The best thrillers on Netflix include Leave the World Behind, Black Swan, The Killer, Good Time, Locked In, Sea of Love, The Next Three Days, and more.
There are Christmas comedies, action films, and dramas, but there aren’t many holiday-themed thrillers, at least on Netflix. But who can complain when Netflix has one of the best libraries of thrillers that you can stream? In the last month alone, Netflix has debuted two of 2023’s best thrillers, Leave the World Behind and The Killer. Two modern thrillers from other studios, Black Swan and Good Time, are also in our spotlight this month.
Thrillers are a really exciting genre to watch because there’s always a sense of danger around the corner. That’s why we like them and why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to update our list of the best thrillers on Netflix right now. We’ve put together your best viewing options; all you have to do is make time to watch them.
We’ve also rounded up the best thrillers on Amazon Prime Video and the best thrillers on Hulu if Netflix doesn’t have what you’re looking for.
Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) and her husband, Clay (Ethan Hawke), just wanted to take a vacation in Leave the World Behind. But their kids, Rose (Farrah Mackenzie)and Archie (Charlie Evans) were the first to notice that their smartphones can’t connect to the internet.
The vacation continues uninterrupted until G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter, Ruth (Myha’la), show up at the rental house and claim that it’s theirs. From there things start to get super weird, and both families are left to question what happened to the rest of the world while they were in the woods and whether they can trust each other.
Michael Fassbender’s unnamed assassin talks to the audience throughout The Killer, and he tells viewers all about his life except who he is. Perhaps he truly has no identity outside of meticulously planning and long stretches of waiting for his opportunity to kill. Yet before our eyes, the Killer botches a hit and kills the wrong person.
If the Killer thought he could slink away without consequences then he’s sadly mistaken. For his failure, the Killer’s lawyer, Hodges (Charles Parnell), has him marked for death. Two other assassins, The Expert (Tilda Swinton) and The Brute (Sala Baker), are sent to hunt down the Killer…if the Killer doesn’t hunt them down first.
Who knew that a production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake could be so cutthroat? Director Darren Aronofsky turns the field of professional ballet into a dark twisty thriller in Black Swan, which features Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, a dancer who desperately wants to play the dual role of the White Swan/Odette and her evil double, the Black Swan/Odile.
That’s why Nina is so furious when a rival dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), seems to be encroaching on her role of a lifetime. What will Nina do to make sure that she comes out on top? She may have to lose herself completely to the darkness in her own mind. And even that might not be enough.
The name of the movie may be Good Time, but the experience that Constantine “Connie” Nikas (Robert Pattinson) goes through is anything but. Connie made the monumental error of pulling his developmentally disabled brother, Nick Nikas (Benny Safdie), out of therapy and into an armed bank robbery that gets Nick arrested and sent away.
In his zeal to break Nick out of jail, Connie accidentally frees Ray (Buddy Duress), a criminal who botched a drug deal before he was arrested. Connie soon realizes that Ray’s stashed drugs could be sold for more than enough money to get Nick out of jail. But Ray isn’t going to give those drugs up without a fight, and Connie’s life is in danger as long as he’s wrapped up in this mess.
Locked In apparently starts in the aftermath of an attempted murder, and only gets more twisted from there. Someone tried to kill Katherine (Famke Janssen), and they must have come pretty close to succeeding because she’s become trapped in her own body and left unable to move or properly communicate, with the exception of her eyes.
Suspicion immediately falls on Lina (Rose Williams), a young woman who is both Katherine’s adoptive daughter and her daughter-in-law. Nurse Mackenzie (Anna Friel) is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, but she may be kicking the proverbial hornet’s nest by asking questions that shouldn’t be asked.
Sea of Love is one of those thrillers that could only happen in the ‘80s. Al Pacino stars as Detective Frank Keller, a man who hasn’t quite gotten over his divorce yet. At the same time, a serial killer is apparently murdering men who placed rhyming personal ads in the newspaper.
With the help of Detective Sherman Touhey (John Goodman), Keller sets up a sting operation to see who responds to their rhyming personal ads. One of the women who replies is Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin), whom Keller just can’t resist starting a relationship with. Yet once he’s with Helen, Keller is forced to wonder whether she could be the serial killer he’s been trying to find.
Russell Crowe headlines The Next Three Days as John Brennan, a man whose world is turned upside down when his wife, Lara Brennan (Elizabeth Banks), is arrested and convicted of murder. Three years later, Lara is suicidal and the family’s legal options have dried up. That’s when John takes the rather drastic step of planning to break his wife out of prison.
To do so, John consults with Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson), a man who has escaped prison multiple times. But as John’s panic and paranoia grow, he learns that Lara will be transferred to another prison in just three days. So if this crazy plan is ever going to happen, it has to be right now.
Netflix’s new thriller, Fair Play, follows a couple, Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) and Emily (Phoebe Dynevor), when their relationship is challenged by their mutual ambition. The pair keep their romance a secret from their co-workers at One Crest Capital. That only works for them until a promotion comes up, and Emily gets the job instead of Luke.
Although Luke initially takes the news well, he soon becomes obsessed with the idea that Emily’s success came at his own expense. This puts a lot of intense pressure on their relationship, especially when Emily discovers that Luke may be fired.
