So you’re looking for suspenseful movies on Netflix, let’s be more specific. First off, you’re definitely in the mood for a thriller, right? Not a horror situation? (If you want that, head here.) While a thriller can be scary and horror can be thrilling, the difference between the two is right in the name.
Horror films are predictably meant to horrify you with some evil that needs to be destroyed or at least escaped. Meanwhile, thrillers are unpredictable, which is part of what builds the tension that’s meant to — you guessed it — thrill you.
Now that’s settled, let’s talk types of thrillers. There are lots: psychological, mystery, high-stakes operation (think action, crime, legal, political, spy, sci-fi save-the-world stuff). If they’re any good, all thrillers at some point become so heart-racing, so sweat-inducing, so completely captivating that you don’t dare pause them — even though you’ve really had to pee for the last seven minutes.
Thrillers Too Suspenseful Movies On Netflix
Those are the thrillers worth your time — and worth making this list. So, because it wouldn’t be fair to hold you in suspense, here are top 10 thrillers too suspenseful movies on Netflix you can stream right now. (Bladders, be warned.)
1: Leave the World Behind
There’s no going back to normal in this apocalyptic thriller. Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) and her husband, Clay (Ethan Hawke), take their kids on a weekend family getaway to a gorgeous house on Long Island to escape the city buzz. But their vacation bliss is soon interrupted when the homeowner, G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), and his daughter, Ruth (Myha’la), arrive in the middle of the night seeking to hunker down in the midst of citywide blackouts in New York City. G.H. believes that the phenomenon might be a sign of something bigger, and the two families must learn to trust each other if they have any hope of surviving.
2: Fair Play
An ambitious power couple fight their way up the corporate ladder, but can their relationship survive? Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are a pair of newly engaged financial analysts whose relationship is forbidden by their mutual employer, cutthroat hedge fund One Crest Capital. When Emily gets an unexpected promotion that Luke expected for himself, power games between the two begin to tear their relationship apart. Only one person can come out on top, even if it ruins their future together.
3: Reptile
In this twisty thriller, hardened detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) is thrown into a murder investigation after a young real estate agent is found dead at one of her listings. The young woman’s boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), who’s the head of his family’s real estate empire, is completely devastated by her death, but something is amiss — and Nichols’ investigation into the case leads him to a web of corruption that begins to unravel his whole life. Come for the mystery, stay for Alicia Silverstone’s performance as Tom’s wife, Judy, who is, in some ways, his most trusted partner.
4: The Call
Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) returns to her childhood home on her way to visit her sick and estranged mother. When she arrives at the house, she connects an old phone and begins to receive calls from a distressed woman named Yeong-sook (Jun Jong-seo). During their calls, Seo-yeon realizes Yeong-sook is living in the same house — but 20 years ago. The two women become friends, learning about each other’s lives over the phone while communicating across time. Then one day, Seo-yeon and Yeong-sook make a small choice that will forever change their lives in their respective timelines. But can they trust each other?
5: Bird Box
When someone tells you, “Don’t look,” fighting the urge becomes almost impossible. But in Bird Box, it’s a matter of life or death. Based on a 2014 novel with the same name, this 2018 film follows Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) on a journey of survival. The world is overrun with off-camera entities that cause anyone who looks at them to commit suicide. We meet Malorie as she’s instructing two children (Vivien Lyra Blair and Julian Edwards) to float down a river blindfolded, but then quickly jump back five years to a pregnant Malorie and her visiting sister (Sarah Paulson). A news broadcast warns that unexplained mass suicides are spreading and things are, ahem, not looking good. As Malorie fights for her life, she encounters friends and enemies — including Tom (Trevante Rhodes), Olympia (Danielle Macdonald), Greg (BD Wong), Douglas (John Malkovich), Lucy (Rosa Salazar), and Felix (Machine Gun Kelly). And while none of them are supposed to open their eyes in the monsters’ presence, you won’t be able to look away.
6: Fractured
Ray Monroe (Sam Worthington) and his wife, Joanne (Lily Rabe), are arguing on a drive home when their daughter, Peri (Lucy Capri), interrupts them from the back seat, needing a bathroom break and new batteries for her music player. The family stops at a gas station, and while her parents are distracted, Peri wanders over to a deserted construction site with a large exposed pit. Suddenly, a stray dog shows up and threatens to attack. By this time, Ray has found his daughter, but when he attempts to scare the dog away by throwing a rock, Peri falls backward into the hole. Trying to grab Peri, Ray falls in too and hits his head. When he comes to, he decides to take Peri to get checked out at a hospital they passed a few miles back. Dr. Berthram (Stephen Tobolowsky) decides Peri needs a CAT scan and sends mother and daughter downstairs for the procedure, while Ray is asked to remain in the waiting area, where he soon falls asleep. When Ray wakes up, not only has his family still not returned, but the hospital has no record of them. At all. Ever.
7: Hold the Dark
Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) is a writer slash wolf expert who’s been called to investigate the disappearance of three small children in the fictional town of Keelut, Alaska. As you may have guessed from Core’s credentials, Medora Slone (Riley Keough) is convinced wolves are to blame for taking her 6-year-old son, Bailey. Meanwhile, Medora’s husband, Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård), is serving overseas in Iraq until an injury and a missing Bailey bring him home. The police, led by Chief Donald Marium (James Badge Dale), and native villagers, like Vernon’s friend, Cheeon (Julian Black Antelope), get involved in the search and form their own opinions as to what’s going on in their small community. As this grisly and suspense-filled tale unfolds, it becomes increasingly difficult to gauge who’s capable of the more savage behavior — animals or humans.
8: Interceptor
Nothing creates tension like nuclear weapons. Terrorists have stolen nukes from Russia and taken over one of the United States’ interceptor missile launch sites in Alaska. After she files a sexual misconduct report and becomes the subject of even more harassment from her military peers because of it, Army Captain JJ Collins (Elsa Pataky) is re-stationed to the middle of the Pacific Ocean at the only other US interceptor missile launch site. Working in the command center alongside Lt. Colonel Marshall (Rhys Muldoon), Beaver Baker (Aaron Glenane) and Corporal Rahul Shah (Mayen Mehta), Collins is there when the station is infiltrated by ex-military intelligence soldier Alexander Kessel (Luke Bracey) and his group of baddies. They bring a manifesto to stream online about the failures of the US and instructions for those other bad guys in Alaska to launch the seized warheads immediately. As her country’s last line of defense, Collins has other make-’em-up-as-she-goes plans. There’s also a cameo from Pataky’s real-life husband, Chris Hemsworth, if that’s the kind of thing that gets your heart beating fast.
9: Spiderhead
Speaking of drugs, Spiderhead tells the story of inmates Jeff (Miles Teller) and Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett), looking to reduce their sentences by volunteering as test subjects for various mood- and mind-altering chemicals in a fancy-schmancy penitentiary. The prisoners have their own rooms and are free to roam without guard supervision, as long as they show up for their daily test runs of the drugs. These are administered by the likable Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth) and his dutiful assistant, Mark (Mark Paguio). But oh ho ho, nothing is ever as it seems in places like this, and Jeff and Lizzy soon realize something much more sinister than a “love drug” is being developed here. Based on a dystopian short story by George Saunders, once published inThe New Yorker, you’ll be addicted from start to finish.
10: The Platform
This is a movie about a very scary buffet. One day, Goreng (Iván Massagué) wakes up in a Vertical Self-Management Center, colloquially known as “The Pit,” which is basically a huge tower with lots and lots of floors. His cellmate, Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor), explains that food is delivered to the inhabitants of each floor via a platform from the top floor down to the bottom floor, pausing for a fixed period of time on each level so folks can eat. But here’s the rub — people on the lower levels can only eat what’s left over from those above them. And anyone caught stowing food? They’re killed. Every month, people are randomly assigned a new level. Even if you’re not paying attention to the capitalism critiques or the case for fair distribution of wealth, this tale of survival is gripping enough to keep your interest. We just suggest you don’t watch it while eating.
