One could argue that thrillers are among the best movie genres. On one hand, it’s because there’s such a wide variety of methods a filmmaker can use to thrill an audience — from psychological spooks to the mounting suspense of crime movies, from the shocks of a horror thriller to real-world scenarios a movie can fictionalize to send anyone into a state of anxious frenzy. But it’s also because thrillers are just so damn gripping and fun to devour.
We’ve let our heart rates suffer and anxiety levels skyrocket to curate a list of the very best thrillers you can find on Netflix, all of which offer a smorgasbord of exhilaration and intrigue. There’s trashy thrills, high-stakes action, badass revenge flicks, crime capers, a gothic period piece, and even a plummet down the terrifying paths student debt will send you.
1. Missing
In Missing, the 18-year-old June (Storm Reid) tries to find her mother (Nia Long) after she goes missing while vacationing in Colombia with her new boyfriend (Ken Leung). What sets this apart from your typical thriller is that it takes place entirely on screens. Just as the 2019 film Searching from Aneesh Chaganty updated the found footage subgenre for the digital age, Missing (which was produced by Chaganty) uses everything from MacBook screens and FaceTime calls to Ring security cameras and SnapChat videos to tell a story entirely dependent on technology. That may seem like a cheap gimmick, but it works surprisingly well for a story about surveillance and identity in the modern day.
‘Missing’ review: a twisty whodunnit where Gen Z’s internet habits save the day
Throughout Missing, June uses every imaginable piece of modern-day consumer tech to find her mom and solve the case. Apple location tracking, Google account history, a Citizen-style reporting app, TaskRabbit, WhatsApp, live tourist cams, and even the good old Notes app are all vital tools in June’s search. Missing is a fun, twist-laden ride that never sacrifices its emotional story for its clever visual techniques. — Oliver Whitney, Freelance Contributor
How to watch: Missing is now streaming on Netflix.
2. Burning
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning is many things: a strange love story, a mystery about a missing woman, a study of violence and masculinity, and a portrait of class collision in South Korea. The slow-burn psychological thriller starts off with Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), a working-class man and aspiring writer who becomes involved with Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a woman from his childhood. Then a mysterious wealthy man named Ben (a chilling Steven Yeun) suddenly enters the picture, and Jong-su brews with jealousy over the handsome stranger. He’s suspicious of the guy, and grows concerned for Hae-mi’s safety. Where Burning goes from there is strange and haunting, laced with hypnotizing visuals and an atmosphere of unease. It’s the type of thriller that defies genre expectations, refuses to give easy answers, and remains mesmerizing throughout, both visually and narratively. — O.W.
How to watch: Burning is now streaming on Netflix.
3. See You Yesterday
Credit: Linda Kallerus / Netflix
See You Yesterday takes the suspense and high stakes of a time-travel premise and applies it to a story about anti-Black police violence. In Stefon Bristol’s film, which he co-wrote with Fredrica Bailey, Eden Duncan-Smith plays C.J., a high school science wiz who’s dedicated to building a time machine with her best friend Bash (Danté Crichlow). As the pair are hard at work fine-tuning their invention, C.J.’s older brother Calvin (Brian Bradley, aka Astro) is shot and killed by a police officer. C.J. decides, as anyone with a time machine rightfully would, that she’s going to go back in time and save him. Yet as every time travel movie warns us, toying with the past can be a messy affair that may only make things worse.
Police killings are a mental health crisis for Black people. They deserve real solutions.
Tying the levity and playfulness of a Back To the Future-esque story with something as grave and harrowing as police brutality might not sound like a natural tonal fit, but Bristol makes it work. See You Yesterday doesn’t use time travel as a genre gimmick, but more as a means to comment on the violence Black Americans continue to face at the hands of police. Ultimately, it’s an empowering and thought-provoking way into a story about doing anything to protect the people you love from those who violently wield power over you, no matter the cost. — O.W.
How to watch: See You Yesterday is now streaming on Netflix.
4. I Care a Lot
Rosamund Pike once again gets to play an icy and manipulative cool girl in J Blakeson’s black comedy thriller I Care a Lot. This time around, her character is so monstrous and nasty she makes Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne look saintly.
Meet Marla Grayson, a vape-smoking con artist with a sharp blonde bob and a fierce gaze that will shrivel you upon glance. Marla’s get-rich scheme targets elderly folks — so evil! — by getting legal guardianship over them and forcing them into nursing homes. Then, she sells all their belongings and keeps the profit. The next victim of Marla and her girlfriend Fran’s (Eiza González) scam is a wealthy woman named Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), but it turns out she’s not exactly who the couple think she is. Without spoiling the rest, just know it involves explosions and kidnappings and Peter Dinklage as a mob boss. — O.W.
How to watch: I Care a Lot is now streaming on Netflix.
5. Omar
In the first few minutes of Omar, we watch a man patiently stand beside a giant concrete wall, hoist his body up with a rope, dodge bullets from a sniper as he reaches the top, then frantically slide down the opposite side with bleeding, torn hands. After racing through back alleys and streets he finally arrives at his destination: his best friend’s home. Omar (Adam Bakri) is a Palestinian baker who lives in the occupied West Bank.
The 2013 film from Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad blends suspense with drama and romance to tell a story distinctly from the perspective of a Palestinian person living under Israeli occupation. Over the course of the film, we follow Omar as he climbs the towering wall that separates him from his friends, exchanges sweet love letters with his girlfriend Nadia (Leem Lubany), is beaten in the street by Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, plans an attack of armed resistance, and then later, as he’s captured and tortured in prison by an Israeli police agent.
Omar offers a rare depiction of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails who have reported over the years experiences of torture and abuse and of being held without trial or charges. Abu-Assad expertly grounds the tender hopefulness of a personal love story within a larger story that speaks to the horrors Palestinians report experiencing under violent occupation. — O.W.
How to watch: Omar is now streaming on Netflix.
6. The Call
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
It’s 2019, and Seo-yeon (Park Shin-Hye) is traveling back to her childhood home after visiting her estranged, ill mother. Once she arrives there, she gets a strange call from a distressed woman named Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), who seems to have dialed the wrong number. But the woman calls again, and again, and eventually Seo-yeon realizes that she and Young-sook have something in common — they’re both living in the same exact house, but not at the same time. Young-sook is calling from 1999, 20 years in the past, and Seo-yeon soon learns that her fate is intertwined with that of her new mysterious friend. A psychological thriller with a simple but engaging premise, The Call is layered with one twist after another that will keep you on edge until the climactic finale. — O.W.
How to watch: The Call is now streaming on Netflix.
7. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Credit: Netflix
Some of the best thrillers aren’t about big heists or complex murder mysteries, but about normal people dealing with normal, everyday crap. In I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, that normal person is Melanie Lynskey’s Ruth, a depressed nursing assistant who’s having a terrible day. Her house has just been burglarized, and she just wants her goddamn laptop and grandma’s silverware back. With the help of her neighbor Tony (a kooky Elijah Wood sporting a rattail), Ruth sets out on a mission of vigilantism to track down her things and right some wrongs, leading a series of violent shenanigans. This Macon Blair film is a satisfying revenge thriller that also gives Lynskey the badass, complex leading role she’s long deserved. If you enjoyed her in Yellowjackets and as the ruthless rebel leader in The Last of Us, you’ll absolutely love her here. — O.W.
How to watch: I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is now streaming on Netflix.
8. The Old Guard
Credit: Aimee Spinks / Netflix
In The Old Guard, Charlize Theron leads a team of badass, immortal mercenaries — what’s not to love? Based on Greg Rucka’s comic book, the film from Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King, Love & Basketball) follows Theron’s Andy and her team of centuries-old assassins who can pop bullets out of their bodies and heal from gnarly wounds in no time. The team includes an ancient gay couple, Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker, Chiwetel Ejiofor as their ex-CIA boss Copley, and the newest recruit, a young Marine named Nile (KiKi Layne, the film’s MVP) who’s just discovering her regenerative abilities. After being sent on their latest mission, the team gets ambushed by a Big Pharma CEO (Harry Melling of Harry Potter fame) who wants to steal their abilities — for profit, of course. Full of thrilling action set pieces, slick fight choreography, and even some Medieval flashbacks, Prince-Bythewood’s film is a hugely entertaining blockbuster in every sense. The film sets up the rich world of Rucka’s comics, which we’ll surely see more of when the sequel (or perhaps sequels) eventually hits Netflix. — O.W.
How to watch: The Old Guard is now streaming on Netflix.
‘The Old Guard’ is a slick and smart action blockbuster from Netflix
9. Eye For an Eye
In the Spanish dramatic thriller Eye For an Eye, Mario (Luis Tosar) is the head nurse at an assisted living facility who gets assigned to an unlikely new patient: a retired, infamous drug lord. Antonio (Xan Cejudo) has just been released from prison due to his deteriorating physical health and prefers to live out his final days in a nursing home, rather than around his erratic sons who’ve taken over the cartel business. But as Mario begins to care for Antonio, sudden flashbacks to a past incident reveal that the nurse has a secret agenda for the drug lord. Led by strong performances, Eye For an Eye is a bleak-as-hell film that unflinchingly explores how far one may go for revenge. — O.W.
How to watch: Eye for an Eye is now streaming on Netflix.
10. The Irishman
Credit: Netflix
It’s Scorsese directing De Niro and Pacino, on screen together for the first time since 1995’s Heat! What more do you need to know? Perhaps some convincing is necessary, though, to get you to sit down for the gargantuan three and a half hours that is The Irishman. The truth is, Scorsese earns that runtime in this sprawling crime epic, which beautifully examines the psychological toll of being witness to and complicit in a life of crime.
The decades-hopping film opens with an aging Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) as he recounts his life as a (younger, CGI de-aged) hitman involved with the mob, the corrupt Teamsters union, and union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). The phenomenal cast also includes an excellent (as usual) Joe Pesci as Philadelphia mob boss Russell Bufalino, as well as Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Kathrine Narducci, Jesse Plemons, and Stephen Graham. — O.W.
How to watch: The Irishman is now streaming on Netflix.
11. The Beguiled
Sometimes the mere presence of a man is enough to instigate ominous tension. In Sofia Coppola’s gothic Civil War thriller The Beguiled — a remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood film of the same name — Colin Farrell plays a wounded Union soldier who falls ill near a Confederate all-girls’ school. Nicole Kidman’s headmaster Miss Farnsworth allows him to stay until his health restores, but an atmosphere of sexual unease and jealousy begins to pervade the school as each girl vies for the handsome soldier’s affection, especially Kirsten Dunst’s Miss Edwina Morrow. The Beguiled soon crescendos into a frenetic thrill ride of violence, secrets, and one very unforgettable meal. Most memorably, Coppola gives us an all-timer line: a distraught Farrell screaming, “You vengeful bitches!” — O.W.
How to watch: The Beguiled is now streaming on Netflix.
12. Emily the Criminal
Known best for her offbeat deadpan humor, Aubrey Plaza gets to fully immerse herself in a high-stress dramatic role in Emily the Criminal, and it’s a real treat to watch. She plays Emily, an artist suffocated by her $70,000 of student debt and a criminal record preventing her from landing a reliable job. Everything is stacked against her until a coworker hooks her up with a side gig doing credit card fraud, sending her down a new path of danger and financial success.
11 best true crime docs about scammers, con artists, and deadly deceptions
Most crime thrillers put us in the shoes of long-time, professional swindlers, yet Emily the Criminal feels especially relatable as a story about the way anyone — especially those of us buried in debt — could consider illegal routes out of pure desperation. While the film could benefit from a keener analysis of the systems in place that directly lead to crime and inequities in the first place, it’s really Plaza’s performance that makes this film shine. She does a phenomenal job of channeling a young woman breaking under the pressure of financial instability, and also one who grows more daring and outspoken the deeper she gets. — O.W.
How to watch: Emily the Criminal is now streaming on Netflix.
13. The Woman in the Window
Credit: Netflix
If you like your thrillers absolutely over the top and oozing with melodrama, may I introduce you to Joe Wright’s deliciously entertaining The Woman in the Window? Based on the A.J. Finn bestseller of the same name, this thriller finds Amy Adams camping it up as Anna Fox, a child psychologist with an extreme case of agoraphobia that prevents her from leaving her Manhattan brownstone. One evening, after guzzling wine and popping prescription medication, Anna believes she’s witnessed a murder across the street. But as the detectives begin to question her sanity, Anna also starts to lose a grip on what’s real.
Of course, you’ve seen this all before, and that’s kinda the point. A mash-up of Rear Window meets Gaslight and filled with a dozen and a half other references to classic noir that Anna actually watches throughout the movie, The Woman in the Window is more of a cheesy love letter to a subgenre than a successful recreation of one. But boy, does that give way to some good, trashy fun. — O.W.
Mashable Top Stories
How to watch: The Woman in the Window is now streaming on Netflix.
14. Triple Frontier
Credit: Netflix
There’s nothing like a good ensemble in a crime film, and Triple Frontier has one of the strongest in years. Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund, and Charlie Hunnam play five former Special Forces military operators in this J.C. Chandor thriller. Feeling neglected by their government, the men decide to get in on a heist to steal $75 million from a drug cartel in a South American jungle. But as greed sets in and tensions rise, things start going off the rails.
Everyone is thirsty for Pedro Pascal. Has the internet gone too far this time?
Triple Frontier isn’t the explosive action mayhem you’d expect from say, The Expendables, but instead Chandor brings a more restrained, taut suspense to his sequences, including a memorable tracking shot during the heist. The real glue that holds it all together though is the all-around excellent work from his stellar cast, especially Isaac and Pascal, a duo that one can only hope will team up again. — O.W.
How to watch: Triple Frontier is now streaming on Netflix.
15. The Guilty
Credit: Glen Wilson / Netflix
Some of the sharpest tension arises from showing less on screen and leaving the most intense moments up to our imagination. That’s the approach Antoine Fuqua takes in The Guilty, a remake of the Danish film of the same name; the narrative unfolds over the course of one day, in one location, with the majority of the action taking place offscreen.
Jake Gyllenhaal was directed from a van for his latest film — and he has thoughts
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe, an LAPD officer working as a 911 dispatch operator who receives a call from a woman who’s been abducted. Over a series of phone calls where Joe tries to solve the crime, we watch the tension grow and burst through Gyllenhaal’s performance alone, forcing us to envision what’s happening on the other end of the line. It’s a gimmick that works, largely thanks to Gyllenhaal’s ability to convincingly play a man becoming completely undone over the course of 90 minutes. — O.W.
How to watch: The Guilty is now streaming on Netflix.
16 – 18. The Fear Street Trilogy
Credit: Netflix
Leigh Janiak deserves far more acclaim than she’s gotten for her Fear Street movies. Her trilogy of throwback teen horror thrillers both pay homage to and cleverly reinvent the tropes of genre staples, most notably by having queer and female characters take the lead. The filmmaker’s trio of interconnected films span three decades to tell a story about a town plagued by a curse, but each movie has its own distinct genre aesthetic with heavy doses of gore and shocking chills.
All the horror movie references in Netflix’s ‘Fear Street’ trilogy
In Fear Street Part One: 1994, a love letter to slashers of the ’90s, a masked killer wreaks havoc on the small town as a gang of friends attempt to stop the killings. In Fear Street Part Two: 1978, we hang out with a new set of teens at a summer camp, nodding at everything from Friday the 13th to Sleepaway Camp. And in Fear Street Part Three: 1666, a spooky ode to folk horror, the origins of the previous movies’ mysteries are soon revealed. The Fear Street trilogy may be horror first, but Janiak laces all three movies with an exciting suspense that keeps you hooked until the very end. — O.W.
How to watch: The Fear Street Trilogy is now streaming on Netflix.
The 28 best queer horror movies now streaming
19. Intrusion
In this home invasion thriller, Freida Pinto’s therapist Meera and her architect husband Henry (Logan Marshall-Green) relocate from Boston to New Mexico to live in a newly built modern home in a majestic desert landscape. The two seem like the picturesque couple, but their sense of everyday safety is rocked when their house is broken into one night. More strange occurrences follow, and soon after it happens again when a group of masked invaders return.
While there’s nothing especially new in Intrusion that you haven’t seen done in other home invasion movies, there is a twist here. Things take a sharp turn when Meera begins to grow suspicious of the person she trusts most, and tension brews as she wonders if there are more clues tied to the intruders themselves. — O.W.
How to watch: Intrusion is now streaming on Netflix.
20. The Killer
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
David Fincher’s bleak, cynical, and oddly fun film about a contract killer (Michael Fassbender) explores both the mundanities of the profession and what it takes to be really, really good at it. Well, except for when he botches the hit that opens The Killer, that is. Fassbender’s unnamed assassin makes a rare miss, shooting a dominatrix instead of her client and his target. This mistake causes him to become the prey, but he refuses to give up his role as a predator and begins tracking down those who would punish him for his transgression.
How have Fincher and Fassbender never worked together before The Killer? The Zodiac director’s work demonstrates a cold precision, which seems like a natural fit for an actor who is often at his best in films that require a reined-in performance, like Shame and Steve Jobs, not to mention Prometheus and its sequel. Fassbender’s deadpan narration may lull less-engaged viewers to sleep, but they’ll miss a smart, sharp film with a mordantly funny script from Andrew Kevin Walker and a great score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Fassbender is the draw here, but his loner character is surrounded by a solid supporting cast including Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, and Arliss Howard. — Kimber Myers, Freelance Contributor
How to watch: The Killer is now streaming on Netflix.
21. The Novice
Sports films are generally known for their inspirational bent, but this indie about a rookie rower is decidedly less uplifting. Instead, The Novice focuses on how athletics and competition can simply be another avenue to channel one’s obsessive tendencies, even though it may initially appear healthier than other fixations.
Isabelle Fuhrman is best known for the intensity she brought to the title role in Orphan and its prequel, and that quality works equally well here. The actress stars as Alex, a college freshman who joins her school’s rowing team. She quickly invests all her energy into making the varsity squad, neglecting her studies and everything else in her life, including growing wounds on her palms from too-frequent practice on the rowing machine.
The Novice feels as emotionally raw as Alex’s injury, but this directorial debut from sound editor Lauren Hadaway is polished, with an attention to form that any rower would appreciate. Hadaway was inspired by her own time as a rower in college, bringing an authenticity to both the film’s characters and its depiction of the sport. This is a gripping, unsettling film, but its 97-minute runtime speeds by at a pace that most athletes would envy. — K.M.
How to watch: The Novice is now streaming on Netflix.
22. Dark Waters
What makes this Todd Haynes movie so gripping and utterly gutting is its basis in fact — and the sheer magnitude of people affected by the on-screen crimes committed by a corporation in search of profits. Dark Waters is based on the work of Cincinnati lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), who fought chemical giant DuPont for the harm it inflicted on a small West Virginia community and its efforts to cover up those harms.
In other hands, Dark Waters could’ve been a perfunctory environmental legal thriller that invokes righteous anger, but Haynes is such a fine craftsman that it never skimps on quality. Frequent Haynes cinematographer Edward Lachman composes some gorgeous shots, offering far more beauty than the mere workman-like competence required by the genre. Ruffalo leads a cast of talented actors, including Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman, Bill Camp, and Victor Garber.
Given the presence of these stars, Dark Waters underperformed with just $11 million at the domestic box office, making the conspiracy-minded part of my brain question if it was intentionally buried. This is the type of movie that should’ve gotten more discussion and awards attention, but it’s not too late to discover this enthralling hidden gem. — K.M.
How to watch: Dark Waters is now streaming on Netflix.
23. Inside Man
On its surface, Spike Lee’s Inside Man appears to be a standard, if very well-made, heist movie starring the director’s frequent collaborator Denzel Washington. The Oscar winner plays Keith Frazier, a New York City detective called in along with his partner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help when a bank heist in lower Manhattan turns into a hostage situation. Yet this 2006 film has more on its mind than just money, resulting in a smart movie with history and commentary woven amidst its expected thrills.
This is one of Lee’s most mainstream offerings, casting big stars Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, and Christopher Plummer alongside the stalwart presence of Washington. Its marketing even made it look like a crowd-pleasing blockbuster, resulting in the filmmaker’s biggest financial success yet in his decades-long career. And while it’s in the minority of entries in the director’s filmography that he didn’t write himself, it still feels like a Spike Lee movie at its core, with Washington as its star, the trademark double dolly shots, and sharp social criticism. Inside Man balances being wildly entertaining and thought-provoking, providing both plot twists and trenchant observations. — K.M.
How to watch: Inside Man is now streaming on Netflix.
24. X
Credit: Courtesy of A24
Ti West’s horror movie about the filming of a porno that goes horribly wrong could have been content to just be full of titillation and terror, and it probably still would’ve been pretty great. However, it ups the ante by adding some real substance to its sexy, bloody cocktail. Set in 1979, X follows an adult film director (Owen Campbell), his girlfriend (Jenna Ortega), and his stars (Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, and Scott Mescudi) as they attempt to make a dirty movie on a rural Texas property owned by an elderly couple who weren’t informed of what kind of picture they were making. The cast and crew are dispatched in creative ways, and it’s fun, funny, and super violent, anchored by a strong performance by Goth.
X marked the first entry in the X trilogy, followed by the prequel Pearl in 2022 and the sequel MaXXXine, which is slated for release this July. West is clearly a director who loves film and isn’t afraid to wear his influences on his rolled-up sleeves. The House of the Devil pays homage to the supernaturally scary flicks of the ’70s and ’80s, while In a Valley of Violence is a love letter to the Western. Meanwhile, X nods to down-and-dirty horror movies like 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as well as actual dirty movies, resulting in a gory good time. — K.M.
How to watch: X is now streaming on Netflix.
25. The Gift
Though Joel Edgerton is primarily known for appearing in front of the camera with roles in Warrior, The Great Gatsby, and the Star Wars saga, he made a masterfully creepy directorial debut with this 2015 shocker. The Australian actor also wrote and co-stars in The Gift, a film whose benign title belies exactly how much it will mess you up.
Rebecca Hall and Jason Bateman star as a married couple who have just moved back to the husband’s childhood town, while Edgerton plays a guy who went to high school with Bateman’s character and who just… keeps showing up. The Gift has elements of your standard stalker thriller, but it’s so much more than that, with Edgerton’s screenplay proving to be disturbing on so many levels. As a well-crafted tale that explores just how monstrous men can be (it turns out: pretty monstrous!), The Gift should probably come with a warning for those with past traumas lingering close to the surface. For a movie with no gore and little on-screen violence, it displays a truly impressive level of nastiness, which is both praise for Edgerton and a warning for viewers. — K.M.
How to watch: The Gift is now streaming on Netflix.
26. Oldboy
The celebrated centerpiece of Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboy is a nightmare of violence and insanity from its opening moments, where Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) appears to dangle a man with a cute pup off a building. If you’re even a little tempted to nope out at the thought of the dog in peril, now’s your chance to exit, because Oldboy only gets wilder from here. But if you stay, you’ll be treated to one of the all-time great revenge thrillers and a modern classic of Korean cinema.
After a particularly serious bender, frequently drunk Dae-su is inexplicably kidnapped and then held captive for 15 years. During his imprisonment, he learns he has been framed for his wife’s murder, and their young daughter was adopted, turning him into a fugitive without any family. When he is released just as mysteriously, he embarks on a mission of vengeance against his captors, but they aren’t done with his torture yet.
Oldboy overflows with indelible images — a man emerging from a trunk, an octopus being eaten alive, an oft-imitated but never-equaled one-shot hallway brawl — and it all adds up to a movie that crawls into your psyche. Park is a master of the mindfuck, and you’ll never look at a hammer or a dumpling (or, really, anything in your life) the same way after watching this brutal but brilliant film. — K.M.
How to watch: Oldboy is now streaming on Netflix.
27. Devil in a Blue Dress
One of the great tragedies in this world is that we have gotten three Equalizer movies starring Denzel Washington but only one Easy Rawlins film. And it’s not like there’s a shortage of source material; Walter Mosley has written over a dozen novels about the detective, beginning with Devil in a Blue Dress, which was adapted by writer/director Carl Franklin in 1995.
In this evocative, hard-boiled mystery set in post-war Los Angeles, veteran Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins is struggling to find work. A white P.I. (Tom Sizemore) asks for help in locating a missing white woman (Jennifer Beals) who spends a lot of time in Black social circles, luring Easy into a world where nothing is as it seems.
As predictably great as Washington is as Easy Rawlins, this is the rare instance where the Oscar winner might not give a film its best performance. That honor goes to a young Don Cheadle, who plays Easy’s wild card of a friend Mouse. Cheadle is the ace up the movie’s sleeve, bringing an electric, unpredictable energy to the role that hints at the huge career to come. — K.M.
How to watch: Devil in a Blue Dress is now streaming on Netflix.
28. Gerald’s Game
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Director Mike Flanagan is best known for his Netflix TV series including The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher, but fans shouldn’t skip this gnarly little psychological thriller from 2017 based on a Stephen King novel. Gerald’s Game is spare but suspenseful, with a setting almost entirely within the confines of an isolated lake house. Its cast is equally minimal, serving as a showcase for Carla Gugino’s acting prowess since she carries practically the entire film on her shoulders.
Where you’ve seen ‘The House of Usher’ cast before: Welcome to the Flanaverse
The Flanagan favorite stars as Jessie, a woman who is stuck handcuffed to a bed when her husband, Gerald (Bruce Greenwood), dies mid-coitus. With the keys out of reach, Jessie mentally revisits past traumas as she desperately tries to escape and survive horrors real, remembered, and imagined. Gugino doesn’t usually star in movies, but she gets to do so much here as her character runs the gamut of emotions in her moment of desperation. Gerald’s Game fits a lot into its small package with some truly gasp-inducing scenes, and it exists as a chilling companion to the director and star’s collaborations in TV. — K.M.
How to watch: Gerald’s Game is now streaming on Netflix.
29. A Walk Among the Tombstones
Vengeance is mine, saith Liam Neeson. This grimy crime thriller from 2014 isn’t too far from his signature role in Taken, but we’re not complaining. In A Walk Among the Tombstones, Neeson’s character also has a very particular set of skills, which he puts to good use against some very bad men. Here he offers his gravelly growl as Matt Scudder, a private unlicensed detective and recovering alcoholic who is drawn into investigating the grisly exploits of two sociopaths who are leaving the corpses of women in pieces around the city.
Set in New York in 1999, A Walk Among the Tombstones has an air of Y2K hysteria and a sense of unease coursing through the streets. Writer/director Scott Frank adapted the film from a novel by prolific mystery writer Lawrence Block, and he brings a nice attention to detail and atmosphere. The script mentions Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe by name, and it’s certainly drawing from that hallowed tradition of private eyes on the page and screen. Frank may not reinvent the wheel, but he executes the well-worn form of the neo-noir with style. Meanwhile, Neeson does great work as the matter-of-fact Scudder, with his performance making it worth watching some of the film’s more disturbing moments. A Walk Among the Tombstones has some pretty sick stuff. You may want to take a shower afterward, but it won’t wash away the lingering ball of anxiety in your stomach. — K.M.
How to watch: A Walk Among the Tombstones is now streaming on Netflix.
UPDATE: May. 16, 2024, 11:18 a.m. EDT This article has been updated to reflect Netflix’s current streaming selection.
