Netflix has a number-one movie - and it's already had the Hollywood treatment

The Devil on Trial is Netflix’s current most popular movie on Netflix right now.

If you stumble upon The Devil on Trial while browsing Netflix, you’d likely assume this was a schlocky horror movie. It isn’t — it’s a documentary about a real murder that took place in the US.

In the trial, Arne Cheyenne Johnson claimed he was possessed when he stabbed his girlfriend’s landlord multiple times in 1981, which resulted in his death.

If this sounds familiar, it may be because the story already got the Hollywood treatment as it was the inspiration for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the 2013 horror movie that ended up grossing around $320 million from a $20 million production budget.

The Devil on Trial features interviews with Johnson himself, and dramatisations of the day itself, and the strange goings-on with his brother leading up to that day.

Was it really the devil? Of course not, but you might enjoy this doc if you’re the kind of person who would consider such an idea seriously.

The Devil on Trial currently has 640 points on the Flixpatrol scale, earned through charting on Netflix’s “most popular” lists across the world.

• Stream The Devil on Trial on Netflix

Just five points behind is Gemini Man with 635 points. We don’t often see battles this close.

Gemini Man is not new, but a 2019 Will Smith action flick that was a flop at release, earning $173 million from a production budget of $138 million.

That doesn’t include marketing spend, so this really wasn’t a money-maker. Four years on, Gemini Man can finally call itself something of a hit.

Smith stars as Henry Brogan, a hitman who is stalked by a younger version of himself. Critics mostly hated it, audiences ignored it, but perhaps it’s time to give Gemini Man another chance. Bad news for UK viewers, though — it's not available on UK Netflix, not yet anyway.

Meanwhile, over at the official Netflix stat portal Tudum, Netflix original Reptile is proving hard to nudge off the movie top spot, currently spending its third week at number one. Tudum, however, lags behind Flixpatrol, which works off of more current data.

• These are the best new documentaries streaming on Netflix now.