How far would you go to save your child—and what would you sacrifice along the way?
That’s the unsettling question behind Animals, Ben Affleck’s new Netflix thriller arriving October 9.
Affleck stars as Mark Kimball, a polished Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose picture-perfect life takes a terrifying turn when his son, Denny, is kidnapped. Suddenly, the campaign, the family and the carefully maintained public image all take a back seat to one thing: getting their son home.
Kerry Washington plays Mark’s wife, Abigail, and the couple quickly discovers that a kidnapping isn’t the only thing threatening to tear their family apart.
Enter Dayle, a mysterious fixer played by Emmy winner Gillian Anderson, who delivers some brutal advice: if Mark and Abigail want to save their son, the secrets between them may have to come out.
And that’s where Animals gets interesting.
Rather than being just another ransom thriller, the movie appears to use the crisis to dig into marriage, trust and the choices people make when their carefully constructed lives start falling apart.
Affleck directs and co-wrote the film, which also features Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez.
The Takeaway
If you like thrillers where the danger isn’t just outside the house, Animals looks like one to add to your Netflix queue. The kidnapping may be the crisis, but the real mystery could be how much Mark and Abigail actually know about each other.
** Animals premieres October 9 on Netflix.**
