Thrillers often tow a fine line between intricate dramas and no-holds-barred horror films. Relying less on monsters and butchering, the dread and chills of a solid thriller are typically born of mesmerizing performances, captivating (if not elusive) cinematography, unsettling scores, and tightly wound stories that unfold in slow but uncomfortable ways.
If you love thrillers, Netflix is a great place to go. The streaming giant is loaded with high-quality thrillers, both classic and original. But if you’re not exactly sure what you’re in the mood for, you’re in luck: We’ve rounded up the best thrillers currently available on Netflix. Be sure to check back because we update this list as new titles become available.
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Molly’s Game (2017)
In Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, Jessica Chastain stars as Molly Bloom, a disqualified Olympic skier that trades her sporting career to helm one of the world’s most prolific underground poker rings. Building up her clientele through years of running her once-boss Dean’s underground games, Molly’s late-night players include Hollywood celebrities, athletes, businessmen, and the Russian mob. Based on Bloom’s 2014 memoir, the film has been praised for its scale and scope, Chastain’s performance, and Sorkin’s sharp directing.
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Michael Cera, Kevin Costner
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Rating: R
Runtime: 141 minutes
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
The art world is a strange one to live in, particularly when the tortured spirits of dead artists start wreaking havoc on the outside world. These are the cards we’re dealt with Dan Gilroy’s insanely odd Velvet Buzzsaw, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Morf Vandewalt, an eccentric art critic that comes in contact with the possessed paintings of Vetril Dease (Alan Mandell). Death, dismemberment, and other macabre occurrences soon descend on the principal players, leaving us to wonder where the line is drawn between reality and fiction. Big, odd, and loaded with color, Velvet Buzzsaw is one you won’t forget.
Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette
Director: Dan Gilroy
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Blue Ruin (2013)
Dwight (Macon Blair) lives on the fringes as a disparate beach bum, scrounging for food and shelter. One night, a police officer visits the recluse in his overnight confines (a rusted blue sedan) to alert him that the man that killed his parents is being released from prison. What follows is a revenge attempt that goes haywire, pitting Dwight against the deranged family of his parents’ murderer. Cementing Jeremy Saulnier as a filmmaker to follow, Blue Ruin is an uncompromising, character-driven thriller with plenty of death and decay along the way for devout horror fans.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stars: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Rating: R
Runtime: 90 minutes
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a cardiovascular surgeon who leads a Stepford-esque life. He has a beautiful wife, two beautiful children, and a spotless household. But one thing is out of place. Martin (Barry Keoghan), a fatherless teen who seems intent on inserting himself into the doctor’s life in increasingly frightening ways. Martin, it soon comes to pass, has truly menacing intentions.
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Stars: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
It Comes at Night (2017)
It Comes at Night is a slow burn that is as creepy and unyielding as its name suggests. The film picks up in medias res, an untold time after a mysterious apocalypse has left the world with few survivors. Outdoors, an unspeakable horror exists, plaguing the entire planet. Two families are forced to share a home, caught in an uneasy alliance against the evil that lurks outside.
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 minutes
Killing Them Softly (2012)
Adapted from George V. Higgins’ 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade, Killing Them Softly stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a hitman hired to track down a band of amateur thieves that robbed a Mafia-sanctioned poker game. The suspects at large are Squirrel (Vincent Curatola) and his hired thugs, Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn). As Jackie zeroes in on the perpetrators, old friends become enemies, the bullets start flying, and the bodies start dropping. Nominated for the 2012 Palme d’Or, writer-director Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly boasts an unbelievable cast of frequent Mafioso players like James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta, along with a carefully layered script for the film’s mighty talents to dig into.
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Stars: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini
Director: Andrew Dominik
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 minutes
Knock Knock (2015)
In Eli Roth’s Knock Knock, Keanu Reeves is Evan, a happily married father of two who makes one hell of a bad decision. While his wife and children are away for the weekend, two women arrive at Evan’s front door. One is Genesis (Lorenza Izzo), and the other is Bell (Ana de Armas). They’re lost and can’t recall the address of a party they’re trying to get to. Evan lets them in to use his internet, which quickly escalates into something extramarital…and deadly. Written by Roth, Guillermo Amoedo, and Nicolás López, Knock Knock is a remake of the 1977 film Death Games, reimagined for the modern-day. Roth devotees may be let down by the lack of gore, but Knock Knock plays as an erotic thriller, not a bloodbath. It’s the kind of film that ramps up the pain in other ways, and often slower than something that just leaps out and bites.
Rotten Tomatoes: 36%
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: R
Runtime: 99 minutes
Piercing (2018)
Reed is a near-homicidal family man who needs an outlet for his inner rage. So, he decides on a prostitute. Not for sex. For murdering. What he didn’t expect was Jackie (Mia Wasikowska), a call girl just as cunning, sadistic, and merciless as Reed himself. When the two get together, Reed’s killer plan disintegrates before his eyes, and a wicked game of cat and mouse begins. Piercing is an adaptation of Ryū Murakami’s novel of the same name, source material that writer-director Nicholas Pesce pays great respect to. This vision is only furthered by the perfectly-cast Abbott and Wasikowska, two versatile actors who flourish as the wretched psychopaths of Piercing.
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Stars: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa
Director: Nicholas Pesce
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
Taxi Driver (1976)
One of Martin Scorsese’s early movies remains one of his most poignant. In Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a disillusioned cabbie with dreams of assassinating presidential candidate Charles Palantine. He also finds it in his heart to rescue a prostitute (played by a 12-year-old Jodie Foster) and assassinate her pimp. The backdrop of the Vietnam War looms large over the film, as Bickle’s vigilantism makes him a hero to some and an antihero to others, building toward a climactic shootout and an unforgettable ending that remains up for interpretation to this day.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Runtime: 114 minutes
Calibre (2018)
When two lifelong friends, a businessman and his pal from boarding school, head out for a hunting weekend in the Scottish Highlands, things quickly turn ugly. The old friends find themselves unexpectedly panicked and dealing with dire situations they never thought they would face. The British thriller, originally released on Netflix, was described by Variety as an “intensely terrifying twist on Deliverance.”
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Jack Lowden, Martin McCann, Tony Curran
Director: Matt Palmer
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 101 minutes
The Gift (2011)
Stalker thrillers tend to be by-the-numbers and predictable. However, The Gift breaks the mold by throwing real uncertainty into the mix. Joel Edgerton wrote, directed, and starred in the film as Gordon “Gordo” Moseley, a man who reunites with his “friend,” Simon Callem (Jason Bateman). Simon’s wife, Robyn (Rebecca Hall) doesn’t seem to have a problem with Gordo’s affection or his lavish gifts. But Simon suspects that Gordo is targeting him for revenge. The truth turns out to be more elusive. While Gordo’s actions are suspect, it’s Simon’s character that comes into question. Is he truly the victim of a lifelong scheme? Or is Simon simply a master of manipulation? The Gift plays its cards close to the vest before finally showing its hand.
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Stars: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton
Director: Joel Edgerton
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
The Guest (2014)
In The Guest, Dan Stevens is so charming as David Collins that we don’t want to believe that he’s got dark secrets that will threaten everyone else around him. As the Peterson family grieves over the loss of their son, Craig, in the Afghanistan War, David presents himself as a close friend of Craig who has just returned home. The Petersons welcome David into their lives, and he becomes a surrogate son for Spencer (Leland Orser) and Laura (Sheila Kelley), while acting as a big brother to Luke (Brendan Meyer). However, Anna (Maika Monroe) becomes suspicious about David’s story and she begins to investigate his past. But David doesn’t tolerate threats from anyone, and when his cover is blown, no one is safe from his reach.
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Stars: Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Leland Orser
Director: Adam Wingard
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Icarus (2017)
While exploring and experimenting with the idea of illegal doping in sports and how easy it is to use performance-enhancing drugs and evade detection, Bryan Fogel uncovers an international doping scandal. The documentary follows Fogel through his journey in amateur cycling and the explosive allegations by Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory. Rodchenkov started out by simply helping Fogel with his experiment before eventually revealing alleged Olympic doping programs and his involvement with them. The movie earned Fogel an Academy Award for Best Documentary Film.
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Stars: Bryan Fogel, Grigory Rodchenkov
Director: Bryan Fogel
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 121 minutes
Uncut Gems (2019)
In Uncut Gems, Adam Sandler stars as a jeweler with a gambling addiction on the hunt for an expensive gem he bought to pay off mounting debts. Sandler was lauded for his performance, proving once again that he can do far more than play characters that provide silly humor and cheap laughs. Critics praised Sandler’s dramatic chops upon the film’s release, as well as the Safdie brothers, who have an undisputed knack for delivering stress-inducing films at every turn.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Stars: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Idina Menzel
Directors: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
Rating: R
Runtime: 135 minutes
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
For fans of the AMC series Breaking Bad, this flick is the epilogue they’ve been waiting for to address the unanswered question of what happened to Jesse Pinkman. For others who might not have seen Breaking Bad, it’s still a fabulous film about a young man on the run from a clearly sordid past. It wraps Pinkman’s story up with a nice little bow and delivers plenty of cameos and throwback references from the original series to make it a worthwhile watch for any fan who has been missing the show.
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Stars: Aaron Paul, Jonathan Banks
Director: Vince Gilligan
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 122 minutes
Rukh (2017)
Offered in Hindi, this film tells the story of an 18-year-old young man who is sent to boarding school after injuring another student in a fight, who then receives word while he’s away that his father has died in a car accident. As he searches for the truth about what really happened, he uncovers more than he bargained for. His father was not only likely murdered, but his family was caught up in activities he could never have imagined.
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Stars: Manoj Bajpayee, Smita Tambe, Kumud Mishra, Adarsh Gourav
Director: Atanu Mukherjee
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 106 minutes
Every Time I Die (2019)
In a theme that’s been explored in many different ways of late through both TV series and movies, this film is about a man whose consciousness is transferred to the bodies of others after his death. Each time he enters the body of a new friend, he tries to warn them about the person who killed him and protect them from the culprit and harm. While the movie only has nine reviews thus far on Rotten Tomatoes, it has been universally lauded by all who have watched it. So it might be worth checking out if you’re looking for something beyond the typical Hollywood-backed films.
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Stars: Drew Fonteiro, Marc Menchaca, Michelle Macedo, Tyler White, Melissa Macedo
Director: Robi Michael
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 98 minutes
Nightcrawler (2014)
Journalism ethics remains a hot topic today, but it has never been fictionalized better than in Nightcrawler. Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a stringer who will go to any lengths necessary to capture raw footage on his camcorder and sell it to the local TV station in Los Angeles. Bloom isn’t above manipulating the crime scene or even taking a larger personal stake in the action if it maximizes his recordings — not to mention his leverage over Nina, the morning news director. Ethics are cast aside by the power of the almighty dollar, reminding the audience “if it bleeds, it leads.” Jake Gyllenhaal is as compelling as ever in a film that was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo
Director: Dan Gilroy
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
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