Florence Pugh Says This Netflix Horror Film Is Her Biggest Career Regret

In less than a decade, Florence Pugh has become one of the biggest young actors working today. She’s had something of a meteoric rise; her first onscreen role came in the 2014 film The Falling, and in the years following, she amassed more roles, culminating in her properly breaking out in 2019, only five years after she began acting professionally. That year saw Pugh portray wildly different characters in a trio of critically acclaimed films: Fighting With My Family, Midsommar, and Little Women.

From an aspiring wrestler breaking out of her shell to a grieving woman traumatized by the loss of her family, Pugh displayed incredible versatility in each of her projects, and audiences all around the world started paying attention. Since then, she’s earned an Oscar nomination (for her role as Amy March in Little Women), become a key figure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and worked with some of the most respected directors working today, from Christopher Nolan to Denis Villeneuve. Notably, she’s only appeared in four movies that have earned “rotten” designations on Rotten Tomatoes, and she’s largely stood by everything she has done — with one exception.

The Netflix Horror Movie ‘Malevolent’ Is the Only Movie Florence Pugh Regrets Doing

One year before her explosive 2019, Pugh starred in the spooky Netflix film Malevolent and gave just a preview of what she was capable of. The Olaf de Fleur-directed movie centered on a pair of siblings (Pugh and Ben Lloyd-Hughes) who stage fake paranormal events for people who believe their homes are haunted. Pugh’s Angela acts as a medium and pretends to speak to the dead, though in reality, she finds herself increasingly burdened by strange visions and voices. It only gets worse when her brother forces them to take on a job at a country estate that was once the site of multiple grisly murders.

Malevolent was based on the novel Hush by Eva Konstantopoulos, who served as co-screenwriter of the film alongside Ben Ketai. Though the premise feels reminiscent of several other horror movies, there’s a reason it forms the basis for so many ghost stories: it’s reliable, and it gives the director ample opportunity to put their own spin on it. However, Malevolent didn’t quite live up to its potential, and Pugh realized it. In an interview on The Louis Theroux Podcast in late 2025, she admitted that she never watched the film and called it “probably the one movie that I wish I never did. I think everybody has one of those movies!” When pressed on why that is, she simply said, “It was a movie that I did when I was younger and I needed money, and I was like, ‘Well, obviously, this is great.’And then I got there, and it wasn’t great.”

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On paper, Malevolent has the ingredients for success, and Pugh likely saw that when she read the script. At that point in her career, she’d appeared in only a handful of films, and Malevolent‘s twisty haunted house story presented her the opportunity to dig into a compelling character forced into dramatic, heart-wrenching scenarios. Based on her comments, though, it seems the experience wasn’t quite what she wanted it to be. She did not suggest it was a toxic work environment; it’s more likely that, as the film came together around her, it didn’t match Pugh’s expectations.

Despite a Spooky Premise, Netflix’s ‘Malevolent’ Can’t Deliver the Scares

Image via Netflix

Those who have seen Malevolent will probably agree with Pugh. Despite its tension-filled premise, it lacks the scares expected of a haunted house plot. There are a few solid thrills early on, such as one involving a mannequin and a ghost. As the movie progresses, though, it loses any intrigue stirred up by the estate’s tragic past. A group of foster children had their mouths sewn shut before they were killed, and their spirits still linger on the property. Malevolent includes some twists about what exactly went down all those years ago, but somehow, the revelations fall flat. Ghostly figures just appear with little fanfare, characters’ reactions are dulled, gore is prioritized over substance, and outside of some strong performances from the cast, there’s little excitement.

As an early entry in Pugh’s filmography, Malevolent is at least an interesting watch for those eager to chart her evolution as an actor. It came out just one year before Midsommar — and isn’t nearly as sharp — yet Pugh’s performance already contains shades of Dani, her character in the Ari Aster film. Both Angela and Dani are left unmoored after devastating losses, and those traumas follow them into their terrifying new circumstances. Pugh is able to convey significant pain and fear with very little; she knows when to let the emotion shine through her eyes, or surface in a carefully pursed mouth. This can even be seen in her performance as the MCU’s Yelena Belova, an anti-hero burdened by her past even as she tries to do some good. The foundations for her strong character work can be seen in Malevolent.

Pugh’s track record is impressive, with her biggest projects of the last several years including Oscar darlings (Dune: Part Two and Best Picture winner Oppenheimer) and crowd-pleasers (the MCU’s Thunderbolts*) alike. Still, no actor has a perfect run, and as she said herself, everyone has a movie or two they regret. That Pugh’s came so early in her career is a testament to how good she is at picking her projects; she’s clearly learned from her experience with Malevolent and knows what she wants out of a movie. If anything, it was a solid stepping stone to the career she has now, and she has other movies she can look back on fondly.