Sometimes, all you want is to watch a movie that really grabs you, a film that forces you to pay attention to it. The good news is that there are plenty of movies that fall into that very category on Netflix. The streamer’s library includes some classic and underrated gems, as well as a handful of original thrillers that rank among the best films Netflix has ever produced. Regardless of whether you have heard of all of the following movies or not, all of them deserve to be seen.
Here are the seven best thrillers on Netflix right now.
“Hostiles” (2017)
“Hostiles” is an underrated Western that already feels unfairly forgotten. Written and directed by Scott Cooper, the 2017 drama follows a U.S. Army cavalry officer (Christian Bale) who is tasked with escorting an imprisoned Cheyenne war chief (Wes Studi) and his family back to their home in Montana several years after the end of the American Civil War. Along the way, Bale’s Capt. Joseph J. Blocker is forced to not only confront his own, long-held racist beliefs, but also escort a traumatized widow (Rosamund Pike) whose husband and children were killed by a Comanche war party.
Shot with striking, naturalistic beauty by cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi and featuring a haunting score by composer Max Richter, “Hostiles” is a gripping and unforgiving thriller overflowing with shocking violence and human cruelty. It is also a film about rediscovering tenderness and compassion in a world that seems hell bent on beating that out of you. Ultimately, it is a testament to the quality of “Hostiles” that it manages to convincingly find new sources of light even amidst all of its otherwise tangible, overwhelming darkness.
“Rebel Ridge” (2024)
Few filmmakers working today know how to stress viewers out better than writer-director Jeremy Saulnier. That skill is on full display in his hit Netflix thriller “Rebel Ridge.” Set in Louisiana, the film follows a former Marine (Aaron Pierre) whose attempt to pay for his cousin’s bail is ruined when corrupt local cops use civil forfeiture laws to unjustly seize his money. In attempting to get his cash back, he ends up in a war with an entire small town police force where he is forced to turn himself into a Rambo-esque vigilante.
Despite its obvious debt to past revenge movies, “Rebel Ridge” keeps itself grounded in a believable, recognizable realm of reality that only makes its violence hit that much harder and what’s at stake for its hero seem all the more dire. Anchored by a star-making turn from Pierre, “Rebel Ridge” is a slow-burn thriller that gradually turns the heat up until it becomes nearly unbearable. Even when the tension of it all makes you want to close your eyes, though, you’ll likely find that you can’t ever look away from “Rebel Ridge.”
“The Killer” (2023)
“The Killer” is a procedural thriller made by a filmmaker obsessed with details. The result is a movie that is as propulsive as it is meditative, as violent as it is spotlessly clean. Based on a French graphic novel and adapted by “Seven” screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, the film follows a nameless assassin (Michael Fassbender) who is forced to go on a global revenge spree after a botched hit nearly gets him killed. Directed with awe-inspiring precision by David Fincher, “The Killer” is less a complete story and more a collection of set-pieces. Over the course of the film’s 118 minutes, Fincher takes viewers step-by-step first through each of his anti-hero’s murderous plans and then through his attempts to follow through on them.
It is this meticulous, process-driven approach to “The Killer” that renders it so consistently engaging. As impassive and detached as it may seem, there is more going on beneath the film’s surface than there initially appears to be, too. It is, in many ways, one of the most personal movies Fincher has ever made, a film directed by a lifelong iconoclast that just so happens to be about the ironic horror of realizing that none of us truly exist outside of society’s rules.
“Wind River” (2017)
The feature directorial debut of “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, 2017’s “Wind River” is a hard-edged, brutal neo-Western. Set on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, the film follows an experienced Wildlife Service tracker (Jeremy Renner) and an out-of-state FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) who team up to solve the murder of a young reservation woman. Featuring a striking, heart-wrenching supporting turn from Sheridan favorite Gil Birmingham, “Wind River” is — like all of Sheridan’s best works — a gripping, violent and deeply felt thriller.
The film is punctuated by cinematic shoot-outs and moments of violence that rank among the most impactful and unadorned that Sheridan has ever concocted. In between those scenes are stretches of oppressive atmosphere that only serve to further raise the tension and dread. “Wind River,” consequently, ranks as one of Sheridan’s most successful creative efforts. Its final act hits with the weight and force of a freight truck.
“Inglourious Basterds” (2009)
Quentin Tarantino has made some of the most acclaimed and beloved movies of the past 30 years, but none are as technically perfect as “Inglourious Basterds.” Not a single moment, scene or line of dialogue is wasted in Tarantino’s revisionist WWII epic. Ringing with the tones and cadences of its maker’s singular voice and soaked in the same bloody violence that viewers have come to expect from him, “Inglourious Basterds” follows two different plots. The first involves a crew of American soldiers as they attempt to carry out a plot to kill Hitler behind enemy lines.
The second involves the sole Jewish survivor (Mélanie Laurent) of a horrifying massacre as she plans to use her undercover position as the manager of a Parisian movie theater to take out the Third Reich’s entire leadership ring. Both storylines are held together by Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), an SS colonel whose intelligence and sick sense of humor make him a complete agent of chaos. Waltz justifiably won an Oscar for his terrifying, high-wire turn as the film’s villain, but his performance is just one of the many pitch-perfect things about it. The movie is comprised of some of the greatest — and longest — scenes that Tarantino has ever executed, nearly all of which have the ability to make your heart-rate skyrocket. No other movie on this list will make you sweat or cheer as often as “Inglourious Basterds.”
“Parasite” (2019)
“Parasite” is one of the 21st century’s most widely revered films. A razor-sharp social thriller and sharp-toothed takedown of late-stage capitalism, the thriller follows the members of a poor family as they each slowly but surely infiltrate the lives of a wealthy, aloof family. Directed with Hitchcockian flair by South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite” is a biting social thriller overflowing with blackly comic, almost slapstick moments of absurdity and, as the film’s final moments reveal, an almost breathtaking amount of empathy.
As a thriller, “Parasite” is as entertaining and complex as you could possibly want. Its crowning, midpoint sequence is a masterclass of editing and blocking, and a nerve-wracking series of close calls and near misses. What is even more impressive about “Parasite,” though, is how it uses its moments of action and suspense to push not only its plot forward but also bring its themes forward. In the end, the most affecting aspects of “Parasite” are the truths it reveals — namely, that society’s layers of wealth and social status extend farther than we all would like to think. Even worse, they may actually be even more insurmountable than they appear.
“Woman of the Hour” (2024)
One of the most underrated films of 2024, “Woman of the Hour” marks the feature directorial debut of actress Anna Kendrick. A true-crime thriller, the film is based on the 1978 incident when an active, real-life serial killer (played here by Daniel Zovatto) competed on an episode of a dating show and won. In addition to directing the film, Kendrick also stars in “Woman of the Hour” as the game show contestant who finds herself unwittingly caught in a televised game of cat-and-mouse with a murderer.
Across its 94 minutes, the film both dramatizes its central, dating show episode and also depicts some of the crimes perpetrated by its central serial killer. Despite running the risk of venturing into exploitative territory, though, “Woman of the Hour” makes nary a single misstep. Kendrick directs the film with a shocking level of control for a first-time filmmaker, wringing out every ounce of tension that she can along the way. She manages to make a simple walk across a parking lot feel like a heart-stopping, life-and-death chase, and the ways in which the film ultimately weaponizes and highlights the power of a person’s gaze are as inspired as they are impressive.
The 40 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now