The new year has begun and that means it's time for a fresh batch of Netflix thrillers to fill your days.
Each month we select some of the best thrillers on Netflix to match the current season. Sometimes they pair well with an upcoming release. Other titles could be new additions to the platform.
This month we have an overlooked gem about Cold War spies with one of the most impressive casts of all time, a South Korean sci-fi thriller about a mysterious phone call, and a found footage psychological thriller about the horrors of online response ads.
Editor's tip: The Good Shepherd
Director: Robert De Niro
Pour: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin
If you're looking for a slow-paced Cold War-era drama about espionage and professional backstabbing, be sure to check out Robert De Niro's fictional take on the birth of the CIA. Based on the life of counterintelligence agent James Jesus Angleton. The good shepherd Matt Damon stars as Edward Wilson, a Yale graduate who is recruited to work for the CIA to fight the Nazis and eventually the Soviets. Over the years, Edward is forced to confront the contradictions between his heart and his mind, between his conscience and his profession, and to confront the truths about himself and his country that he would rather keep buried. With a running time of just under three hours The good shepherd It's not exactly a fast watch, but it's still a worthwhile watch. –Toussaint Egan
Director: Lee Chung-hyun
Stars: Park Shin-hye, Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Sung-ryung
One of the twistiest thrillers of recent times, The call It's about a young woman named Kim Seo-yeon who returns to her childhood home only to find a very strange phone that somehow connects her directly to the young woman who lived in the house 20 years ago, Oh Young -sook. However, the two find that they are not only connected by the phone, but also find that certain parts of their lives have strange overlaps, including the difficult relationships that both have with their mothers. But this exciting new connection quickly unravels when Seo-yeon discovers that Young-sook has a terrible secret and at least a few hidden agendas. This discovery leads the two into a bizarre game of cat and mouse that takes place decades apart and in different realities. —Austen Goslin
Director: Patrick Brice
Pour: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice
Is there anything as scary and unpredictable as answering an ad on the Internet? Director Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass' 2014 found footage horror film tackles this fear to its core, delivering a cinematic experience that's only half of it My dinner with Andre and the other half misery. After answering a Craigslist ad, Aaron (Brice) is recruited by Josef (Duplass) to help him film a farewell letter to his unborn son. You see, Josef is dying… or at least that's what he says. It's not long before this strange encounter takes a sinister turn when Aaron finds out that both Josef and the circumstances behind his “project” are not that, what they seem. The success of Creep has spawned two sequels, a 2017 theatrical sequel and a spin-off TV series, with a potential third film currently in development. If you're looking for a surprising, offbeat psychological horror experience that will stay with you long after the credits roll, you definitely need to give this film a try. -THE
