killer book club movie review

Is Killer Book Club worth watching? (here’s what critics are saying)

By mads lennon | aug 28, 2023.

With Halloween creeping up on us, now is the time to start creating your watchlist and checking out some of your favorite scary movies, or maybe trying some new ones! Netflix recently released a new Spanish original film called Killer Book Club (or El Club de Los Lectores Criminales ) following a group of university students who meet once a week to discuss their favorite horror books.

Killer Book Club is a slasher movie following in the footsteps of many other beloved films in the genre. In the movie, the group of students engages in a prank that ends in a horrific accident, and though they vow to never speak of it to anyone, that doesn’t stop them from getting picked off one by one by a murderous stalker who threatens to reveal everything to the world in a new horror novel based on them.

There’s a lot of content out there these days, so it’s hard to tell when something is worth your time or not. Is Killer Book Club worth watching? Or can you skip this one for now? Here’s what you need to know!

Killer Book Club reviews

Neither critics nor audiences seem to care much for Netflix’s latest slasher film. On Rotten Tomatoes , the movie didn’t even generate enough critical attention to warrant an official approval score, but three of the four reviews currently available are rotten.

Audiences also gave the movie unfavorable ratings. Though there are less than 50 available at the time of writing this article, it still only came out to a rotten 32% score.

On Letterboxd , Killer Book Club is pulling in an average of 2.2 stars out of 5, and the most popular reviews on the site currently skew toward the negative. The consensus among reviewers and audiences alike seems to be that Killer Book Club is painfully cliché and unoriginal.

Collider and several Letterboxd reviewers note that the movie feels like a cheap rip-off of superior horror films like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream , with a splash of Gossip Girl thrown into the mix.

IMDb user ratings are also skewing negative, with the majority of reviewers giving the movie a 5 out of 10 and the average rating (based on 1.1k ratings) is currently 4.7 out of 10. The IMDb user reviews echo similar sentiments to Letterboxd, with many users calling the film a Spanish knock-off of Scream .

Is Killer Book Club worth watching?

Based on the reviews, I don’t recommend watching Killer Book Club on Netflix. It sounds like the movie ended up being a dud. That said, if you’re just in the mood for a new slasher movie you haven’t seen before, this might be worth trying. There have certainly been worse-reviewed horror movies out there, and not all the reviews for this movie are negative.

Ready Steady Cut ‘s reviewer Amanda Guarragi calls the movie “a fun slasher and a good time.” Some viewers also said that while it’s not necessarily original, they went into it with low expectations and managed to enjoy themselves. The cast is full of pretty people, and there are some gory kills, so if that sounds like something you’d like then give it a chance!

Next. Best horror movies on Netflix. dark

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Killer Book Club

Eight horror-loving friends fight for their lives when a killer clown who seems to know the grim secret they share begins to pick them off, one by one. Eight horror-loving friends fight for their lives when a killer clown who seems to know the grim secret they share begins to pick them off, one by one. Eight horror-loving friends fight for their lives when a killer clown who seems to know the grim secret they share begins to pick them off, one by one.

• Carlos Alonso Ojea
• Carlos García Miranda
• Veki Velilla
• Priscilla Delgado
• 56 User reviews
• 44 Critic reviews

• Book Vendor

• Book Fair Security Guard
• Virginia's Roommate
• New University Professor

• Literature Professor
• Student in Library

• Girl in Cafeteria
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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 29 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Killer book club, common sense media reviewers.

Cliched horror tale has graphic violence, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Spanish movie with mostly Spanish cast.

While there's the expected horror movie violence t

Two characters shown having sex in one scene -- br

Strong language throughout. "F--k" often used. "Mo

Cocaine use in a nightclub. Professor drinks befor

Parents need to know that Killer Book Club is a 2023 Spanish horror movie in which a novelist in college with her seven friends is pursued by a Killer Clown with a pickaxe. While there's plenty of the expected horror movie violence, including characters impaled through the head, mouth, and chest, as well as…

Diverse Representations

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Violence & Scariness

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Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Cocaine use in a nightclub. Professor drinks before an attempted rape of a student. Drinking in a bar. Two lead characters drink wine in a scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Killer Book Club is a 2023 Spanish horror movie in which a novelist in college with her seven friends is pursued by a Killer Clown with a pickaxe. While there's plenty of the expected horror movie violence, including characters impaled through the head, mouth, and chest, as well as pickaxes through the chest and throat, there's also a scene involving a college professor attempting to sexually assault one of his students in his office. He makes aggressive moves toward her, throws her against the wall, and makes suggestive comments. A girl sets her mother on fire. Cocaine use in a nightclub. Drinking in a bar; two of the lead characters drink wine. Strong language throughout, including "f--k" and "motherf--ker." Two characters are shown having sex in one scene -- brief nudity (male buttocks). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : August 25, 2023
• Cast : Veki Velilla , Álvaro Mel , Priscilla Delgado
• Director : Carlos Alonso Ojea
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Run time : 89 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : September 13, 2023

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Killer Book Club Reviews

'Killer Book Club' elects to be more of a carbon copy of things flipped before in every way possible for years.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2023

There is talent in Killer Book Club, but it's completely unfocused and scattered, more concerned with diluting the plagiarism of Scream than in doing something truly original. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 7, 2023

It's by the numbers and there's nothing special about it.

Full Review | Sep 7, 2023

Just another shallow Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer wannabe that struggles to maintain its own establishing rules, no better nor worse than middle-of-the-pack anonymity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 4, 2023

This kind of thing has been done often enough since Scream emerged from the hyper-self-aware 1990s, so it's unclear why this movie was made.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 1, 2023

KILLER BOOK CLUB does little to encourage its audience to flip over to the next page.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Aug 30, 2023

These characters are too generic to even be familiar types, and don’t even give the actors any cliches to lean into. They’re just tools of the plot, which needs to be exceptional in order to transcend those flaws – and it’s far from exceptional.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2023

Despite its efforts to mix homage and originality, Killer Book Club... cannot escape the legacy of the clichés it tries to honor. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Aug 28, 2023

It’s safe to label “Killer Book Club” what it is — a Spanish “Scream” without the laughs...but...there isn’t much here to hold the interest of anybody who’s ever seen a horror movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 27, 2023

Killer Book Club is a fun slasher and a good time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2023

Killer Book Club isn’t a really good movie, and it’s not really a bad movie. It exists somewhere in between because it’s taking notes from a classic like Scream.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 25, 2023

For all the classic horror stories it gestures at, Killer Book Club never is able to tell a memorable one of its own. No matter how many empty escalations and confrontations with the killer it makes its way through, the real clown show is the film itself.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Aug 25, 2023

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Killer Book Club’ on Netflix, an Instantly Forgettable Spanish Slasher

Where to stream:.

• Killer Book Club

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Demi moore goes full frontal for cannes hit ‘the substance’ at age 61: “it was a very vulnerable experience”, stream it or skip it: ‘birth/rebirth’ on hulu, a frankensteiny horror-thriller rooted in feminine dread, stream it or skip it: ‘monster’ on netflix, a dialogue-free indonesian horror-thriller.

Spain churns out Netflix horror movies almost indiscriminately, and the newest slapdash offender is Killer Book Club , a wannabe-cagey self-aware slasher that tries to do something a little different within the pick-’em-off-one-by-one subgenre. There’s certainly room to do new and fresh things within those boundaries, but you’d better be skilled and you’d better be smart and you’d better be sharp with your knowledge of the art of scares and laughs – and this movie, I’m afraid, is none of these things. It is, however, as rote as they come, and here’s why.  

KILLER BOOK CLUB : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We open with a terrifying scene in which a girl splashes her mother with gasoline and lights a match: FWOOMP. Seems fatal! SIX YEARS LATER, a completely different scene: college kids watching creepy-clown prank videos on the internet. Eight of those kids comprise the local university book club, which gathers in a basement that’s perfect for the type of heavily stylized lighting you only see in horror movies, you know, the type of with pockets of dimness and shards of color to maximize the artificial ATMOSPHERE that tells us the director has a decent eye for aesthetics, one that goes beyond the usual grim blerrghh of so many slasher flicks. 

Anyway, those eight kids are as follows, and for concision’s sake, I’ll include the nicknames given to them by the movie’s clown-masked killer: Angela, the Heroine (Veki Velilla); Nando, the Emo (Ivan Pellicer); Rai, the Wild Man (Carlos Alcaide); Sara, the Babe (Ane Rot), Koldo, the Influencer (Hamza Zaidi); Eva, the Librarian (Maria Cerezuela); Virginia, the Brat (Priscilla Delgado); and Sebas, the Simp (Alvaro Mel). You will be thankful for the nicknames, because they make it easier to tell these twits apart, and they help define character where the screenplay otherwise doesn’t bother to.

One day, Angela is sexually assaulted by her skeevy lit professor, so the book squad gathers up some matching creepy-clown costumes and clawhammers – I was disappointed; I was hoping for some righteously good PEEN-hammer action – to prank him and teach him a lesson. It backfires, as you’d expect, and the guy falls over a railing and, with a sickening SHUNK, ends up impaled on a Don Quixote sculpture. Big whoopsie there. Do you HATE when that HAPPENS? I know I do!

The book clubbers torch the evidence and vow to never, ever, ever, ever, ever (ever) speak of it again, and they live happily ever after, the end. No! Just as their substitute prof delivers a lecture on “autofiction,” their phones chime: Someone posted the first chapter of a story about eight kids who killed a university prof and are trying to cover it up, and that very same author promises to follow with eight chapters detailing each twit’s gruesome and untimely death. The author seems to know quite a bit of secret info about what happened, so they’ve gotta be one of the book clubbers, right? And sure enough, this little endeavor inspires our twitty protagonists to make all sorts of poor choices about hanging out alone in dark places and stuff like that, which makes it easier for the killer to pick them off one by one. And so it’s up to the Heroine to not die, because this movie sure strikes us as one that’ll end with a shot of the Final Girl wrapped in one of those crinkly foil blankets that EMTs give you after you’ve experienced some traumatic horror-movie shit. Not that I’m saying that happens! NO SPOILERS, you know!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I guess this is It meets Scream in one of the gargantuan, $70,000 suburban kitchens belonging to one of the Book Club ladies.

Performance Worth Watching: Velilla is the de-facto lead here, and she ably and dutifully conveys the 1.28 emotions the screenplay gives to her. 

Memorable Dialogue: Eva is an equal-opportunity creator of hypotheses: “Personally, I’d like to believe (the killer is) just some sadistic prick who knows us from school. Or bitch. It could be a girl.”

Sex and Skin: A sex scene in which we almost see a boob and almost see a butt, which is disappointing, but hey, at least the scene is SUMPTUOUSLY lit for maximum faux-eroticism!

Our Take: There’s a scene early in Killer Book Club where Professor Shitbird Grabbyhands pisses all over the concept of fan fiction because it’s rooted in someone else’s idea. I’m not sure if the movie indulges this spiel as an act of self-commentary or self-immolation, or just sets up a challenge for itself, but either way, it doesn’t really work. The film maybe wants to pay homage to its influences, but doesn’t do so with enough specificity to render it anything more than just another neo-slasher among too many such things. One gets the sense that the movie thinks it’s quite clever as it stacks up third-act twists like so much cordwood, and to be fair, it is a bit difficult to predict what happens, but that’s because it’s too complicated for its own good, and considers logic to be something that burdens other movies – that one character was only lightly disemboweled, it seems.

Those would-be clever strokes don’t apply to the bromidic dialogue or flimsy characters, neither of which stick to the memory or provide anything resembling an emotional handhold (I scoff in the face of the Simp-Heroine-Emo love triangle: HA, I say, HA. I am not invested in the well-being of your petty hearts!). These characters are too generic to even be familiar types, and don’t even give the actors any cliches to lean into. They’re just tools of the plot, which needs to be exceptional in order to transcend those flaws – and it’s far from exceptional. Even the kills are rote, and if a horror movie needs something to tickle the cockles of you gore junkies out there (you know who you are), it’s some sick KILLS, bro. Director Carlos Alonso Ojea tries to compensate for the film’s many shortcomings with some capital-S Style, but without satisfying our hearts or minds (or bloodlust), Killer Book Club is just another brutal mediocrity among many.

Our Call: Pitch Killer Book Club into the remainder pile. SKIP IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Killer Book Club Review: A Balancing Act Between Horror and Suspense

Director Carlos Alonso Ojea’s Killer Book Club presents a chilling narrative that blends horror and suspense, taking audiences on a roller-coaster ride of fear and tension. The film explores the dynamics of friendship amidst a backdrop of terror, unveiling a sinister secret that threatens their lives. While the movie’s gripping premise and tense atmosphere manage to captivate, it also stumbles in pacing and character development, preventing it from becoming a truly standout entry in the horror genre. Read on for my non-spoiler Killer Book Club review.

Killer Book Club Review Is Spoiler-Free

The premise of Killer Book Club is intriguing right from the start. A group of eight friends, united by their love for horror literature, find themselves trapped in a nightmarish scenario when a malevolent killer clown targets them. The clown, inexplicably aware of a shared dark secret, embarks on a gruesome spree, eliminating them one by one. This premise sets the stage for a suspenseful battle of wits, as the group attempts to unravel the mystery of the clown’s identity and motive while struggling to stay alive.

The Good Parts Of The Killer Book Club Review 

The film’s strength undoubtedly lies in its atmospheric tension. Ojea masterfully crafts an environment rife with uncertainty, employing dimly lit settings and eerie visuals that send shivers down the audience’s spine. The sinister atmosphere is heightened by a haunting musical score that complements the sense of impending doom. The juxtaposition of horror elements with the seemingly mundane setting of a book club adds a layer of unease, successfully playing on the fear of the unknown lurking in everyday spaces.

One of the film’s most significant strengths is its exploration of the characters’ friendships and shared secrets. As the narrative unfolds, the group’s dynamic becomes increasingly strained, revealing hidden tensions and betrayals. This thematic layer adds depth to the story and invites the audience to ponder the consequences of their own actions within their circles. However, the film could have delved even deeper into these psychological aspects, allowing the audience to feel more invested in the characters’ fates.

Veki Velilla , portraying Ángela, shines as the film’s central character. Velilla’s portrayal of Ángela as a resourceful and determined survivor is both convincing and compelling. Her transformation from a bookish introvert to a resilient fighter adds depth to her character, making her the emotional anchor of the story. Álvaro Mel delivers a commendable performance as Sebas, striking a balance between humor and vulnerability. His camaraderie with Ángela adds a touch of authenticity to their friendship.

The Bad Of The Killer Book Club Review: 

However, despite the strong performances from the lead actors, the film stumbles in the department of character development. The supporting cast members, while each having their unique quirks, remain largely one-dimensional. For instance, Iván Pellicer ‘s Nando lacks the depth required to make his character’s actions and motivations truly resonate with the audience.

Another area where Killer Book Club falls short is its pacing. The film struggles to maintain a consistent rhythm, with moments of intense suspense often juxtaposed against slower, dialogue-heavy scenes. While tension-building is crucial in horror films, excessive reliance on dialogue without meaningful revelations can lead to viewer fatigue. Ojea could have benefited from a tighter script that sustains the film’s gripping atmosphere without allowing it to waver.

Additionally, while the atmospheric shots contribute to the film’s overall sense of dread, some of the horror sequences lack the visual impact needed to leave a lasting impression. The killer clown’s appearances, while initially unsettling, become slightly repetitive, diluting the shock value over time. A more varied approach to the clown’s manifestations could have sustained the fear factor.

Overall Impressions: 

Killer Book Club offers a captivating blend of horror and suspense, held together by strong performances from Veki Velilla and Álvaro Mel. The film’s ability to craft an atmosphere of tension and unease is commendable, and its exploration of friendships and secrets adds a layer of complexity to the narrative. However, the movie’s pacing issues, lack of character development for supporting roles, and occasional visual shortcomings prevent it from reaching its full potential. As a result, Killer Book Club is an engaging yet imperfect addition to the horror genre, offering a thrill ride that falls just short of becoming a true standout.

Let us know what you thought about Killer Book Club? Did you like this new horror tale? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

• Acting - 7/10 7/10
• Cinematography/Visual Effects - 6.5/10 6.5/10
• Plot/Screenplay - 6/10 6/10
• Setting/Theme - 7/10 7/10
• Watchability - 7/10 7/10
• Rewatchability - 4/10 4/10

User Review

About Caillou Pettis

Caillou Pettis is a professional film critic and journalist as well as the author of While You Sleep, The Inspiring World of Horror: The Movies That Influenced Generations, and co-author of Out of Time: True Paranormal Encounters. He has been writing in the entertainment industry for over seven and a half years professionally. Throughout the years, he has written articles for publications including Gold Derby, Exclaim!, CBR, Awards Radar, Awards Watch, Flickering Myth, BRWC, Starburst Magazine, Punch Drunk Critics, Mediaversity Reviews, Vinyl Chapters, Northern Transmissions, and Beats Per Minute.

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Home » Endings Explained

Killer Book Club Ending Explained – who is the real killer?

We discuss the ending of the 2023 Netflix horror movie Killer Book Club which will contain significant spoilers.

When the group of friends all come together to terrorize the professor, there is a turn of events. What started out as a prank turned into something entirely different, and they were part of a murder.

While terrorizing him, the professor falls over a railing and gets impaled on a statue. Naturally, the club decides to keep it a secret, but in every slasher film, keeping those secrets will get you haunted.

READ: Killer Book Club Review

The day after, a stranger posts a link to Angela’s novel that she had written online. The stranger also details what happened with the professor the night before and threatens them, saying that they were going to punish the people who were behind the murder.

So while they’re running from this killer, they also want to solve the mystery as to who it could possibly be. They do find it odd that this would happen after they just finished the book with the same premise, so they make notes and go off of what happens in the novel to help them.

Killer Book Club Ending Explained

Who is the real killer and clown.

As is always the case in movies like this, the killer turns out to be someone close to home: Sebastian.

Like any slasher, the group of them decide to meet up somewhere they know is safe. After one of their friends (Virginia) goes missing, they meet in the library to figure out what this killer is doing.

They are wearing the same clown costume as they did to terrorize the professor as well. The group of friends begins to question other people in the group early on because of how they feel about each other. The one person they suspect is Nando, so Angela decides to stay away from him as much as possible.

Another friend (Rai) is murdered outside the club where Nando works, but the body is never found.

Again, this raises suspicion that it could be Nando considering that the next hit is near his work. The group of friends figure out ways to coax the killer into revealing himself. They turn to social media and set a poll as to who would be the next friend to go. They know the killer is stalking their every move, so this would be a surefire way to draw attention.

While Angela stays far away from everyone, she ends up telling Sebastian that her first novel was a stolen story from a girl named Alicia. She wrote about her life and became successful because of her. As Angela says this, you see the gears turning in her head, thinking that Alicia could be the killer.

The ending is quite entertaining because they end up going to a fair where there are clowns around. And naturally, they all get separated from each other. Angela sees Sara get murdered, while Koldo has his throat slit while wearing a clown costume.

Angela is taking the most of this and feels absolutely horrible that her friends all died to protect her. So she decides to take matters into her own hands.

Angela sees Nando tied against a chair, with Sebastian insisting that he is the killer, but she doesn’t know who to believe. Sebastian can’t take it anymore, and he ends up stabbing Nando in front of her.

He then (in true slasher fashion) explains his plan. Apparently, he had been working with Alicia after she found out that Angela stole her story. Sebastian constructed this whole elaborate plan to get back at Angela with Alicia so they could write their own story and become successful writers.

Does Angela survive?

She does survive, and it’s with the help of Nando, who shoves Sebastian off the edge of the railing and he gets impaled by the same statue. In the next moment, Angela sets up a trap to burn Alicia alive.

What did you think of the ending of the 2023 Netflix movie Killer Book Club? Comment below.

Article by Amanda Guarragi

Amanda Guarragi joined Ready Steady Cut as an Entertainment Writer in June 2022. She is a Toronto-based film critic who has covered TIFF, Sundance Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, and HorrorFest International. Amanda is also a growing YouTuber, with her channel Candid Cinema growing in popularity.

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The Spanish Netflix movie Killer Book Club tells a horror tale with a predictable yet enjoyable ending. In the film, a book club full of horror enthusiasts decides to commit a prank against their professor who attempted to rape one of the students, Ángela. The killer clown prank ends in the accidental death of their professor. However, after they all agree to never speak of this to anyone, the news gets out about the death.

Someone who goes by the name the Mad Clown joins their group chat, makes it clear they know what happened, and begins picking off the people involved in the crime. With each death, the Mad Clown writes a chapter of a book about the murder and posts it online. People begin voting on what will happen in the next chapter, and the book club members must try to avoid their fate. Ángela works to discover the identity of the Mad Clown, culminating in a foreseeable ending.

Related: Smile, Terrifier, & 10 Movie Series That Could Be The Next Big Horror Franchise

Who Is The Mad Clown?

From the beginning, the book club members believe one of them acted as the killer. One by one, the killer takes out people, narrowing down the suspect pool. In the Killer Book Club ending, it comes down to either Nando or Sebas. In a fairly predictable reveal, Sebas is the Mad Clown who has killed the members of the book club. Besides the attack on Nando, he has the opportunity to kill his fellow book club members. Additionally, Sebas seems more invested in the disturbing plot of the Killer Clowns book they’re reading in book club than anyone else. This foreshadows the reveal.

After attacking Nando in front of Ángela, Sebas believes he’s taken out everyone in his group except Ángela. He spends time doing the classic horror villain move of explaining every part of his plan and motive. In a turn of events, though, Mando didn’t die when attacked. Instead, Ángela lures Sebas and his accomplice down the balcony walkway, keeping their attention on her until Nando hits Sebas in the head. The self-referential comment “You guys forgot something. The emo isn’t actually dead,” adds some comedy to an otherwise suspenseful ending to the Killer Book Club .

Related: Who Plays Sebas In Netflix's Killer Book Club

Does Anyone Survive The Killer Book Club Ending?

Though the Mad Clown picks off the book club members one by one, two members definitely survive the Killer Book Club ending. And a third person potentially survived. Ángela and Nando both survive through the ending. This subverts common horror tropes. In many horror movies, one female character classified as "The Final Girl" is left alive by the end of the movie to face off against the villain and tell the story. In recent years, an alternative version called “The Final Boy” has become more common.

This movie sways away from either option, including both a Final Girl and a Final Boy. This fits with the heart of Killer Book Club . The book club members are better and stronger when they work together instead of turning on each other. It’s also fitting that the person who ultimately takes down the Mad Clown isn’t the heroine but the emo. This matched up with the movie’s attempt to subvert expectations.

Related: 10 Great Horror Movies With Bad Rotten Tomatoes Scores

Virginia’s True Identity & Connection To The Killings Explained

In Killer Book Club , Virginia's true identity is central to the entire plot of the movie. She reveals in one of the final scenes that she is Ángela's internet best friend Alicia. Six years prior to the events of the movie, Ángela developed a friendship with a girl who experienced severe emotional abuse in her home at the hands of her mom. She wrote a horror book about Alicia's home life without Alicia's knowledge or permission. When Alicia found out, she felt betrayed and threatened to write a book that would make Ángela hurt the way Alicia did. This sets off the events of Killer Book Club .

Ángela spends most of the movie believing that Alicia killed herself and her mother in a fire shortly after the reveal of Ángela's book. As she explains at the end of the movie, Alicia faked her death, planning with her internet boyfriend Sebas to orchestrate all the murders throughout Killer Book Club . Their end game was to blame Ángela for all the murders, claiming she developed a severe case of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and snapped.

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How Sebas Orchestrated Ángela’s Sexual Assault

One of the most disturbing elements of Killer Book Club occurs when Professor Cruzado attempts to rape Ángela. Throughout the meeting, before the sexual assault, Professor Cruzado continually references an email he received from Ángela. This created confusion because Ángela deleted her email asking for help on her writing. She deletes the email onscreen, so this couldn’t be explained by her accidentally hitting send instead of delete.

As Sebas reveals in the ending, he was responsible for orchestrating the sexual assault. He doesn't explain much out loud, yet the scene shows him writing an email to Professor Cruzado, pretending to be Ángela, telling him that she's attracted to him. This shows Sebas’s inhumane and disturbing nature in Killer Book Club . While murder isn’t excusable, it’s entirely different to orchestrate a sexual assault upon anyone.

Related: 10 Great Standalone Horror Movies That Deserved Their Own Franchises

The Significance Of Killer Book Club’s Opening Scene

Though Killer Book Club seems to explain the opening scene halfway through, its full significance isn't revealed until its ending. When Ángela tells Sebas about Alicia's death, the scene looks slightly different from the opening. In this version, Alicia also goes up in flames after she sets her mother and house on fire. However, the Killer Book Club ending reveals Alicia faked her own death and took on the identity of Victoria. This information explains the discrepancy between the opening and retelling during the middle of the movie. The opening showed what really happened since Alicia didn't die; whereas the mid-movie scene showed Ángela's perception of the events.

Related: 15 Most Common Horror Movie Stereotype Characters

Killer Book Club Sets Up Killer Book Club 2

Though Killer Book Club wrapped up the movie effectively, it also left room for a sequel. The very end shows a one-year time jump where Ángela and Sebas attend university together. Ángela is now a horror author who wrote a book about their experiences one year earlier. However, she walks into the university's courtyard and sees a person dressed as the Mad Clown. The person takes their mask off to reveal Alicia.

While it's implied that Alicia died before the time jump in Killer Book Club , it's never confirmed. Additionally, audiences never see her dead body. In horror, it's a rule of thumb that someone isn't truly dead until it's shown on screen. This factor leaves room for Alicia to return as the villain in Killer Book Club 2 . There's also the possibility that someone else related to the book club could take over the mantle.

THE MOVIE CULTURE

Killer Book Club Movie Review & Summary: A Slasher Film Like Any Other

Netflix recently released Killer Book Club, a dubbed version of the Spanish film titled ‘El Club De Los Lectores Criminales.’ The slasher thriller has been available on the OTT platform since August 25, 2023.

Directed by Carlos Alonso-Ojea and scripted by Carlos García Miranda, ‘El Club De Los Lectores Criminales, which translates to ‘The Criminal Readers Club,’ revolves around a group of writers who assemble to share their passion for horror literature. They think of a costumed prank, but it ends in tragedy as an anonymous killer starts picking them off one by one.

Killer Book Club (2023) Cast

• Veki Velilla as Ángela Kuntz
• Álvaro Mel as Sebastián Hoyos, nicknamed Sebas
• Priscilla Delgado as Virginia Rubio
• Iván Pellicer as Fernando Aguado, nicknamed Nando
• Ane Rot as Sara Pons
• Carlos Alcaide as Rai García
• Hamza Zaidi as Koldo Abuc
• María Cerezuela as Eva Yáñez

Killer Book Club (2023) Plot

Angela, Sara, Nando, Rai, Sebastian, Koldo, Eva, and Virginia are eight young university students who gather in a book club and discuss horror books . Angela, the protagonist, is an aspiring writer who gets called by her professor in order to check a novel she wrote six years ago.

Instead of reviewing her work, Professor Pillar Pintre forces himself on Angela, but she manages to escape. Her friends at the book club get to know about it and decide to pull off a costumed prank on their professor. Inspired by a killer clown horror book, each of them dons a clown outfit.

However, the prank goes horribly wrong as Pillar falls through the university courtyard and is impaled on a statue. Angela is responsible for the murder because it was her jumpscare that led to Pillar losing his footing.

The group decides to keep mum about the incident. Unfortunately, someone posts a link to a novel that describes the incidents of that fateful day. They come to know it’s the work of someone from the club. Later, Virginia goes missing, Rai is murdered outside the club where Nando worked, and most of the blame falls on him.

In an act of poetic justice, the killer uses the same clown costume to commit crimes that the group wore during Pillar’s death. The friends start turning on each other, like in any slasher genre, allowing the killer clown to get hold of each one by one. Fitting the book club theme is the promise of a novel by the killer documenting their deaths.

Killer Book Club (2023) Review

Due to a run time of just around 90 minutes, the story of Killer Book Club seems fast-paced. There is not a lot of character development, which allows the audience to root for a certain character. The protagonist, Angela, has some personality, while the other characters play the stereotypes. There isn’t any backstory on how certain characters behave:-

Koldo is an influencer who is obsessed with being famous.

Sebastian is the typical ‘nice guy’ character who is friend-zoned by Angela. (But it ends up with her in bed anyway, and the nice guy role is a facade.)

Nando is the passionate lover of Angela who loses her trust, and they break up the moment the first person dies. (Nice timing!)

Rai is the eccentric man who is killed first because he is annoying to both the group and the audience.

Angela is also stuck in a cliche. She is the personification of guilt trips: having second thoughts about publishing her work on a true story, accidentally killing her professor, leading to a killer clown frenzy, and being torn between choosing Nando or Sebas. Yes, the audience needs to sympathize with the heroine of the slasher film, but give her a break!

Certain clues in The Killer Book Club reveal the obvious answer to “Who is/are the murderer/s?” to any detective novel fan. The fact that the killer doesn’t leave a story about Virginia’s death or her body but strikes his second victim means there is something fishy. As it turns out, Virginia was Alicia, a woman long thought to be dead and whose life story Angela had published without her consent.

Sebastian is Alicia’s accomplice. His need to win the trust of the protagonist and apparent hatred for Fernando, the surviving hero, makes it clear that he is the villain. It becomes crystal clear when Sebas lures Angela away from Koldo with the pretext of protecting her. Koldo, who creates a poll to get a clue about the killer, ends up dying next at the hands of Alicia.

The whole idea of an anonymous killer is to let the viewers step in the shoes of surviving characters to identify their motives, read between the lines, and make assumptions. Killer Book Club wastes this aspect due to various clues that point out to predictable villains of the film. Often compared to the 1997 film, ‘ I Know What You Did Last Summer’, the Killer Book Club also fails to create a memorable story of its own.

Killer Book Club does have some things going for it

Although certainly not in the league of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) or Wrong Turn movies, Killer Book Club does give what is expected from a slasher film . Blood and gore are complemented by some excellent killing methods. Both off-screen and on-screen killings are used to create mystery and drama synonymously.

Ignoring the cliched, determined limp walk, the killer’s clown outfit does look horrific. It has misshapen, black holes for eyes, and a twisted smile that may give some viewers the creeps. There are also no bloopers in the costume, which leads to the identification of the murderer.

Chase scenes in The Killer Book Club have been well-documented. Various camera angles, including switches between first-person and third-person camera angles, have been used in well-lit backgrounds so that the viewers can get a feeling of urgency. Classic chase scenes require the victim to use their mind and speed to escape the situation, but, as is the case with the film, they are outmatched by the killer.

The Movie Culture Synopsis

Overall, Killer Book Club promises nothing new but is a nice 90-minute time killer. You can watch it with friends with a bucket of popcorn and gasp at certain slasher moments that are as quick as they come. The English dub isn’t that bad, and the actors have done more than average in the film.

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'Killer Book Club' movie review: The horror of it all

Remember what happened when someone decided to put on a ghoul mask and make a bunch of school kids scream their way to death back in 1996? And, what happened when someone knew what a bunch of college kids did one summer of 1997? The cultural legacy of the Scream franchise and I Know What You Did Last Summer can be seen in the many rip-offs that have spawned since. The latest in the long assembly line is the Spanish film, Killer Book Club, which is what you would get if you mixed Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, but did away with all the fun.

The film opens with a daughter burning her mother alive in a room full of books. Six years later, we meet eight members of a book club that meets once a week to discuss horror/thriller/occult stories. We are told that a clown-mask-wearing, axe-wielding killer is out to murder each of them, and that this pursuit is being documented as a book in real time. As interesting as the premise may sound, the narrative is missing the most important element—momentum.

The film shows no urgency whatsoever in the proceedings, and the plot moves at a languorous pace. So much so that the members of the book club drop dead like flies to no impact. It’s almost like the viewer doesn’t care who is dead, and who is next. The makers are to blame. Except for the protagonist, Angela (Veki Velilla), none of the other members have been given even a semblance of a character arc. They are nothing but stereotypes of the slasher sub-genre, and while the film attempts to be self-aware by naming them by their character traits, it seems in vain.

The murders are gory. That’s not bad, but the writing is. Too superficial, it doesn’t give the audience enough material to connect with. What’s worse is the farcical logic behind the murders. At one point in Killer Book Club, we see a primary character talking about the problems with poor horror fiction, “There’s a lot of gimmickry, cliches, doors banging shut, haunted houses, and that stuff works to a point and then, falls apart... It is contrived.” Well, that’s one self-aware shtick the film gets right.

Director: Carlos Alonso Ojea Genre: Horror Platform: Netflix Language: Spanish (English) Rating: 1.5/5 stars

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Killer Book Club - Review

A repetitive knockoff of superior teen slashers.

Unlike other genres, the pleasure of a good murder mystery resides in its tropes. Cliches aren’t frowned upon in a whodunit, they’re leveraged to engrossing measures, lulling viewers into an entertaining sleight of hand that’ll eventually reveal the culprit. Killer Book Club begins on such a storytelling magic trick: The camera pulls away from a crackling fireplace, panning across a carpeted floor littered with pages drenched in gasoline. A young woman throws gas onto her screaming mother before setting herself and mom ablaze. If it looks like a banal B-movie copy of a murder mystery, that’s sort of the point. Killer Book Club wants to play a familiar deck.

That comfort ultimately betrays the intended tension. We feel throughout the bloody, gory Killer Book Club that we have a handle on what’s happening, enough to throw out impatient theories. Viewers are teased, teased, and teased again before learning their best guess wasn’t even close. Despite the subterfuge, at its core, this is also a run-of-the-mill slasher movie, guided by jealousy, mistaken motives, and a group of bumbling teens, but little else.

Spanish director Carlos Alonso Ojea’s college campus horror-mystery follows the shy Ángela (an elusive Veki Velilla). Six years ago, when she was in 8th grade, Ángela published a book – The Girl from Carrión – which appears to have inspired Killer Book Club's opening scene. Ever since then, she’s had writer’s block. Ángela walks through the bustling quad with her emo, peroxide-blonde boyfriend Nando (Iván Pellicer) to her weekly book club in the school library. The group’s meeting place isn’t merely at a desk, but hidden in a room located underneath some creepy stairs.

The other members of the club include the pesky Vanessa (Priscilla Delgado), hot-headed Rai (Carlos Alcaide), the influencer Koldo (Hamza Zaidi), the bitchy Eva (María Cerezuela), Ángela’s best friend Sara (Ane Rot), and the pretentious Sebas (Álvaro Mel), who might harbor a crush on Ángela. One of the few shocks in a film desperately in need of them comes from these temperamentally disparate characters already being friends, rather than thrown together by random circumstance. The ensemble’s chemistry is strong enough to stretch any initial incredulity one might feel as they discuss a fictitious book titled Killer Clowns.

The coulrophobia doesn’t end there: Screenwriter Carlos García Miranda uses the fear of clowns for Killer Book Club’s spin on I Know What You Did Last Summer . When Ángela’s professor (Daniel Grao) attempts to rape her during office hours (the film’s scariest scene), she and her friends band together to teach him a lesson. The eight students make the not so bright move to seize on a viral-video trend, dressing like clowns in order to frighten the professor. Long chases down even longer hallways conclude with him accidentally falling to his death. The friends make a sure-to-fail pact to remain quiet, but guilt turns to panic when an anonymous author on a forum publishes chapters of a book that not only concerns the murder, but also seems to predict, one-by-one, their deaths.

When a sinister figure wearing a clown mask and armed with a sharp hammer begins menacing Ángela and company, Killer Book Club shifts to mirroring Scream . Nuts and bolts thrills find an edge by virtue of the sharp sound mixing, amplifying each slash into roaring rips. Evocative shades of pink, red, and green lighting color every scene in uneasy hues, waiting for splattered blood to overtake the frame. These homicides don’t provide the cathartic release you’d like to see in a horror film; they’re not propelled by a sexual, psychological, or even political tension. Rather these scenes take delight in merely mimicking horror movies of the past.

And while Killer Book Club is enlivened by its murder-mystery tropes, its compulsion to identify them in dialogue grates. To a point, you expect that to happen – these characters, after all, are book nerds. But Ojea’s film attacks the potency of these cliches only to then employ them. While providing viewers breadcrumbs keeps them engaged, being left guessing until the end is not the same as being entertained.

Being left guessing until the end is not the same as being entertained

Part of that disconnect concerns the Ángela. As a character, she’s a cipher for all of these horror-movie trappings to take shape around. A murder mystery thrives on misdirection, but a slasher lives through an empathetic heroine. You root for her to live because she represents a kind of innocence, trauma, or other human emotion. Horror movie villains also carry a certain set of expectations. The villain here is a figure born out of internet chat rooms through a convoluted backstory. But they’re menacing because they don’t exhibit physical emotion, whether rage or bloodlust. As the twists mount, this murderer’s blandness increases, withholding real fear and haunting angst to protect the humdrum secret at the center of the unengaging Killer Book Club.

The Verdict

Killer Book Club director Carlos Alonso Ojea bows at the altar of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream to craft a well-attuned horror tale concerning a group of college teens evading a masked murderer. The film lacks a frightening villain and features a limp lead character. It’s composed of archetypes and cliches that provide a familiar sense of dread, but doesn’t graduate to the kind of bloodlust that leads to memorable scenes.

Killer Book Club

Killer book club review.

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Killer Book Club – Netflix Review (2/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Aug 25, 2023 | 4 minutes

KILLER BOOK CLUB on Netflix is a new Spanish horror movie (org. title: El club de los lectores criminales ). I expected to enjoy this and liked the plot on paper. And yes, this could have been a good horror movie. It just isn’t. Read our full Killer Book Club movie review here!

KILLER BOOK CLUB is a new Netflix horror movie from Spain (org. title: El club de los lectores criminales ). As someone who loves most Spanish productions, especially Spanish genre productions, I was very excited about this new Netflix production.

Way too excited, it quickly turned out. As good as this movie sounds on paper, it comes across as a spoof on several horror franchises. But not in a funny or camp way. No, just in a serious way that makes it feel tone-deaf to horror fans. Yes, I was very disappointed.

Continue reading our full Killer Book Club movie review below. Find it on Netflix from August 25, 2023.

The simple plot

For a classic teen slasher horror movie to have a simple plot is usually a good thing. In  Killer Book Club , a costume joke ends in a fatal accident, which then results in a pact of silence. The only alternative would be for most or all of them to end up in jail. Of course, this “joke” was never an actual joke and much more of a revenge situation, but okay. You’ll see!

Anyway, now this group of young people – who seem to have nothing in common except reading horror stories and not agreeing on which are good – are threatened by an anonymous writer. This anonymous writer is using a Fanfic platform to describe how they will all die one by one.

And then they do start dying brutal deaths, one by one.

Of course, they are all torn between having to trust each other and not trusting one another at all. Who’s the victim and who’s the killer? To me, this was dreadfully obvious from the very beginning, so obviously, it made for a rather irritating movie.

You could have been a contender!

It is no secret that I am especially disappointed by this movie because I expected more. I figured this could be a new great Spanish horror movie for the next generation. A Netflix horror gem. But no. Instead we get a mix-and-match story that “borrows” from everything but ends up with nothing.

Instead of being an homage to the horror franchises, it’s clearly inspired by, Killer Book Club is proof that good horror isn’t this simple to create!

For Killer Book Club , you should think Scream  and I Know What You Did Last Summer but with a dash of  Final Destination  and a rudely (yes, rudely ) predictable killer. No, I won’t give spoilers here, but my first guess was accurate. And this immediate assumption was so ridiculously easy to get confirmed again and again.

You can watch  Killer Book Club  on Netflix!

Carlos Alonso Ojea is the director of  Killer Book Club  which seems to be his first feature film. This new horror movie is just 1 hour and 29 minutes long, but it feels much longer. The screenplay comes from another Carlos with the full name of Carlos García Miranda. I’m not entirely certain if it’s the story or directing that just does not work for me here.

The cast includes familiar faces such as Iván Pellicer ( Ánimas ), Veki Velilla ( Yrreal ), Priscilla Delgado ( A League of Their Own series), and Álvaro Mel ( Paraíso ).

However, while no one in the cast is bad, their characters are just stereotypes that do nothing good for the movie. And don’t even get me started on the grossly inappropriate and unnecessary steamy scene between two teenagers. Good Lord, how I wanted this movie to be over sooner rather than later.

Look, if you enjoy horror movies with a slasher theme and a mystery killer, then surely you’ll want to check out  Killer Book Club on Netflix. My only hope is that you’ll enjoy it more than I did. If you’re reading this review before watching it, there’s a chance you will. If nothing else, because your expectations will be much lower than mine were.

Killer Book Club (org. title: El club de los lectores criminales ) is on Netflix from August 25, 2023.

Director: Carlos Alonso Ojea Writer: Carlos García Miranda Cast: Veki Velilla, Iván Pellicer, Álvaro Mel, Daniel Grao, Priscilla Delgado, Iván López, Carlos Alcaide, María Cerezuela, Ane Rot, Hamza Zaidi, Carmela Lloret

Eight horror-loving friends fight for their lives when a killer clown who seems to know the grim secret they share begins to pick them off, one by one.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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Killer Book Club (2023) Horror Movie Review

“Killer Book Club,” the 2023 thriller that has been making waves on streaming platforms, is a film that attempts to blend horror and suspense with a touch of dark academia. Directed by Carlos Alonso Ojea , the movie follows a group of eight college friends who share a love for horror and find themselves entangled in a real-life nightmare.

The premise is intriguing: a killer clown, aware of a grim secret the friends share, begins to eliminate them one by one. This plot device is reminiscent of classic slasher films, but “Killer Book Club” tries to stand out by incorporating elements of the horror-loving protagonists’ literary interests into the killings.

The film’s cast, including Veki Velilla and Álvaro Mel , deliver strong performances that anchor the narrative. Their portrayal of the group’s dynamic and the unraveling of their friendship under duress adds depth to what could have been flat characters. The movie’s atmosphere is crafted with care, utilizing stylized lighting and settings that contribute to an overall sense of tension and unease.

However, the film is not without its shortcomings. Critics have pointed out that while there is talent in the production, it often feels unfocused and derivative of genre classics like “Scream.” The attempts at jump-scares are described as predictable, and the plot twists lack the originality needed to truly captivate the seasoned horror aficionado.

Despite these criticisms, “Killer Book Club” offers a captivating experience for those who enjoy a blend of horror and suspense. It may not reinvent the wheel, but it does provide a solid entry into the slasher genre with a literary twist. For viewers looking for a new horror flick to watch, “Killer Book Club” might just be worth the read.

In the Nutshell

“Killer Book Club,” tried very hard to stand out from “The Scream”.  But at the end, it is just another copy of “The Scream” from Spain.    [2 out of 5].

Please help rate this movie: If you already saw this movie, help us rate the movie by click on the Star Rating.

Genre: Slasher

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[Movie Review] KILLER BOOK CLUB

• August 29, 2023 August 30, 2023
• Sarah Musnicky

This piece was published during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, KILLER BOOK CLUB being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Poking fun at horror tropes within slasher films has become a tried-and-true classic maneuver since Scream . With its tongue-in-cheek poking at tried-and-true tropes, it carved a pathway for slashers to do the same. Some have taken the familiar and twisted it into something fun and new. Others, like the recently released KILLER BOOK CLUB , fail to add anything new to the genre. Instead, it falls into the oh-too-familiar tropes that it makes fun of onscreen.

Directed by Carlos Alonso Ojea and written by Carlos García Miranda , KILLER BOOK CLUB follows eight horror-loving-book fiends that are accidentally bonded together by – you guessed it – an accidental murder. It’s not long after that the college students are targeted by a mysterious killer of their own, setting the stage for not only their destruction but also a titillating fiction tale of their own. At the center of it all? The aptly described “heroine” of the film, Ángela ( Veki Velilla ).

Starting with an impactful scene that is sure to connect to the slasher villain at hand, slick editing makes the introduction to our group of eight memorable. The poking at genre tropes in a lecture on horror literature sets the stage and hopes for the viewer that there will be some attempt to push boundaries. Unfortunately, as soon as we get to the pivotal oops moment, it seems clear that we’re settling in for an all-too-familiar setup and outcome.

KILLER BOOK CLUB fails to take off from the page

Predictable plots can be fine. It invites comfort in our ability to guess ahead. However, with the emphasized poking at tropes and fan fiction, there’s an expectation of something more built-in. We don’t get those expectations fulfilled in the story, nor do we have them fulfilled through the characters who are woefully undeveloped in all areas.

The group of eight are rightfully assigned their archetypes by the killer, yet still fail to fill in the space of their archetypes. The most memorable one is Velilla’s Ángela and that’s likely because the character has been built out. Lacking chemistry, it’s hard to believe from the beginning that any of these people are friends. This failure to connect onscreen facilitates a further disconnect offscreen, prompting the unfortunate question, “Why should I care about any of these people?”

Successful slashers are built on the memorability of their characters. It doesn’t matter whether they are likable or not. Their personalities, regardless of whether they match an archetype or not, must show. Through a failure of direction, performance, and writing development, KILLER BOOK CLUB does little to encourage its audience to flip over to the next page.

And yet…

KILLER BOOK CLUB is beautiful to watch. The usage of color, alternating between deep blood reds and cool blues, creates a visual palette that reminds us of the danger the students are in. Pablo Diez’s camera creates fun shots, capturing everything while heightening tension when needed. While there are many moments where his camerawork shines, there is a crowd sequence that stands out with how he plays around with the frame.

The snappy edits by Luis de la Madrid keep things moving, punching up pacing, and – particularly in the beginning – give our characters an extra pop. For a slasher likely aimed at a younger crowd i.e., teenagers, the kills featured onscreen are satisfactory but could have used a little bit of variety and grunginess to it. Considering who is carrying out the killing, perhaps keeping to a formula for the kills says more than we think.

Sometimes style can compensate for a lack of substance. For  KILLER BOOK CLUB , the visuals and edits do some heavy lifting. It can’t hide that the film fails to elevate itself above the tropes it pokes fun at repeatedly. In fact, it struggles to be memorable beyond its imagery. Without strong characterization to give something for audiences to grasp, the film is an easy one to return to the shelf.

KILLER BOOK CLUB is now on Netflix.

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‘Barbie’ Breaks Half a Billion at the Global Box Office

Ken’s going to need a bigger Mojo Dojo Casa House.

The Big Picture

• Barbie's global success is undeniable, with the Greta Gerwig-directed film crossing the $500 million mark in less than a week of release.
• The film's dominance extends to every market it's in, with impressive earnings in the UK, Brazil, Australia, and China, among others.
• With a projected $70 million plus second weekend domestically, Barbie's success is on track to surpass the opening weekends of other blockbuster films, solidifying its place as a pop culture phenomenon.

Barbie just keeps bringing in the money as the pink-filled Barbie-Mania and high-octane Kenergy continue to take over the globe. Now after less than a week of release, the Greta Gerwig -directed adaptation has crossed the $500 million mark worldwide. The film as of Wednesday has made exactly $528.6 million with a massive $291.4 from overseas markets.

One thing’s clear, Barbie isn’t just an American phenomenon. The film’s dominating every market it’s in. Barbie has already made $40.2 million in the UK, $25.2 million in Brazil, $18.9 million in Australia, and $15.9 million in China just to name a few. This is all with historically low percentage drops from day to day. It truly is a Barbie world and it’s only going to get hotter as the film heads into the weekend. As of right now, Barbie is tracking at a $70 million plus second weekend domestically. If that holds true then this famous doll’s second weekend will be higher than other Summer blockbusters’ opening weekends like The Flash , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , Transformers: Rise of the Beasts , and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One . That’s a crazy accomplishment when you stop and think about it.

Why Has Barbie Been So Successful?

While some of the film’s rabid success can be attributed to the hilarious Barbenheiner cultural phenomenon, at the end of the day, Barbie ’s an extremely fun feel-good movie with a ton of meaningful heart. Like Super Mario Bros . earlier this year, Barbie has become a multigenerational event that the whole family needs to see. It’s one of those great films where it only feels right to share the laughs and a good cry with a crowded theater. Almost everyone has at least one memory of Barbie growing up — whether it’s playing with them yourself or watching your siblings or children have fun with them from afar. Barbie smartly uses that nostalgia as the hefty anchor to its rich satire that tackles female empowerment, masculinity, and toxicity in a very enjoyably fun way. Those themes have helped drive repeat viewings and the added bonus of dressing up in your favorite pink attire has helped to cement Barbie as the world's next pop culture movement. We shouldn’t expect that to change in its second weekend as going to a packed movie theater is finally fun again.

Can Barbie Join the Billion Dollar Club?

After crossing the half-a-billion-dollar mark, the next logical question is can it hit the billion-dollar mark? While the box office can change at any unpredictable moment, given Barbie ’s nonstop historic pace , it almost certainly can. To put it in perspective, Barbie has already passed the lifetime gross of films mentioned above like The Flash and Indiana Jones in less than a week. Its only new competition this weekend is Disney’s Haunted Mansion , but that's likely a battle already won by Mattel and Warner Brothers. While we wait for another Barbie -filled weekend, you can view the trailer for Barbie down below.