So far, 2025 has not been a banner year for Netflix’s thriller fans. The genre, which used to be one of Netflix’s most active sections, barely received any fresh options in February as the streamer leans on its international films to fill the gap. Unless you love subtitles or poorly dubbed English versions, thriller fans might feel neglected.
There is some cause for hope, as the low-budget thriller Don’t Let Go has exploded in popularity since its arrival on Netflix this month. The Nicolas Cage and John Cusack-led thriller The Frozen Ground is also a solid choice in February. You can catch these movies and more among the best thrillers on Netflix below.
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.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
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The Frozen Groundr 2013
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Don't Let Gor 2019
The Frozen Ground (2013)
The Frozen Ground is loosely based on the true story of a serial killer named Robert Hansen (John Cusack). In 1983, an underage prostitute, Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens), narrowly escapes from Hansen with her life. But when Paulson tries to identify him to the police, only the officer who first picked her up believes her.
Alaska State Trooper Jack Halcombe (Nicolas Cage) is on his own investigation into Hansen’s victims, even though he doesn’t initially know who is responsible for the murders. Halcombe may be the man who can finally tie Hansen to the long line of bodies he’s left behind. To do that, Halcombe needs Paulson, and she’s got a price on her head that may keep her from ever testifying about what she knows.
Don't Let Go (2019)
Don’t Let Go is a rare sci-fi thriller that borrows some elements from Frequency to good effect. The world of Detective Jack Radcliff (David Oyelowo) comes crashing down after his niece, Ashley Radcliff (Storm Reid), is found murdered alongside her mother, with Jack’s brother — and Ashley’s father — Garret (Brian Tyree Henry), as the suspected killer. But since Garret also died in the incident, there’s no way to prove he didn’t murder his family.
Fate intervenes as Jack receives cell phone calls from Ashley that were sent a few days in the past. Through Ashley, Jack attempts to rewrite history to save her and his family. Unfortunately for Jack, even minor changes in the past have unforeseen effects in the present. Jack may need someone to save him as well.
The Net (1995)
Thirty years ago, The Net benefitted from being one of the first-ever internet thrillers. You may laugh at some of the archaic depictions of the internet, but it’s still a fun flick with Sandra Bullock in her prime. Her character, Angela Bennett, is a brilliant systems analyst who barely has any relationships in the outside world.
Angela’s anonymity comes back to bite her when a friend slips her a valuable program, and some very dangerous people take her life away as they attempt to reclaim the program. Suddenly, Angela discovers that another woman (Diane Baker) has stolen her identity and left her branded as a thief and a con artist. And if Angela isn’t careful, her enemies will make sure that she loses her life as well.
Carry-On (2024)
Kingsman‘s Taron Egerton gets his own Christmas action thriller in Carry-On. Egerton plays Ethan Kopek, a TSA agent who picked a bad day to ask for more responsibility at work. On Christmas Eve, an unnamed traveler (Jason Bateman) blackmails Ethan into letting a deadly package slip through security. And if Ethan refuses, his pregnant girlfriend, Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson), will be killed.
Every possible way out seems to be closed for Ethan, as the Traveler watches his every move. But if Ethan can’t find a way to thwart the Traveler’s plans, then the death toll could be catastrophic.
Compliance (2012)
Compliance doesn’t waste any time letting the viewer know that the caller (Pat Healy) isn’t who he says he is. But the people on the other end of the line think that he’s Officer Daniels, a policeman who accuses a young woman named Becky (Dreama Walker) of stealing from the restaurant that employs her.
Acting on the Caller’s orders, Becky’s manager, Sandra Frum (Ann Dowd), detains her and subjects her to increasingly invasive abuse. The Caller enjoys the game, but Becky suffers under his control, and no one at the restaurant seems to be strong enough to stand up to either Sandra or the man who put her up to these highly illegal actions.
Rebel Ridge (2024)
Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is a good and reasonable man in Rebel Ridge. but some dirty cops are really pushing the limits of his patience. After Terry is pulled over and thousands of dollars are stolen from him in the name of “asset forfeiture,” he tries to cut a deal with Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson). Terry even offers to let the cops keep most of his money if they just give back enough for him to bail his cousin, Mike Simmons (C.J. LeBlanc), out of prison.
The bad cops mistook Terry’s good nature as a weakness. That might be their last mistake after reneging on the deal to save Mike. Now, Terry’s going to have to unleash his own law and order in this small town, and as a former Marine, Terry is more than a match for these crooks with badges.
Vanished into the Night (2024)
Vanished Into the Night is an Italian thriller about a couple on the outs with each other. Pietro (Riccardo Scamarcio) and Elena (Annabelle Wallis), who are facing the impending end of their marriage, share two children, Giovanni (Lorenzo Ferrante) and Bianca (Gaia Coletti), whom they adore.
Although Pietro is trying to turn his life around, his shady past comes back to haunt him when his children are kidnapped and held for ransom. To get his kids back, Pietro has to turn to another morally questionable guy, Nico (Massimiliano Gallo). And Nico is all too eager to help … if Pietro handles a dangerous delivery for him.
Patriots Day (2016)
The Boston Marathon bombing took place just over a decade ago, and the events surrounding that attack and the subsequent investigation are dramatized in Patriots Day. The main character, Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg), isn’t real because there wasn’t one person involved with so many aspects of the case. If you’re looking for a history lesson, this isn’t it.
What Patriots Day does have to offer is an increasingly intense manhunt for the two bombers, Dzhokhar (Alex Wolff) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (Themo Melikidze). And as law enforcement officials get closer to the suspects, the Tsarnaev brothers prove to be more erratic and dangerous than expected.
A Simple Favor (2018)
Anna Kendrick stars in A Simple Favor as Stephanie Smothers, a single mother who befriends the glamorous Emily Nelson (Blake Lively). Since Emily’s son, Nicky (Ian Ho), is friends with Stephanie’s son, Stephanie agrees to look after him while Emily is in Miami.
When Emily goes missing and is feared dead, Stephanie is forced to wonder what happened to her friend. She also starts an affair with Stephanie’s husband, Sean Townsend (Henry Golding). But there’s more to this murder than meets the eye, and Emily’s secrets will come back to haunt both Stephanie and Sean.
Miller's Girl (2024)
The majority of the online discourse around Miller’s Girl centers on the large age gap between Martin Freeman and Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega, and the power imbalance of their respective characters, Jonathan Albert Miller and Cairo Sweet. And that’s kind of the point of the whole film.
Jonathan knows that Cairo is much too young for him, and so does she. Cairo is Jonathan’s student, and pursuing anything romantic with her would be career suicide. However, Cairo just can’t resist pushing Jonathan’s buttons to provoke a response. When Jonathan doesn’t give her the answer she hoped for, Cairo’s revenge may burn his entire life to ashes.
Your Lucky Day (2023)
It’s the American dream to get rich without really trying. But the thriller Your Lucky Day is going to make Sterling (Angus Cloud) work for it. After hearing someone discover that he’s got a winning lottery ticket worth millions, Sterling kills the owner of the ticket and a cop who was at the scene. The big problem is that there are witnesses to Sterling’s crime: Amir (Mousa Hussein Kraish), Abraham (Elliot Knight), and his girlfriend, Ana-Marlene (Jessica Garza).
Sterling offers the survivors a share of his winnings if they help him cover up his murders. Unfortunately, it was never going to be that simple, and the money on the line is simply too enticing. There’s going to be more blood spilled before this story is over, but who will emerge with the lucky ticket?
Oldboy (2003)
There is an American remake of Oldboy by Spike Lee, but the South Korean original is the one that deserves all of the attention. Park Chan-wook directed and co-wrote this manga adaption, which follows the story of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a businessman who is arrested for being drunk in public. But Dae-su’s problems really begin after being released by the cops when he is kidnapped and imprisoned in a sealed hotel room.
Dae-su soon learns that his wife has been murdered, and the police think he killed her. This also means that their four-year-old daughter will grow up without him. For the next 15 years, Dae-su remains trapped by his captors until he is mysteriously released. Now, Dae-su has to discover who did this to him and why. One of the best thrillers with a twist ever, Old Boy is just as shocking and enthralling as it was 20 years ago.
Leave the World Behind (2023)
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.
The Killer (2023)
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.
Locked In (2023)
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.
Fair Play (2023)
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. And if Emily isn’t careful, she may lose more than just her romance.
Reptile (2023)
The brutal murder of Summer Elswick (Matilda Lutz) is the beginning of the mystery in Reptile, a thriller starring Benicio del Toro as Detective Tom Nichols (del Toro), the man in charge of the murder investigation. Summer’s body was found by her boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), but there are suspicious details that may draw suspicion to all of the men in Summer’s life.
Nichols is able to share some of the details with his wife, Judy (Alicia Silverstone), who acts as a sounding board for him. Regardless, the unfolding case forces Nichols to more closely examine his own life as well. However, he may not like what he finds.
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Given its extremely short stay in theaters in late 2022, you probably missed seeing The Pale Blue Eye when it was on the big screen. But the cast is too good for this movie to simply disappear among the other streaming thrillers. Christian Bale headlines the film as Augustus Landor, a former detective who has fallen on hard times following the death of his wife.
When Leroy Fry (Steven Maier), a cadet at West Point, is found ritualistically murdered, Landor is coaxed out of retirement to solve the mystery. But Landor can’t do it alone, which is why he turns to one of Fry’s classmates to act as his partner on the case: Cadet Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).
The Snowman (2017)
It’s very appropriate that Michael Fassbender’s character in The Snowman is a detective named Harry Hole, because his life is in a deep hole when the story opens. Harry has broken up with the woman he loves, Rakel Fauke (Charlotte Gainsbourg), while struggling with his sobriety. Unfortunately for Harry, a serial killer has already started sending him enigmatic messages.
Harry’s new partner, Katrine Bratt (Silo‘s Rebecca Ferguson), is convinced that the killer is somehow linked to a case that was once investigated by Gert Rafto (Val Kilmer), an alcoholic former detective who was very much like Harry himself. But as the mystery intensifies, Harry realizes that Katrine has a personal connection that fuels her obsession with the case.
I Came By (2022)
Circle (2015)
The Good Nurse (2022)
Adapted from the true-crime novel of the same name, The Good Nurse stars Jessica Chastain as Amy Loughren, a single mother and ICU nurse. When a series of untimely patient deaths start cropping up around the hospital, Amy begins to suspect that new hire Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) is the man responsible. Both Chastain and Redmayne are the kind of talents we expect greatness from, and truly, both actors go out of their way to foster a sort of surreal pathos for their characters, especially the latter. It’s a solid thriller and a tragic and haunting reminder that we don’t have to dig into fiction to tell some of the most grueling stories imaginable.
Lou (2022)
If you’re in the mood for something a little more on the action-heavy side, director Anna Foerster’s Lou will likely satiate. It stars Allison Janney as the titular protagonist, a reclusive woman living on Orcas Island, Washington. When a wicked storm threatens the Pacific Northwest, a single mother named Hannah (Jurnee Smollet) begs Lou for help when her young daughter is kidnapped by a vicious ex-pat (Logan Marshall-Green). But as the two women set off on their rescue mission, Hannah soon learns that there’s far more to Lou than meets the eye. A grim gut-punch of an action-thriller, Lou is a big win for the genre.
The Stranger (2022)
Munich: The Edge of War (2022)
The Platform (2019)
Have you ever seen or heard of famed French-Canadian Denis Villeneuve’s short film Next Floor? If not, here’s a quick summary: A baroquely-costumed set of aristocrats gorge on a handsome feast, with their increasingly accrued weight plummeting them (and their table, chairs, and food) through the floor, where they resume said gorging. Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform plays with some of the same narrative bits, albeit in the form of a more realized social commentary.
The story follows the imprisoned residents of a Vertical Self-Management Center, a dystopian vessel that delivers food to its captives by way of an elevator system. In order of randomized hierarchy, those at the top get the most food, while those at the bottom get the scraps. Inevitably, this leads to an uprising of horrific proportions. The Platform is a satirical production that grapples with Darwinism in some bizarre and all-consuming ways. One thing is for sure: It’s a flick you don’t want to miss.