In a landscape dominated by caped crusaders and cosmic battles, a different kind of comic book movie is quietly stealing the spotlight. Viggo Mortensen's A History of Violence, David Cronenberg's pitch-black thriller from 2005, has surged onto the HBO Max charts this June, proving that gritty, grounded adaptations still have serious staying power.
Based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vincent Locke, the film follows Tom Stall (Mortensen), a small-town diner owner whose life unravels after he heroically stops a violent robbery. The act thrusts him and his family into the national spotlight—and forces him to confront a past he thought he'd buried. Think John Wick with more moral complexity and fewer neon lights.
Critics were quick to champion the film upon release. British critic Mark Kermode famously hailed Mortensen as "the new Robert De Niro," and the movie earned an 88% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus praised it for raising "compelling and thoughtful questions about the nature of violence" and for marking a triumphant return for Cronenberg after a brief hiatus.
Produced on a modest $32 million budget, A History of Violence grossed $61 million worldwide—a healthy return that paved the way for Cronenberg and Mortensen's next collaboration, Eastern Promises (2007), which earned $56 million on a $27 million budget. The duo's partnership became one of the most acclaimed actor-director pairings of the 2000s.
Now, two decades later, the film is finding a new audience on HBO Max. According to FlixPatrol, it ranked among the most-watched movies on the domestic chart this week, trailing only Steven Soderbergh's pandemic thriller Contagion. The resurgence speaks to the enduring appeal of smart, character-driven comic book adaptations—a category that also includes gems like Road to Perdition and Ghost World.
For fans of Mortensen's iconic turn as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, A History of Violence offers a starkly different showcase of his range. It's a lean, mean thriller that doesn't rely on spectacle, but on the slow burn of a man's fractured identity. If you missed it the first time—or want to revisit Cronenberg at his most accessible—now is the perfect moment.
Stay tuned to ShowtimeSpot for more streaming updates and deep dives into the movies that refuse to fade away.
