Generally you need Netflix to supply consolation meals, and different instances you need it to present you a jolt to the system. When it is the latter, you will need a good thriller that won’t go heavy on the blood and gore, however nonetheless manages to rattle you to your core. The streaming service has a strong number of picks from the style, however they’ve additionally bought numerous different motion pictures labeled beneath “thriller” that would not be the very best use of your time, so we have got an up to date checklist of the very best thriller motion pictures on Netflix to save lots of you some scrolling.
When you want a little bit of steering on what thrillers it is best to try, have a look at our suggestions beneath.
Editor’s Be aware: This text was final up to date on November 16.
-
Lately Added: Spiderhead
-
Lately Eliminated: Degree 16, Freaks
Director: Joseph Kosinski | Runtime: 107 minutes
Solid: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, Mark Paguio
Director Joseph Kosinski made fairly a splash in 2022 with Prime Gun: Maverick however his Netflix thriller Spiderhead is simply as participating. Set at a non-public analysis facility/jail, the movie stars Chris Hemsworth as an enigmatic scientist who’s working chemical checks on the prisoners. Miles Teller performs one of many prisoners, who begins to query the aim of the experiments they’re being subjected to. It is a gripping movie that escalates slowly however absolutely towards a moderately surprising twist. Teller and Hemsworth share glorious chemistry and Jurnee Smollett‘s efficiency is each layered and endearing. With nice appearing and a gripping narrative, Spiderhead is likely one of the greatest motion pictures Netflix has launched this yr. The truth that the movie’s premise is one that would very effectively be a actuality quickly simply makes it all of the extra highly effective. – Remus Noronha
Watch on Netflix
Director: Zak Hilditch | Runtime: 101 minutes
Solid: Thomas Jane, Neal McDonough, Dylan Schmid, and Molly Parker
That is for while you need an actual slow-burner, and we do imply sluggish. Primarily based on the Stephen King novella of the identical identify, 1922 strikes ever so slowly with a darkish inevitability that attracts you in. It is not too heavy on the gore and but manages to instill a horrible sense of worry within the viewer. The story is narrated by (and facilities round) a farmer named Wilfred “Wilf” James (Thomas Jane), who decides to kill his spouse Arlette (Molly Parker). Easy sufficient, proper? However what follows is the story of excellent individuals consumed by the results of greed. It is unsettling, macabre, nearly on par with the most intense Edgar Allan Poe tales. That is simply some of the gripping thrillers that Netflix has to supply. – Remus Noronha
Watch on Netflix
Director: John Madden | Run Time: 128 minutes
Solid: Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Penelope Wilton
Primarily based on real-life occasions, Operation Mincemeat is a tense historic warfare drama about some of the daring deceptions that received World Struggle II. The film stars Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen as two intelligence operatives who concoct a scheme to make use of a useless physique to divert consideration from the Allies’ assault on Sicily. Whereas maybe not as gripping as a few of the different entries on this checklist, Operation Mincemeat does contain numerous twists and turns. Quite a few obstacles, each foreseen and in any other case, constantly pop up all through the planning and execution of the operation. However the spy drama parts are balanced with character moments and a few attention-grabbing exploration of the relationships that type between the individuals concerned within the scheme. – Remus Noronha
Watch on Netflix
Director: J Blakeson | Run Time: 118 minutes
Solid: Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Chris Messina, Macon Blair
This 2020 black comedy film earned Rosamund Pikea Golden Globe for her position as a ruthless con artist who preys on the aged. I Care a Lot follows the story of Marla Grayson (Pike), a court-appointed guardian who makes use of her authorized maintain over her victims to take management of their belongings. Her sordid rip-off hits a snag when her newest mark, a lady who calls herself Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest) seems to be related to a harmful gangster, performed by the enduring Peter Dinklage. With darkish humor, biting satire, and a wild story, I Care a Lot ought to undoubtedly be on each thriller fan’s watchlist. – Remus Noronha
Watch on Netflix
Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia | Run Time: 94 minutes
Solid: Iván Massagué, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale, Alexandra Masangkay
A superb high-concept thriller that toes the road between genres, The Platform is ready inside the confines of an impossibly tall constructing the place residents both feast or famine relying on which ground they’re on. Day-after-day, an enormous desk is filled with a banquet of meals and slowly dropped by the constructing, one ground to the following, with the oldsters on prime thriving in gluttony whereas these far beneath them starve to demise – however there is a catch, each occasionally, the inhabitants are gassed, reshuffled, and so they by no means know which ground they are going to get up on subsequent. It’s kind of of a protracted set-up, however a tremendously efficient automobile, each for the social themes it explores and the continuous suspense of investigating the beak world between these cramped partitions. – Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Alexandre Aja | Run Time: 101 minutes
Solid: Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi
From Excessive Stress to The Hills Have Eyes to Crawl, Alexandre Aja is answerable for a few of the most pulse-pounding, skin-crawling, relentlessly intense motion pictures of the twenty first Century. Along with his 2021 Netflix unique Oxygen, the filmmaker steps (barely) again from the horror and leans all the way in which in on the thrills, following a lady (Mélanie Laurent) who wakes up in a cryogenic pod with no reminiscence of who she is, how she bought there, or – her greatest drawback – what to do about her quickly dwindling provide of oxygen. Aja does not absolutely depart behind his horror contact and the thrives of physique horror solely serve to additional ramp up your adrenaline. Oxygen does not all the time land its twists earlier than you work them out, however when a filmmaker is as attuned to dialing up the stress as Aja is, your abdomen’s gonna wind up in your throat whether or not you see the following drop within the observe coming or not. – Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Tom Ford | Run Time: 116 minutes
Solid: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher
When you’re within the temper for an neglected thriller with an incredible solid, twisty plot, and beautiful aesthetic, try Nocturnal Animals. The movie is the second directorial effort from Tom Ford after the critically acclaimed A Single Man and follows an artwork gallery proprietor (Amy Adams) as she reads the brand new novel written by her first husband (Jake Gyllenhaal). As she reads the novel, the occasions inside play out on the display and also you being to attach the dots between this supposedly fictional story and the gallery proprietor’s real-life – and the rationale her marriage fractured within the first place. – Adam Chitwood
Watch on Netflix
Director: Mike Flanagan | Run Time: 103 minutes
Solid: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Kate Siegel, Henry Thomas
In novella type, Gerald’s Recreation makes for certainly one of Stephen King’s queasiest, most relentlessly gripping works. It’s the very definition of a page-turner, preserving you glued to the following phrase, following one lady’s seemingly not possible combat to outlive a really sluggish, silent demise whereas tending to the trauma she’s buried deep inside herself. It’s additionally totally first-person, going down contained in the thoughts of a lady left handcuffed to the mattress in a distant cabin after her husband dies of a coronary heart assault in the course of a tryst. Understandably, it was lengthy thought unfilmable, however Mike Flanagan’s tender, terrifying 2017 adaptation proved the naysayers mistaken with a heartfelt however oh-so-horrifying movie that’s trustworthy to King’s work in all the proper methods. Gore-phobes be warned although! At its core, Gerald’s Recreation is a stunning movie about surviving trauma, however it’s also a brutal survival movie and one climactic scene (which was infamously laborious to learn, not to mention watch) wins the gold star for probably the most vocal viewers freak-out I’ve ever heard in a movie show. – Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Dan Gilroy | Run Time: 113 minutes
Solid: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Toni Collette
When you favored Nightcrawler, it is best to try author/director Dan Gilroy’s sort of insane Netflix film Velvet Buzzsaw. One half thriller and one half slasher, the film is ready within the artwork world and revolves round a cache of artwork that’s discovered to have been created by a mysterious and deceased artist. As soon as it is placed on show, individuals start dying in grisly methods. The movie has numerous darkish humor to it, and Jake Gyllenhaal offers a actually colourful efficiency as Gilroy goes for the jugular so far as the artwork world is worried. – Adam Chitwood
Watch on Netflix
Director: Susanne Bier | Run Time: 124 minutes
Solid: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Jacki Weaver, Danielle Macdonald
Netflix squeezed in a single final streaming sensation earlier than the top of 2018 with Chook Field, the star-studded and meme-friendly new thriller starring Sandra Bullock as a mom attempting to guard her youngsters in an apocalyptic world Set throughout two timelines, Chook Field follows a bunch of survivors by the top of the world after a mysterious power begins inflicting individuals to kill themselves on sight. Naturally, that units up director Susanne Bierfor loads of thrills and gags primarily based on the anxiousness of attempting to outlive with out sight (some extra plausible than others) and he or she makes use of the chance for all its price, staging some pulse-pounding set-pieces within the combat for survival. Bullock carries Chook Field with a commanding efficiency that reminds you why she’s an old-school film star and he or she’s matched by Trevante Rodes, who units his allure degree to “dangerously excessive” and John Malkovich, who leans into his reward for taking part in good males of a nasty disposition that you just simply can’t assist however love/hate. — Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Gareth Evans | Run Time: 129 minutes
Solid: Dan Stevens, Lucy Boynton, Michael Sheen, Mark Lewis Jones, Kristine Froseth
Brace your self for some bloody, brutal thrills with Apostle, the horror-thriller from The Raid director Gareth Evans, who turns his attentions from breathless motion to stomach-churning stress. Legion star Dan Stevens delivers one other swing-for-the-fences efficiency as a person who infiltrates a rural cult that’s taken his sister hostage and discovers some deeply disturbing truths behind the utopian facade. Evans’ slow-burn pays off with a mighty explosion of viscera, and a powerful abdomen is required for the blood-soaked finale, which veers from suspense to full-on carnage. — Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Daniel Goldhaber | Run Time: 95 minutes
Solid: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Samantha Robinson, Melora Walters, Imani Hakim
A tense thriller about ambition, id, and survival within the web age, Cam stars Madeline Brewer as Alice, a profitable cam lady intent on climbing to the highest of the ranks — an ambition that’s going moderately effectively till she logs on someday to seek out she’s been changed by a cheerful doppelganger who’s taken her face and her profession. From there, Cam follows Alice down a surreal rabbit gap as she tries to find who’s behind her new internet clone and how one can reclaim her life, constructing a rising sense of unease and sick helplessness as Alice’s actuality drops out from beneath her. Screenwriter Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber are a dynamite artistic crew, who carry a refreshing sex-positive, non-exploitative method to the usually untouched subject material whereas staging a blinding and disorienting plummet by the pitfalls of web id and the depth of bold careerism. — Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Cate Shortland | Run Time: 116 minutes
Solid: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt
Clare Havel (Teresa Palmer) is a younger Australian photojournalist on trip in Berlin. She’s residing the dream. Taking within the sights, falling in love with a brand new metropolis, and simply possibly falling in love with a good-looking native man, Andi (Max Riemelt), who strikes up a passionate romance along with her. However after she goes again to his place for a romantic evening, she wakes as much as the following morning to comprehend he is locked her in his residence on his option to work, and with a sluggish dawning terror, she understands that he by no means intends to let her out. That is how we enter Berlin Syndrome, Cate Shortland‘s taut thriller, which takes us by each step of their courtship and Clare’s subsequent imprisonment in a slow-burn portrait of psychological terror and the human capability for survival.
Palmer is great within the position of a wise lady in captivity, who discovers new depths of energy with every passing day, and Shaun Grant‘s script offers her nice materials to work with, by no means treating Clare like a idiot. She makes intelligent, assertive selections the entire manner by, a indisputable fact that incites you to root for her and drastically notches up the stress on the similar time. Her intuition for survival is met by Andi’s capability for cruelty, unfolding a bit every day as Clare realizes how dire her predicament actually is. Consummately tense and emotionally difficult, Berlin Syndrome kicks up a sluggish boil battle of the wits that continuously notches up the dread and pays off in a breathless finale. — Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Patrick Bice | Run Time: 77 minutes
Solid: Mark Duplass, Patrick Bice
Who knew Mark Duplass might be so rattling creepy? Duplass labored with director, co-writer and co-star Patrick Bice to discover the psyche of “Josef” a mysterious and deeply unsettling man whose want for intimacy spurs him to publish a Craigslist advert searching for a filmmaker to chronicle his unusual story. There’s only one drawback — he might or is probably not a killer. Bice stars as Aaron, the younger filmmaker who lands the job and as soon as he units foot on Josef’s turf, Aaron is immersed in an uncomfortable and strange scenario that all the time threatens to go off the rails. As Josef, Duplass channels the charming, disarming and freaky as hell disposition of company snakes and thriving sociopaths. Is he a killer or only a weirdo you may’t say no to? Bice and Duplass have enjoyable enjoying with viewers expectations all the way in which as much as the finale payoff — a unbelievable, earned second that cements the stress for lengthy after the movie. And here is much more excellent news: If Creep offers you the thrills you are searching for, the sequel is simply pretty much as good.– Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix
Director: Jim Mickle | Run Time: 115 minutes
Solid: Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, Michael C. Corridor, Rachel Keller
Jim Mickle‘s sci-fi crime thriller mixes up time journey, Zodiac-like ranges of obsessive detective work, and a splash of politics with this underseen Netflix unique. Boyd Holbrook stars as a police officer who stumbles into horrendous sequence of crimes and winds up locked within the cat-and-mouse change that can outline many years of his life… and blend him up in some twisted, tragic time-travel saga that would save the way forward for the nation. An obsessive crime drama that principally retains it lowkey regardless of the intense stakes, Within the Shadow of the Moon has an occasional unlucky behavior of considering it is extra forward of the viewers than it truly is, however its nonetheless an intriguing, engrossing, and rattling handsome time-travel saga that is effectively price a watch. — Haleigh Foutch
Watch on Netflix