The third installment of the Polish erotic “365 Days” saga landed on Netflix this past Friday, and the criticism it has received is pretty unanimous.
To get caught up to speed for those who haven’t watched yet, the plot follows a woman named Laura who gets kidnapped by Sicilian mafia boss Massimo, and she is given 365 days to fall in love with him. This abduction evolves into a textbook case of Stockholm syndrome, with Laura falling for (and eventually marrying) her captor.
The first film became infamous for its incredibly graphic sex scenes, and the intensity seems to have only increased in the second and third movies that followed.
The 2.7/10 rating on IMDB says it all: while audiences were never setting high standards for the quality of these movies, they’re still disappointed by ‘The Next 365 Days’. A few people described it as a “total waste of time”, ”as bad as you expect”, and yet “not as bad as the last one.”
Many came to agreement that the acting was mediocre at best, the plotline and dialogue were both lacking depth, and the unnecessary montage scenes seemed never-ending. The only redeeming qualities amongst viewers appears to be the beautiful scenery and the music choices (but even then, the music is overplayed). One user shared, “They fail to capture interest in the characters, eroticism and sex occur more in erotic fantasies than in reality, then you don’t get the necessary intensity.”
To sum up the viewers’ experience, this movie is a repetitive cycle alternating between intense sex scenes, approximiately 5 minutes of actual dialogue at a time, and montages that feel like “extended music videos”. Despite all this, some still deem these movies as their guilty pleasures.
One user on Twitter said, “Those movies are so bad I just love them so much.. Drop the next movie”, with another saying, “I am so invested in this horrible cheesy soft porn film what is wrong with me”.
How does a film with a consensus of negative feedback still manage to keep people coming back for more?
Setting the most obvious reasons aside, many felt as if this film was made solely for shock value, trying to make each film in the trilogy more graphic and scandalous than the last. It could also be human nature and curiosity; if everyone can’t stop talking about how horrible something is, it’s only natural to want to find out for yourself.
With that being said, if this film still piques your interest, “The Next 365 Days” is available to stream on Netflix now.
