The best thrillers to watch on Netflix in September 2023

Polygon Readers, Happy September!

The summer is almost over, and that means it’s time for the new fall releases of movies and TV shows. The spooky season is on the horizon, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until October to enjoy the best thrillers currently streaming on Netflix and Hulu.

We’ve dived into the libraries of two of the most popular streaming platforms to bring you the best thrillers to watch as you wave goodbye to summer. From Michael Mann’s chilling neo-noir thriller Collateral and Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws to Bong Joon-ho’s SnowpiercerHere are some of the most popular thrillers on Netflix and Hulu this month.

Netflix Thrillers

Collateral

DreamWorks Pictures

Year: 2004
Run time: 2h
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Tom Cruise. Jamie Foxx Jada Pinnekett Smith

It’s Tom Cruise’s most terrifying role — what’s not to love?

CollateralMax, a Los Angeles Taxi Driver (Jamie Foxx), has the worst night in his life when he meets Vincent (Cruise), his well-dressed client who pays him $600 a night to be his driver. When Vincent’s true identity as an assassin is brought to light, Max must find a way to seek help without incurring the wrath of his cold-blooded abductor.

With stunning nighttime cinematography, bracing action, and a brilliant cast of performers (including a brief performance by Javier Bardem prior to his breakout role in 2007’s No Country For Old Men), CollateralIt is the most outstanding film in a filmmaker’s career.

Jaws

Universal Pictures

Year: 1975
Run time: 2h 4m
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

The summer may be gone, but the fear of sharks that eat humans is never-ending.

Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster sent shockwaves through American audiences back in 1975 by asking them one simple question: What if the greatest serial killer was nature itself? Amity Island is a fictional New England vacation resort. JawsA police chief (Roy Scheider), marine biologist Richard Dreyfuss, and professional shark hunter Robert Shaw band together to battle a vicious great white that is terrorizing beachgoers on the Fourth-of-July weekend. Adapted from Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name, Spielberg’s film eschews the first two-thirds of the source material in favor of an original story about institutional corruption in the face of impending danger (a resonant theme with the then-recent Watergate scandal), building to the film’s climactic third act, which more strictly hews to Benchley’s book.

Arguably You can also find out more about the following: The quintessential American summer horror blockbuster. Jaws cemented Spielberg’s breakthrough as one of the preeminent directors of his generation, a fact that would be later proven by a string of similar era-defining movies, like Close Encounters with the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark” E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Why not enjoy the rest of your summer by watching some great blockbusters this summer?

Snowpiercer

Image: The Weinstein Company

Year: 2013
Run time: 2h 6m
Director: Bong Joonho
Cast:Chris Evans, Song Kangho, Tilda SWinton

Fall is right around the corner, and what better way to brace for the chilly weather than to watch Bong Joon-ho’s dystopian climate apocalypse thriller starring Chris “America’s Ass” Evans?

Set in the not-so-distant future, Bong’s film follows the inhabitants of the Snowpiercer, a massive circumnavigational train and the last refuge for humanity following a climate catastrophe. Evans stars as Curtis Everett, a member of the Snowpiercer’s underclass, who mounts a revolt to overthrow the train’s oppressive upper class in order to create a better life for everyone else. With the help of Namgoong Minsoo (Song Kang-ho), a security specialist exiled to the back of the train, and his clairvoyant daughter Yona (Go Ah-sung), Curtis and his rebellion must battle against the train’s army of security soldiers to reach the front and kill the Snowpiercer’s conductor, Wilford (Ed Harris).

Snowpiercer is a gripping and hallucinatory sci-fi thriller, packed with exhilarating moments of action and desperation as the haves and the have-nots of humanity’s last bastion of survival duke it out for the fate of the future. With Bong’s latest sci-fi film, Mickey 17, slated to premiere next year, now is as perfect a time as any to revisit the director’s first foray into Hollywood filmmaking.

Hulu has Thrillers

How to blow up a pipeline

Image: NEON

Year: 2023
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Cast: Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage

Coming off of a summer where worldwide temperatures reached their highest on record, one marked by several climate-induced disasters including the Canadian and Hawaiian wildfires, Daniel Goldhaber’s eco-thriller based on Andreas Malm’s nonfiction book resonates even more with every passing day.

How to blow up a pipelineFollows a fictional team of climate activists who are brought together through a shared feeling of anger or desperation. They devise an idea to blow up a pipeline in West Texas. This film builds up slowly to its conclusion. The filmmakers explore the individual lives of climate activists, and the factors that have led them to act so extreme in their fight for justice.

Whether it be in the form of a loved one stricken ill through environmental pollution or a home torn asunder via eminent domain of an oil conglomerate, Goldhaber’s film does something few other films are willing to do: portray the lives of activists with controversial ideologies with the same level of complexity and humanity often reserved for characters defending the status quo. Whatever your impressions of the movie, you will find it a powerful and enlightening experience. How to blow up a pipelineThe film is unmistakably an expression of our cultural moment and isn’t afraid to raise difficult issues that only become more urgent as time goes on.

No Exit

20th Century Studios

Year: 2022
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Damien Power
Cast: Havana Rose Liu, Danny Ramirez, David Rysdahl

If you’re looking for a paranoid thriller where nobody trusts anyone and everyone is tired, No ExitThe film is for you.

Bottoms’ Havana Rose Liu stars as Darby, a recovering drug addict who escapes rehab when she learns her ailing mother is in the hospital. Stranded in a blizzard, Darby pulls over at a visitors’ center filled with a group of fellow stranded strangers. Upon discovering one of the vehicles parked outside contains a kidnapped girl, Darby must devise a plan to uncover the identity of the vehicle’s owner, rescue the girl, and safely escape through the blizzard to find help. No Exit is a solid single-location thriller à la John Carpenter’s The Thing or Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful EightA tightly wound thriller that gradually unravels into an uncontrollable, violent, chaotic frenzy to survive. Make some popcorn, bundle up and enjoy this entertaining thriller.