I feel pretty confident that “When Fall is Coming,” Prime Video’s new thriller movie that arrived on the streaming service earlier this week, isn’t going to make a major splash on the platform. After all, this French movie grossed less than $150,000 upon its limited U.S. theatrical release back in April. So, it’s certainly a 2025 movie that has been flying under the radar.
Its relative lack of audience attention has nothing to do with its overall quality. This is anything but a movie that deserves to be forgotten about, buried at the bottom of Prime Video’s expansive movie library. Quite the opposite. Writer/director François Ozon’s latest feature has earned rave reviews, with a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now that I've streamed it myself on Prime Video, I can confirm it’s worthy of high praise.
“When Fall is Coming” (released as “When Autumn Falls” in some European regions) is a twisting thriller packed with morally grey intentions, and a cast of well-developed characters who feel like real people rather than genre archetypes. Its slower pacing will be off-putting to some, but if you’re willing to commit, in “When Fall is Coming” you’ll find one of the best thrillers of 2025 you (probably) haven’t seen yet.
What is ‘When Fall is Coming’ about?
Michelle (Hélène Vincent) is a retired senior living in a quaint Burgundy village. Eager to spend time with her young grandson, Lucas (Garlan Erlos), and also repair her fractured relationship with her adult daughter, Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier), things go disastrously wrong when she inadvertently serves Valérie poisoned mushrooms. The already frosty relationship between mother and daughter worsens, and Michelle is forbidden from seeing Lucas again.
Devastated that she won’t get to spend the summer with her beloved grandson, and feeling like her relationship with her daughter may be irreparably damaged, she is comforted by her best friend, Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko). Soon afterwards, Marie-Claude’s son is released from prison and begins to bond with Michelle while working at her home.
Ex-con Vincent (Pierre Lottin) has big dreams of opening his own business, and also attempts to help Michelle, as she seeks a route back into Lucas’ life. But these efforts lead to surprising consequences for all involved, and the situation escalates as true motivations are questioned.
‘When Fall is Coming’ is a richly rewarding watch
“When Fall is Coming” may not be a thriller full of action moments or high-concept ideas, but it has plenty to offer for viewers who give it a chance (and stick with it until the end). While its opening act plays more like a family drama, as events spiral, there is a real air of mystery to soak in, and most intriguing is how every character’s motivations become increasingly hard to decipher.
Take, for example, when Michelle accidentally fed her daughter poisoned mushrooms picked from the surrounding area. Initially, this is presented as an honest mistake, but as the movie progresses, this is called into question. And at one point, Michelle herself even admits she doesn’t know if it was an accident or a subconscious act with intent to remove the obstacle standing in the way of her seeing her young grandson.
This is just one example of several. Throughout “When Fall is Coming,” we see characters often make (rather questionable) decisions with their true motivations hard to read. It makes for a supremely compelling watch. And while I’m eager to avoid revealing spoilers, the third act takes a leap that really worked for me, and brings things to a conclusion that will stay with you.
Beyond its various twists and secrets (there’s even a brief supernatural element to add even more intrigue), there’s also plenty of strong character work. The movie thoughtfully comments on everything from the burden of trying to bridge a fractured relationship to the merits of giving people a second chance after they make a mistake. Strong performances from the whole cast, especially Hélène Vincent, only add to the realistic tone.
Don’t skip ‘When Fall is Coming’ on Prime Video
“When Fall is Coming” may not have left a significant imprint on the global box office, but the critics were impressed. It currently holds a remarkable 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is more than enough for a Certified Fresh seal of approval and makes it one of the highest-rated movies added to any popular streaming service this month.
RT’s Critics Consensus reads, “Director François Ozon deftly walks a tonal tightrope with ‘When Fall is Coming,' a darkly funny thriller given genuine humanity by Hélène Vincent.”
Meanwhile, Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter praised the movie for being “perfectly calibrated to inspire post-screening debates over whether character X or Y is guilty,” and Manohla Dargis of The New York Times labeled it “a sleek, modestly scaled entertainment about families, secrets and obligations.”
It's easy to imagine “When Fall is Coming” getting overshadowed by some of the more accessible thrillers added to Prime Video this month, such as “A Working Man” or “Black Bag,” but I hope it’s able to carve out its own little spot within the platform’s movie library. It's slower pacing won’t grip everybody, but underneath the initial family drama setup, there are numerous secrets to uncover, and as they start to tumble out, "When Fall is Coming" becomes a lot more captivating than it may first appear.
However, if you’re still not convinced that “When Fall is Coming” is quite to your taste, be sure to check out our full roundup of everything new on Prime Video in September 2025.
Stream "When Fall is Coming" on Prime Video now
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