The 10 Best Thriller Movies to Watch on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Prime & More

Everyone loves a good thriller. Sitting at the intersection of several subgenres, thrillers are defined by the feelings of suspense, fear, tension, and surprise they evoke in audiences. From classic thrillers like Alfred Hitchcock’s rear window, Charles Loughtons The Night of the Hunter, and Carol Reeds The third man to contemporary classics such as Fateful attraction, zodiac, and more, the genre boasts a rich and wide-ranging canon of classics made for every conceivable audience.

Looking for something exciting and cerebral to check out this weekend? We’ve compiled a list of 10 of our favorite thrillers available to stream on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Criterion Channel and more that will have your eyes glued to the screen and your palms thoroughly glued to your seat.

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blood easy

Image: Universal Studios home video

The Coen brothers’ directorial debut in 1984 blood easy is a perfect primer for the brand of darkly funny, eccentrically drawn, and idiosyncratic works they later create. The film is a hardcore neo-noir crime thriller set in Texas about a deadly love triangle between a bar owner, his wife and one of his employees. When the attempted affair and escape inevitably leads to bloodshed, the would-be lovers find themselves caught up in a tangle of money and murder. Frances McDormand shines as Abby, the dissatisfied wife at the heart of the drama, as does M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser, the sneaky hitman who stirs up the whole conflict in his own selfish bid for a quick payday. -AT THE

blood easy is available for streaming HBO Max and criterion channel.

safety

Photo: DreamWorks Pictures

Michael Mann’s 2004 neo-noir action thriller safety is one of the director’s highest-grossing films, grossing over $220 million worldwide and earning Jamie Foxx a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 77th Academy Awards. Tom Cruise plays Vincent, a hitman whose job to assassinate five targets in Los Angeles leads him to hold Max (Foxx), a cab driver who wants to start his own business, hostage in order to get him from target to target hunt target. Collateral’s nocturnal lighting and brilliant cinematography, courtesy of Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron, combine to create one of the most hypnotic and haunting portraits of LA’s metropolitan sprawl ever filmed, and Cruise’s performance as the aforementioned hitman Vincent ranks among the best of the actor. -AT THE

safety is available for streaming HBO Max.

The girl with the dragon tattoo

Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The second adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s 2005 novel, David Fincher’s 2011 thriller The girl with the dragon tattoo is as intoxicating, tight and explosive as you would expect from the director seven and zodiac. Daniel Craig (Skyfall) stars as Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced investigative journalist hired by a wealthy industrialist to investigate the disappearance of his great-niece over forty years ago. In his investigations into his client’s family, Blomkvist is assisted by Lisabeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a taciturn hacker and the film’s namesake. Graphic, intense, often enchanting and thoroughly captivating, The girl with the dragon tattoo Easily ranks among Fincher’s best, but a word of caution to all newbies: the film contains brief, if explicit, scenes of sexual violence and torture that are not for the faint of heart. -AT THE

The girl with the dragon tattoo is available for streaming Netflix.

Good time

Photo: A24

Unpolished gems The 2017 crime drama directed by Benny and John Safdie Good time is anything but. Robert Pattinson plays Connie Nikas, a petty criminal who is forced to scrape together money to bail her brother out after a botched bank robbery. Connie’s journey is a road to perdition that takes him through the darkest corners of New York City to the seedy depths of his underworld. The film is charged with the same all-or-nothing manic energy that defined the Safdies’ breakout hit, but here it’s even more fatalistic, tragic and dangerous. Also, it has a great score, thanks to the future Unpolished gems Collaborator Oneohtrix Point Never and an achingly beautiful track from punk king Iggy Pop. -AT THE

Good Time is available for streaming Netflix and canopy with library card.

m

Image: Criterion Channel

Fritz Lang’s 1931 thriller m is widely regarded as his magnum opus – perhaps only after his seminal 1927 science fiction epic metropolis — but also one of the greatest films of all time. Set in Berlin, the film follows the investigation of a psychotic child killer whose reign of terror has plunged the city into a fit of hysteria and distrust. When the Berlin criminal underground realizes that the noose is tightening around them in the police’s unsuccessful campaign to catch him, they take it upon themselves to eradicate this evil and bring him to justice. -AT THE

m is available for streaming HBO Max, criterion channel, and canopy with library card.

Nocturnal animals

Photo: focus functions

Amy Adams (sharp objects) stars in Tom Ford’s gripping neo-noir psychological thriller Nocturnal animals as Susan Morrow, a successful upper-class art gallery manager who receives a mysterious manuscript from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) along with an invitation to dinner. As Susan broods over the manuscript, an insidious and violent saga unfolds, involving a teacher whose family field trip turns into a nightmare that blurs the lines between fiction and reality and forces her to explore the wild parallels between her own life and to confront the story on the side. Nocturnal animals is a dark, dense and beautifully crafted thriller with a murderous ending that will stay with you long after its conclusion. -AT THE

Nocturnal animals is available for streaming Netflix.

shutter Island

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Martin Scorsese’s ominous psychological thriller shutter Island proved a colossal critical and commercial success upon its initial release in 2010, and appreciation for the film’s nuanced visuals and pacing has only continued in the decade since. Leonardo DiCaprio’s role as Edward “Teddy” Daniels, a US Marshal whose investigation into missing persons at the film’s eponymous psychiatric facility quickly becomes a descent into the darkness of his own psyche, is among the actor’s best, with the last one being Line of Character Changed What was already an unnerving third act became one of the most chilling and memorable of Scorsese’s entire oeuvre. -AT THE

Nocturnal animals is available for streaming Netflix and Pluto TV.

The Night of the Hunter

Image: The Criterion Channel

The only film produced by actor and director Charles Laughton The Night of the Hunter is hailed by many as one of the most masterful films to ever hit the big screen. At the heart of the film’s enduring legacy is Robert Mitchum’s iconic portrayal as Harry Powell, a misogynistic serial killer with a flair for subtle theatrics. The film, which initially focuses on Powell’s scheme to con a gullible widow to uncover the whereabouts of a stolen $10,000 stash, later unfolds into an odyssey through a rich expanse of heavily silhouetted environments as the children of the Widow desperately try to hint at the mad preacher’s murderous intentions. If you’re looking for a classic thriller with beautiful visuals, a moving score and unforgettable performances, The Night of the Hunter offers all of these in abundance. -AT THE

The Night of the Hunter is available for streaming Amazon Prime Video, criterion channel, Tube, and Pluto TV.

insanity

Image: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Steven Soderbergh’s 2018 psychological thriller insanity Claire Foy plays Sawyer Valenti, a young woman who is involuntarily committed to a mental institution in what she believes is an elaborate conspiracy orchestrated by her stalker. Shot entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus, the film is tense and claustrophobic, with imagery consisting mostly of close-ups that heavily emphasize Foy’s frenzied performance. If you are looking for a true psychological thriller mind-screw, insanity is it. -AT THE

insanity is available for streaming Hi and canopy with library card.