Denzel Washington's Thriller With A Premise Out Of A Horror Novel Is Streaming On Netflix

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There is nothing Denzel Washington cannot do. It's easy to make the argument that Denzel Washington is one of the best actors ever. He's an Oscar winner who has been at the top of his game for decades, working in just about every genre under the sun. In all of his decades as an actor, though, he hasn't dabbled in horror too much. But in 1998, he made "Fallen," a movie with a premise that feels like it was ripped right from the pages of a horror novel and brought to life on screen.

Streaming now on Netflix, "Fallen" was directed by Gregory Hoblit ("Primal Fear") with a script by Nicholas Kazan ("Reversal of Fortune"). The movie centers on a pair of Chicago detectives who apprehend a serial killer, but after the killer is convicted and executed, a new series of murders mirroring the late killer's specific style begin to pop up. This seems to implicate one of the detectives. Without getting too heavy into spoiler territory, but we come to find out a literal body-hopping demon is behind the bloodshed.

Washington plays Detective John Hobbes, while the great John Goodman ("The Big Lebowski") stars as Detective "Jonesy" Jones.

"Fallen" is Washington's only horror movie, and it flopped at the time of its release. Against a reported budget of $46 million, it made just $25 million at the box office. Fortunately, though, this was at a time when home video offered a much larger second life to most movies, long before Blockbuster went bankrupt at the dawn of the streaming revolution. As a result, this movie has gone on to enjoy a nice second life, earning a deserved re-evaluation in recent years.

Despite earning awful reviews, "Fallen" is a '90s horror movie that's worth watching. But critics weren't quite as ready to embrace horror fare at that time, with only the rarest of rare genre titles like "The Silence of the Lambs" earning mass praise. For genre fans with an active Netflix subscription, now is as good a time as any to give "Fallen" a go for the first time, or perhaps revisit it if it's been a while.

"I don't get to read a lot of screenplays in this genre, I guess that's a credit to my agents who send the bad ones away," Washington said in a 1998 interview with John C. Tibbetts. That says a lot about how horror was viewed at the time, broadly speaking. Horror still probably doesn't get the respect it deserves, but at least we're now living in a world where Amy Madigan can win Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for her work in "Weapons," while Ryan Coogler can win Best Original Screenplay for "Sinners" at that same ceremony.

For that reason, this is a movie that probably slid under the radar for a lot of folks who will appreciate what it has to offer. The critical appraisal it received in its day isn't reflective of how many modern viewers will likely feel about it. Denzel Washington brings his A-game, as does John Goodman — not to mention the stellar supporting cast that includes the likes of Donald Sutherland ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos"), and Embeth Davidtz ("Schindler's List").

There's a lot to like about this movie. It's a true blue hidden gem from the late '90s. You can also grab "Fallen" on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.