The best thrillers to watch on Netflix in December 2023

When it comes to Christmas cheer, you’re probably covered. Everyone tries to do that. How about some holiday chill? Something that makes you want to wrap the blanket around yourself tighter or maybe spill a little eggnog?

Our selection for this month is a slow apocalypse from the creator of Mr. Robot and two modern classics that are worth revisiting or revisiting for zeitgeist reasons.

Editor’s tip: Leave the World Behind

Myha'la, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts stand next to each other and stare worriedly at a television in the Netflix film Leave the World Behind

Director: Sam Esmail
Pour: Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la, Julia Roberts

Netflix’s latest big release is the Isolated Nail Biter Leave the world behinda story about what happens when a vacationing family is faced with unexpected visitors just as a cyberattack cuts them off from all communication.

Based on the novel by Rumaan Alam, Leave the world behind is part eat-the-rich drama, part social criticism, part apocalyptic science fiction, all with a dash of writer-director Sam Esmail’s signature techno-paranoia. Its slow-paced script delivers unsettling moments that will keep you hooked throughout its 141-minute running time, and the small cast – which also includes an exceptional performance from Mahershala Ali – leaves plenty of room to process and respond to events and small grievances privileged incompetence.

It’s less about how the world ends (if you’re just looking for answers you’re probably going to be dissatisfied) and more about how we’ll end up knowledge The world is ending – the stark, frightening difference between having access to everything you want to know and having nothing.

Black Swan

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Pour: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel

Netflix’s other big release this month is May December, Todd Haynes’ peppy new melodrama loosely based on the true story of convicted sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau, starring award-winning actors Natalie Portman, Charles Melton and Julianne Moore. It’s as good an excuse as any to visit again Black Swanthe film that earned Portman her first Oscar after multiple nominations.

Portman plays Nina Sayers, a New York ballerina who gives in to her obsession when her company’s prima ballerina retires, leaving the coveted dual role of White and Black Swan in her production Swan Lake

to win. Nina’s ability to play just one of the roles to her director’s satisfaction sends her into paranoia as she begins to believe that a new ballerina, Lily (Mila Kunis), is there to replace her and perhaps seduce her.

Probably Darren Aronofsky’s best film, Black Swan is the perfect combination of the director’s penchant for walking the line between captivating the audience and making them feel immensely uncomfortable. Black Swan blurs the line between what’s real and imagined, sinking further into Nina’s frayed perspective the more the audience wants to break away from it. The result is unforgettable and deeply disturbing.

Prometheus

Director: Ridley Scott
Pour: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba

Before Ridley Scott gave historians quite a surprise with his magnificent epic Napoleon, he did that divisive extraterrestrial The prequel was quite an imposition for fans of the renowned science fiction franchise. Have you ever wondered about the Space Jockey or the origin of the Xenomorphs? I’ve spent years reading supplemental comics and watching sequels, wondering if we’d ever find out what lay at the heart of the many mysteries presented by the 1979 classic. Well, here’s your answer: God is real and he hates you.

No matter how inhumane it may be, Prometheus Still at the peak of his powers as a thrilling sci-fi horror director, Ridley Scott chronicles the slow catastrophe of a Weyland Corporation expedition to LV-223 in search of a progenitor race that gave birth to life on Earth.

Strikingly sparse, wonderfully paced and with the most gripping body horror in the long-running franchise since the original film. Prometheus is an absolute classic in the science fiction thriller canon. And maybe, with a little open mind, in the Alien franchise too.