Stephen King has delivered his verdict on Netflix’s hit thriller Rebel Ridge as it storms the global charts with 16,700,000 views this week.
The action thriller from Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier follows ex-marine Terry Richmond’s (Aaron Pierre) fight against small-town police corruption in the fictional place called Shelby Springs.
He encounters violent prejudice, endless roadblocks and a wider conspiracy as he attempts to post bail for his cousin and save him from imminent danger.
The pulse-racing movie debuted on the streaming platform to glowing critical reception and has been adored by fans in equal measure.
The film has scored a sweet 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and is now the second-most-watched film overall – just trailing behind Joey King’s Uglies.
And one famous fan has made their views perfectly clear after bestselling author Stephen King took to X to share his excitement about the movie.
‘Rebel Ridge: If this is a Netflix original, it’s one of the best. A thinking man’s Rambo. No diss to David Morrell,’ he wrote.
He echoed the rest of social media with his praise.
‘Rebel Ridge was generational tbh. Amazing action sequences and killer suspense,’ @dotbwoy wrote.
‘Rebel Ridge is truly fantastic. I was really loving the long takes with the tension ramping. Well done and kudos to the team,’ @nicknicotera added.
‘And thank you for letting the dialogue breathe a bit in post, it was so refreshing to absorb the characters that way and see some humanity.’
As for the film critics, the New Yorker praised the film as a ‘police drama with a difference’.
‘The film’s hectically choreographed violence has less power than the characters’ subtle yet precise glances of recognition or hostility or complicity. The movie’s physicality, at its most vital, is infinitesimal,’ the review continued.
Slate critic Jack Hamilton wrote: ‘Rebel Ridge is that rarest of things, an auteurist action thriller with brains and heart and guts, an electrifying and crowd-pleasing work of cinema, pulp art of the highest level.’
Little White Lies called it ‘sharp and memorable’ while Empire said it was an ‘undeniably fun night in’.
In an interview with TheWrap the filmmaker admitted that Star Wars star John Boyega was initially in the lead role before he had to drop out for ‘family reasons’.
‘We zigged and we zagged on this film. But when we found Aaron Pierre, there was just this undeniable synergy of, like, holy s**t,’ Jeremy explained.
In an interview with the New York Times, Lion King prequel star Aaron also opened up about his enthusiasm to land the role,
‘I have a list of three things that are really important to me when I engage in a project. That is the filmmaker, it’s the script, and it’s the character. All three of those were undeniable,’ he told the publication.
The 30-year-old actor also gave an insight into how he prepared for the more physical aspects of the action role.
‘He really creates an environment in which the artist that he’s collaborating with feels safe and they can also thrive.
‘So he and the stunt team set up this enormous D.I.Y. gym. We had wrestling mats, we had boxing bags, we had boxing gloves, we had kneepads for when we were wrestling. It was phenomenal.
‘I trained hard. I wrestled, I boxed, I sparred. I did all of these things just to get as close to the best version of myself that I could.’