A Big Horror Director Wrote A Madame Web Letterboxd Review - And Didn't Hold Back
Most people have accepted that Sony's latest Spider-Man adjacent project, "Madame Web," is a bad movie. One high-profile horror director had a pretty fun take on the whole issue.
On Letterboxd, writer-director Mike Flanagan weighed in on Dakota Johnson's latest project and didn't mince words ... not even in his hashtags. Rather than a traditional review, the filmmaker quotes Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman's infamous AMC ad, which is an ode to the magic of moviegoing. "We come to this place ... for magic," Flanagan's review reads, even capturing the cadence of Kidman's promo. "We come to the theater to laugh, to cry, to care." From there, he writes the entire script verbatim, complete with pauses indicated by ellipses. ("Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this" feels especially apt in the case of "Madame Web.")
So, what about those hashtags? Flanagan goes wild in this section, including ones like "exposition to cats," "murder visions," "fireworks because," "don't say [P]eter [P]arker," "wait why is she blind," and "terrible nurses"; one would have to see the movie to understand these. The director also hones in on something many audience members pointed out — the movie's automated dialogue replacement, or ADR, is extremely noticeable, adding hashtags "[ADR]," "dubbing," "no really," and "the [ADR]."
Mike Flanagan is a modern horror master — and apparently, a hilarious Letterboxd user
Mike Flanagan fans noticed the post and left comments praising the filmmaker's incredible review. User Zachary Gerrity noted, "Man I gotta check tags more often lmao," while Katie297 simply agreed with Flanagan: "This is so real." Sigma Lynchian Succession Kinophile was especially effusive, writing, "Amazing, I loved every word, Mike. I just webbed all over the future."
If you need a refresher, Flanagan is much more than a clever Letterboxd reviewer — he's one of the most in-demand horror directors working today. After starting with acclaimed projects like "Oculus," "Hush," and "Ouija: Origin of Evil," he took on his first high-profile horror adaptation with "Gerald's Game." Released on Netflix in 2019, it was praised by original author Stephen King for being accurately horrifying. His takes on horror classics "The Haunting of Hill House," "The Haunting of Bly Manor," and "The Fall of the House of Usher" are beloved by fans and critics. He also found time to work on another King adaptation in 2019's sequel to "The Shining," "Doctor Sleep." As of this writing, Flanagan is crafting an adaptation of King's novella "The Life of Chuck," with Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill set to star.
Madame Web is pretty unpopular ... proving Mike Flanagan isn't alone
Mike Flanagan's excellent Letterboxd review aside, responses to "Madame Web" are bleak. When the review embargo lifted, critics' harsh critiques poured in on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie stands at a 13% rating as of press time; as a sample, one top review from David Sims at The Atlantic reads, "I almost admire the sheer lack of effort on display in the acting, storytelling, and set pieces. To say that [Dakota] Johnson in particular phoned this performance in would be an insult to Alexander Graham Bell."
Beyond its poor critical reception, "Madame Web" bombed at the box office to boot, marking it as one of 2024's biggest failures (despite releasing in mid-February). Between the obvious ADR issues, the underwhelming performances, the movie's awful script, and a myriad of other problems, it's relatively easy to see why the film flopped so spectacularly in every possible way. At least we still have jokes like Flanagan's review on Letterboxd ... as well as star Dakota Johnson's bonkers press tour.