'Coherence,' the 89% Rotten Tomatoes Sci-Fi Mind-Bender, Jumps 87 Places on Streaming

A good sci-fi thriller doesn't actually need every superhero ever created, a $200 million budget, or Christopher Nolan blowing up an actual airplane while Robert Pattinson talks backwards to make everyone's heads hurt. Actually, it can be as simple as a dinner party, a comet, a group of friends, and that slow realization that, yes, everything is going wrong outside, so maybe you should just stay indoors.

Coherence, the forgotten sci-fi thriller from 2014, has suddenly jumped 87 places on the U.S. streaming charts, and it's also been inside the top 10 chart on JustWatch. It's one of those movies you've never heard of, but you wish you had. Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead. As unexplained events begin to bend reality in frightening ways, the couples realize that visitors from a strange house down the road may be trying to prevent them from surviving the night. As the night unfolds, people experience terrifying revelations about themselves, forcing each one to question their own reality. Relationships strain under the pressure and, for at least one woman, the prospect of continuing on in the house becomes even more unbearable than whatever unknown fate lies down the road.

James Ward Byrkit directed the movie on a tiny budget, with Emily Baldoni (Five Feet Apart) leading the cast as Em alongside Maury Sterling (Homeland) as Kevin, Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Mike, Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers) as Lee, Elizabeth Gracen (Highlander: The Series) as Beth, Hugo Armstrong (Fear the Walking Dead) as Hugh, Alex Manugian as Amir, and Lauren Maher (Pirates of the Caribbean) as Laurie.

How Good Is 'Coherence'?

The movie currently holds an 89% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's just 89 minutes too which, as we often say, is the perfect length of time for a movie plus you'll spend about the same time after trying to work out exactly what you just watched. Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com praised the movie's ability to overcome its tiny budget, calling it “proof that inventive filmmakers can do a lot with a little”, while the acclaimed critic Mark Kermode in The Observer called it: "impressively stripped-down, experimental sci-fi."

Coherence is streaming now on Prime Video, Peacock and several free services in the United States.