Netflix at its best: The Woman in Cabin 10

Hello and welcome back to my weekly blogs on all things film-related.

Going forward, we will be discussing Netflix films and series. But let's begin with the 2025 Thriller, The Woman in Cabin 10.

Warning - Spoilers

Plot

An investigative journalist, Laura (Lo) Blacklock, receives an invitation from a billionaire, Anne Bullmer, who is terminally ill. She accepts the invitation and joins Anne and her husband, Richard, aboard their superyacht as they sail to Norway for a fundraising gala. Where she is going to write about their charitable foundation.

Lo stays in Cabin 10, avoiding her ex-boyfriend Ben, who is a professional photographer working for the Bullmers. She also notices a mysterious blonde woman on board. Anne reveals to Lo that she has stopped taking her medication and her plans to donate her fortune. She gives a copy of the speech to Lo.

That night on the yacht, Lo awakens to a woman's scream, a bloody handprint by Cabin 10 and witnesses someone falling overboard. She alerts the ship's crew, but records show that there is no one staying in Cabin 10, and mysteriously, the handprint disappears.

Lo spots the blonde woman in one of Ben's photos of a party, and during her spa session, someone writes "STOP" on her shower door. Adam, who attended the party, denies seeing the blonde woman and writing the message on her shower door. Lo sneaks into Cabin 10 and finds some blonde hair stuck in the sink drain, and hides it in her own room. She later believes her room has been searched after finding a button on the floor.

After nearly drowning from a push into the yacht's swimming pool and the button and hair going missing, Lo spots the woman from Cabin 10 and follows her. However, she knocks Lo unconscious and hides her.

Lo learns that Richard killed Anne after she found him kissing Carrie, the blonde woman, and dumped her overboard. Richard would be disinherited, so he arranged for Carrie to perform as a lookalike to impersonate Anne and to sign over her fortune to him. However, Carrie needs the money to help her family, but Lo warns her that Richard will kill her after she signs the will.

Robert Mehta, Anne's doctor, is ordered by Richard to kill Lo. She is saved by Ben, who is stabbed with a lethal injection. Lo jumps aboard and swims to shore. Carrie signs the will, and Lo explains Anne's murder to Sigrid Nilssen, Anne's bodyguard. Lo reads Anne's speech in front of the gala attendees. Richard takes Carrie hostage with a knife and ushers her to the dock. But he is later wounded in the shoulder, and Lo kills him with a crank.

Lo publishes Richard's crimes, and Carrie returns home to her daughter.

(L-C) Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce Image Courtesy of: Sister Holdings Limited and Netflix 

Analysis

This movie is a good watch for those interested in psychological thrillers and mysteries. For me, the movie lacked certain elements of character development, and the changes in its narrative were a little rushed. It was a lot to squeeze into 90 minutes.

I found the twist to be quite obvious to predict, and as an expected murder investigation, it wasn't as engrossing as I thought it would be.

Lo was denied all the assumptions and scenes she witnessed, from the bloody hand, the scream and the traces of hair. Until the whole turning point was revealed all at once to us.

However, the cinematography of the movie was one to credit. The moody scenes and the luxury shots that took place all over the yacht were highly executed.