverse reactions. The psychological thriller features Nia Long, Stephen Bishop, and Omar Epps, and tells a clichéd fatal-attraction story -- it’s worth noting that the film bears an overwhelming resemblance to the 1987 Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and Anne Archer-starrer ‘Fatal Attraction’.
It follows an unhappy couple of Ellie (Long) and Marcus (Bishop). After Marcus suffers an accident, the two no longer have the happy marriage they had for two decades. In her own words, Ellie feels she is “sleeping next to a stranger”. Despite the fact that their daughter has moved to college, and they have moved to a beach-front property away from the city, things are barely mending.
Things were going badly enough but went further south with the introduction of David (Epps). Ellie runs into David at work and the two, who haven’t met since college, catch up. Over drinks, things begin to get hot and heavy. But Ellie realizes her error in judgment and backs away.
That’s sadly not the end of it. David, obviously, does not want to give up on Ellie. He keeps texting and calling. He keeps showing up. And once thoroughly made clear that she doesn’t want anything to do with him, David takes a different approach. He begins dating Ellie’s friend in order to get into her life.
The film ends with David getting absolutely violent, faking his own death, holding Ellie and her family captive, and ultimately, actually dying during a scuffle with Marcus. It’s as run-on-the-mill as it gets. But it is also entertaining in a way that cheesy thrillers like these always are. The predictable twists and turns make it more of an ironic watch than anything else. But a lot of people seemed to find the film plain bad.
A Twitter user asked, “Watching Fatal Affair. Why are most Netflix movies a special type of terrible?” Another wrote, “Bro... this Fatal Affair movie on Netflix got me f***ed up lmao.”
One user wrote, “I am super upset with this Fatal Affair movie on Netflix. That particular script has been overused and needs to be discarded. I’ll rate it 2.5/10 because Nia Long is a beautiful woman but her acting sucks.” Yet another said, “Fatal Affair on Netflix was exactly what I thought it would be, a recycled script with new faces.”
Some, however, found reasons other than the story to look at the film. One Twitter user said, “I don’t care for movies like this but Fatal Affair, on Netflix, Nia Long’s house needs to be on my vision board. The idea of jogging on the beach in the morning.”
And there were also those who could not help but watch the film (with excitement) despite being aware of what they were in for. A Twitter user wrote, “Me: Complaining how Netflix never gets tired of this ‘obsession’ storyline movies Same me at 12 am: Angry that Netflix is yet to upload ‘Fatal Affair’.”
Despite whatever anyone had to say about the film, people seemed to generally find Epps’ performance worthy of praise. With or without tropes, Epps’ character David was perfect as a creepy stalker, as an obsessive man. One fan of Epps wrote on Twitter, “I’ve been an @omarepps fan since Juice… and I have to honestly say he is giving me the creeps watching #FatalAffair which is a testament to what a wonderful actor he is.”
Another noted, “Omar Epps played crazy a little too good in this movie.”
‘Fatal Affair’ is available for viewing only on Netflix.
