Why a star-studded 2004 thriller became one of the lowest-rated films in history
In short: Twisted arrived in 2004 with a high-profile director and a powerhouse cast, yet it collapsed into a critical and commercial disaster. Despite the pedigree of Ashley Judd and Samuel L. Jackson, the psychological thriller was panned as a clichéd, implausible mess that failed to recoup its fifty-million-dollar production budget.
Directed by Philip Kaufman and written by Sarah Thorp, Twisted follows Jessica Shepard, a San Francisco police inspector struggling with alcoholism and the trauma of her father’s past murders. When her former sexual partners begin turning up dead, Shepard becomes the prime suspect. The investigation forces her to confront the possibility that she is repeating her father's violent history, especially as she suffers from mysterious blackouts during the killings.
The film’s plot hinges on a series of murders committed with a yawara, a weapon Shepard is trained to use. While the narrative attempts to build tension through her internal conflict and the suspicion of her colleagues, it ultimately reveals that her mentor, Commissioner John Mills, is the true culprit. Mills, driven by a twisted sense of moral guardianship and guilt over his own affair with Shepard’s mother, orchestrated the deaths to control Shepard’s life and legacy.
Despite the involvement of seasoned talent, the film was universally rejected by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a dismal 2% approval rating from 134 reviews, with an average score of 3/10. Metacritic echoed this sentiment, assigning it a score of 26 out of 100. Critics labeled the film a risible, overheated potboiler, noting that the role-reversal at the heart of the story felt entirely contrived.
Financially, the project was a failure. Produced on a budget of $50 million, the film earned a worldwide gross of just under $41 million. This box-office performance, combined with its reputation as one of the lowest-rated films on major review aggregators, cemented its status as a notable misfire in the psychological thriller genre.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Twisted (2004 film)
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