10 best thriller movies to watch on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Prime, and more

Everyone loves a good thriller. The thrills that are at the intersections of subgenres can be described as thrillers. These stories give rise to emotions like anxiety, suspense, tension and surprise. From classic thrillers like Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear window, Charles Loughton’s Night of the Hunter, and Carol Reed’s The Third ManContemporary classics such as Fatal Attraction, ZodiacThe genre has a rich, diverse canon of classics that can be enjoyed by every kind of audience.

You’re looking for something new and exciting to catch your attention this weekend. We’ve pulled together a list of 10 of our favorite thrillers available to stream on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Criterion Channel, and more that’ll keep your eyes glued to the screen and your palms thoroughly gripped to your seat.

Blood Simple

Image: Universal Studios Home Video

The Coen brother’s 1984 directorial debut Blood Simple It is a great introduction to the darkly funny, eccentrically planned, and unique body of work that they create. The film is a hardboiled noir thriller about crime set in Texas. It centers around a dangerous love triangle that involves a bar owner and his wife. As the attempted affair turns into bloodshed, both lovers become embroiled in a intricate plot of money-making and murder. Frances McDormand’s performance of Abby is a shining example. M. Emmet Walsh portrays Loren Visser (the conniving hitman that causes the conflict to unravel in his selfish pursuit for quick cash) also shines. —TE

Simple BloodYou can stream it on HBO Max Criterion Channel.

Collateral

DreamWorks Pictures Photo

Michael Mann’s 2004 neo-noir action thriller Collateral is one of the director’s most successful films, grossing over $220 million worldwide and earning Jamie Foxx a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 77th Academy Awards. Tom Cruise portrays Vincent, a contract killer who has five targets in Los Angeles. His assignment is to hold Max (Foxx) hostage. Max wants to start his own taxi business and takes Vincent as his captive. Collateral’s nocturnal lighting and brilliant cinematography courtesy of Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron combine to make for one of the most hypnotic and memorable portraits of LA’s metropolitan sprawl ever committed to film, and Cruise’s performance as the aforementioned hitman Vincent ranks as one of the actor’s best. —TE

CollateralThis stream is now available 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 TattooThe director is as energetic, taut and heady as they come. Seven Zodiac. Skyfall stars Daniel Craig as Mikael Blmkvist (a disgraced journalist) who is being hired by an industrialist to find the missing grand-niece of his grandfather forty years before. During his investigation of his client’s family Blomkvist is aided by Lisabeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a taciturn hacker and the namesake of the film. It is graphic, intense, often beautiful, and deeply engrossing. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo easily ranks among Fincher’s finest, though a word of caution to any newcomers: the film features brief albeit explicit scenes of sexual violence and torture that are not for the faint of heart. —TE

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo It is now available for streaming Netflix.

A good time

Photo: A24

Uncut Gems directors Benny and John Safdie’s 2017 crime drama A good timeThis is no ordinary movie. Robert Pattinson stars as Connie Nikas, a small-time criminal forced to scrounge up money to afford his brother’s bail after a botched bank heist. Connie’s journey is a road to perdition, leading him down the darkest corners of New York City to the seediest depths of its underbelly. The film is charged with the same manic, all-or-nothing energy that came to define the Safdies’ breakout hit, but here, it’s even more fatalistically tragic and perilous. Also, it’s got an awesome score, courtesy of future Uncut GemsOneohtrix Point Never collaborator, as well as an exquisite track by Iggy Pop. —TE

Good Time streaming on Netflix KanopyYou can also get a librarycard.

M

Image via Criterion Channel

Fritz Lang’s 1931 thriller M is widely considered arguably his magnum opus — second perhaps only to his seminal 1927 sci-fi epic Metropolis — but also one of the greatest films of all time. The film is set in Berlin and follows the investigations of a child killer who reigns terror over the city. As the criminal underground of Berlin find the noose tightening around them in the police’s unsuccessful campaign to capture him, they take it upon themselves to root out this evil and bring him to justice. —TE

MYou can stream it on HBO Max, Criterion ChannelPlease see the following: KanopyYou can also get a librarycard.

Nocturnal Animals

Foto by Focus Features

Amy AdamsSharp Objects) stars in Tom Ford’s gripping neo-noir psychological thriller Nocturnal AnimalsSusan Morrow is an upper-class, successful art gallery manager. She receives a strange manuscript by Edward Gyllenhaal along with an invite to dinner. Susan begins to look at the manuscript. A dark and violent story unfolds about a teacher, whose family trip turns out to be a nightmare. Susan must confront the similarities between her own life as well as the tale on the page. Nocturnal Animals is a dark, dense, and beautifully crafted thriller with a killer ending that will stick with you long after it’s over. —TE

Nocturnal AnimalsYou can stream it on Netflix.

Shutter Island

Warner Bros. Pictures

Martin Scorsese’s ominous psychological thriller Shutter Island proved a colossal critical and commercial success when first released back in 2010, and the appreciation for the film’s nuanced visuals and pacing has only continued to endure in the decade since. Leonardo DiCaprio’s turn as Edward “Teddy” Daniels, a U.S. Marshal whose missing persons investigation at the film’s titular psychiatric facility quickly unravels into a descent into the darkness of his own psyche, ranks among one of the actor’s best, with the character’s final line transforming what was already an unnerving third act into one of the most chilling and memorable of Scorsese’s entire oeuvre. —TE

Nocturnal AnimalsYou can stream it on Netflix Pluto TV.

Night of the Hunter

Image: The Criterion Channel

Charles Laughton is the sole actor-director of this film Night of the HunterMany consider it to be the greatest film ever made. At the heart of the movie’s enduring legacy is Robert Mitchum’s iconic performance as Harry Powell, a misogynistic serial killer with a flair for silver-tongued theatricality. Centering initially on Powell’s plot to romance a gullible widow to uncover the whereabouts of a stolen cache of $10,000, the film later unfolds into an odyssey across a rich expanse of stark silhouetted environments as the widow’s children desperately attempt to allude the mad preacher’s murderous intent. If you’re looking for a classic thriller with beautiful imagery, a moving score, and memorable performances, Night of the HunterAll of these are in abundance. —TE

Night of the HunterYou can stream it on Amazon Prime Video, Criterion Channel, TubiPlease see the following: Pluto TV.

Insane

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Steven Soderbergh’s 2018 psychological horror thriller InsaneClaire Foy plays Sawyer Valenti a young lady who is forced into a mental facility as part of a plot by her stalker. Shot entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus, the film is tense and claustrophobic with visuals composed primarily of close up shots that place stark emphasis on Foy’s frenzied performance. If you’re looking for genuine mind-screw of psychological thriller, InsaneIs it. —TE

InsaneYou can stream it on Hulu KanopyYou can also get a librarycard.