Best Thrillers on Netflix: 13 Movies For Suspenseful Streaming

DESCRIPTION: If you loved the sincerity of Steven Yeun’s Oscar-nominated turn in Minari, broaden your knowledge of his formidable skills by watching him smolder in Korean drama Burning. This slow-burn of a thriller features the actor as the mysterious, magnetic Ben, a Gatsby-like nouveau riche South Korean with an unconventional hobby. Ben emerges out of nowhere as a romantic rival to the sheepish Jong-su, and his presence sparks a small flame that will soon engulf their lives. Give it time – the patience of director Lee Chang-dong really pays off.

CAST: Steven Yeun, Yoo Ah-in, Jong-seo Jun

RATED: Not Rated

Watch Burning on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: The “found footage” style is now often just a cheap shorthand for authenticity abused by lazy filmmakers. Creep actually knows how to use the technique to thrilling effect, capturing a first-person POV with consistency and purpose. The film is quite the duet between Patrick Brice, the film’s director who co-stars with co-writer Mark Duplass; the two play a videographer on a mysterious assignment and the increasingly unhinged man who hires him, respectively.

CAST: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice

RATED: R

Watch Creep on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: You don’t need to be an English major or Edgar Allan Poe scholar to appreciate the thrills of The Pale Blue Eye. This tale of macabre murders haunting the West Point campus is, we are led to believe, somewhat of an “origin story” for America’s great poet of Gothic horror (played here by Harry Melling). But it’s an edge-of-your-seat mystery investigated by detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) that sweeps him up and sharpens his senses – and ours as viewers – that proves the main attraction. Just when you think you have a hold of where the movie is going, it shape-shifts before your eyes.
CAST: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson
RATING: R

Watch The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: The methodical, moody stylings of Sofia Coppola in the body of … a thriller? Say it ain’t so, but her take on The Beguiled is a slow simmer of tension that erupts into a full boil when a stranger upsets the balance of power inside a girls school in Civil War-era Virginia. Then again, is it any surprise that the arrival of Colin Farrell, a wounded Union soldier, would release all the repressed sexual longing across multiple generations of women? You’ll be on the edge of your seat with each line delivery until the matriarchal figure played by Nicole Kidman utters the humdinger of them all: “Bring me the anatomy book.”

CAST: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst

RATING: R

Watch The Beguiled on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: There’s something to be said for digging your fangs into a movie with a main character who’s unapologetically ruthless. Rosamund Pike’s Marla, a legal guardian who has exploited loopholes and oversights in the system to enrich herself, is far from a caricatured villain. The genius of I Care a Lot is that the film gives her plenty of airtime to explain her rationalizations, however backward they might be. She gets quite a run for her money when her latest mark, Dianne Wiest’s Jennifer Peterson, turns out to be the mother of a mobster. Sparks fly when her twisted justifications meet real muscle – and filmmaker J Blakeson keeps us on the edge of our seat to watch how far Marla will go to protect what she’s built.

CAST: Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Dianne Wiest

RATED: R

Watch I Care a Lot on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: Some Netflix Originals arrive and settle into the streaming service with previous little fanfare, but not so with Bird Box, which became a must-watch phenomenon almost immediately upon its release. Sandra Bullock plays Malorie Hayes, a woman who – along with her two children – has managed to survive an apocalyptic event that caused suicides all over the world. After hearing reports of a community of survivors, Malorie and the kids embark on an expedition to find this refuge, but there’s a small catch: to avoid being stricken by the suicidal impulse, one must wear a blindfold, making the journey exceedingly treacherous.

CAST: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson

RATED: R

Watch Bird Box on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: Fans of the sci-fi thriller Cube will love this creepy Spanish film by director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. Goreng (Ivan Massague) awakens in a concrete cell, one which – per his cellmate (Zorion Eguileor) – is located inside a “Vertical Self-Management Center.” Put simply, it’s a multi-level prison. Residents can bring one personal item, and once they’re inside, they’re randomly reassigned to a new level monthly. The catch comes with the food: it comes down via the platform, which stops on each floor, and how much food you get depends on which level you’re on…as does whether you starve to death before your release.

CAST: Ivan Massague, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan, Emilio Buale

RATED:  Not rated

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)

Watch The Platform on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: You’ve seen a true crime movie before, but have you ever seen one that unfurls entirely from a computer? The ingenious “screen movie” format, which literalizes just how much of our lives are experienced through screens, adds additional heightened stakes to the tale of a teenager investigating the mysterious disappearance of her mother. The kidnapping thriller that makes up the core of Missing might occasionally stretch believability to stay true to the aesthetic belt of chastity, but the overall cleverness shines through any occasional clunkiness.
CAST: Storm Reid, Nia Long, Ken Leung
RATING: PG-13

Watch Missing on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: Let the debate rage on about whether Fair Play truly constitutes an erotic thriller in the classical Adrien Lyne sense of the subgenre. But it’s undeniable that this contemporary tale of millennial politics in the workplace and the bedroom is charged and thrilling. As a young couple tries to navigate one member getting promoted at the expense of another, their fraught interactions reveal the unsettled nature of the gender divide that still exists in the professional world. Dynevor holds the screen as a woman trying to hold her own in a male-dominated and misogynistic financial world, but it’s Ehrenreich who owns it as he sorts through his simmering resentments.
CAST: Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, Eddie Marsan
RATING: R

Watch Fair Play on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: In 2011, a far-right extremist opened fire at a Norwegian youth camp, killing 77 people and sending shockwaves through the tranquil Nordic country. Bourne director Paul Greengrass does not shy away from the brutality of this violent act, rendering it in detail that underscores the gravity and tragedy of this massacre. But just as compelling to watch is when the film shifts into the mode of a legal thriller as the perpetrator’s trial becomes more than just about one man. It’s a haunting, foreboding look at a future where discontents of diversity and multiculturalism become emboldened to commit acts of heinous violence.

CAST: Anders Danielsen Lie, Jonas Strand Gravli, Jon Øigarden

RATED: R

Watch 22 July on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: Every few years, Adam Sandler reminds us that he’s not just phoning it in – he’s a genuinely talented actor willing to use his comedic chops and outsized personality to bring an outrageous character to life. The Safdie Brothers crank that talent up to 11 in Uncut Gems, a film so stressful in its cinematic tension that the pressure generate could generate a diamond. Sandler’s Howard Ratner, trade name “Howie Bling,” is a diamond dealer with a compulsive gambling habit and penchant for getting himself into binds with impossible odds. Warning: you may develop high blood pressure from watching him try to wiggle his way out of the stickiest situation ever here.

CAST: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Lakeith Stanfield

RATED: R

Watch Uncut Gems on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: If your only knowledge of Spike Lee is from capital-I “Important” movies that explicitly deal with American race relations, it’s time to broaden your horizons. His Dog Day Afternoon-inflected bank heist film Inside Man is about as invigorating a thriller as you’re likely to see coming from the Hollywood system. It’s not apolitical, either; read between the lines to see plenty of biting commentary around suspicions of criminality in post-9/11 NYC.

CAST: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster

RATING: R

Watch Inside Man on Netflix

DESCRIPTION: The single-take action scene is now reaching the point of parody, but Romain Gavras’ Athena makes a strong case for why the oner is so effective when deployed with purpose and propulsion. The film’s extended takes plunge the audience into the clash of cops vs. civilians in the Paris banlieus as the filmed killing of an unarmed civilians brings simmering tensions to an outright boil. This is a war film, and the immersive camerawork makes each scene feel like a true battle.
CAST: Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon
RATED: R

Watch Athena on Netflix