The best TV and film thrillers to get your heart racing
Like your binge with a side of adrenaline? From TV series like Mindhunter and Beef to films such as Uncut Gems and Nobody, these thrillers have you covered
Ever feel the need for clammy palms, a pumping heart and your sweat glands working in overdrive? Thank god for the best TV and film thrillers, because who needs rollercoasters when you can watch Adam Sandler make endless life-endangering decisions in Uncut Gems for the six-dozenth time.
There are some corkers on Netflix, for one — and only, like, two-thirds of them star Sandler in precarious predicaments. Take their Steven Yeun starring rage-a-thon Beef, or Bob Odenkirk's family man-does-John Wick flick, Nobody. There's also a healthy helping of David Fincher on there for good measure, from Gone Girl (the thriller with the wicked wife) to The Killer (the thriller with the killer).
And there's way, way more to watch elsewhere: the likes of No Country for Old Men and Good Time, another frenetic feast from the Safdie brothers. Here's our pick of the best thrillers out there…
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection1/20Nobody
It's a simple, schlocky premise, done gloriously, as the schlockiest premises should be. Better Call Saul's Bob Odenkirk portrays a CIA assassin-turned-family man on a murder hiatus; after a particularly brutal encounter with some tadpoles from the Russian mob, he rediscovers his taste for violence. It's just in time, as the entire East Coast mob comes after him seeking bloody revenge. The remaining 45 minutes make for a terrific shoot 'em up B-movie, with supporting turns from Christopher Lloyd (from Back to the Future) and RZA (of Wu-Tang Clan fame). Think John Wick, but centring on a loveable everyman, not an equally loveable kung-fu master. netflix.com
2/20Uncut Gems
They don’t come much more thrilling than Uncut Gems, the Safdie brothers’ brilliant, relentless drama about a jeweller (Adam Sandler) with a gambling addiction. Sandler puts in his best post-Punch-Drunk Love work as Howard, who acquires a rare black opal – which could be the key to paying off his debts – and immediately loans it to NBA legend Kevin Garnett, setting off a chain of events that will cause him – and us – a huge amount of distress. You can watch Uncut Gems on Netflix.
©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection3/20Sicario
An instant classic of the genre, Denis Villeneuve's Sicario saw an FBI drug agent portrayed by Emily Blunt dropped in the middle of a devastating cartel war in Mexico. It's packed with gun-totting action, sure; at the same time, some of its sequences are nauseating in the anxiety they build towards. Then Benicio del Toro turns up as the robotic assassin Alejandro Gillick, with his silenced pistol and frozen blood — you'll be reminded of Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men — and all bets are suddenly off. You can watch Sicario on Amazon.
4/20The Killer
Michael Fassbender's bucket hat clad anxious assassin monotonously murders his way through a coterie of fellow contract killers in this slow-burn genre exercise from David Fincher. But what else does he love, aside from bloodshed? His girlfriend and, going by the dozen-odd “How Soon is Now” needle-drops, The Smiths, much to the joy of Dad Rock apologists everywhere. You can watch The Killer on Netflix.
5/20Gone Girl
How could you make a list of the greatest thrillers without the patron saint of the genre himself? David Fincher made his name — or rather remade his name, after Alien 3 infamously bombed — with a series of grisly thrillers about, among other things, a fight club attended by a disillusioned Brad Pitt and a guy murdering people per the seven deadly sins. But our first pick of the crop is Gone Girl, in which Rosamund Pike chews the scenery as the beleaguered wife of Ben Affleck who, on discovering his affair, frames him for her own murder. Ain't love the sweetest thing? You can watch Gone Girl on Netflix.
6/20The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Barry Keoghan had his big breakout in this uniquely morbid sixth feature from Greek absurdist Yorgos Lanthimos, whose films tend to be deadpan and mean. The Killing of a Sacred Deer is no different, starring Colin Farrell as a heart surgeon who meets a young boy, Keoghan’s Martin, with a mysterious link to his past. Tragedy ensues. Appropriately, it’s inspired by Euripides’ great tragic work about Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia in Aulis. Pitch-black comedy with one of Farrell’s best performances to date. amazon.co.uk
7/20Widows
Steve McQueen’s 2018 follow-up to 12 Years a Slave is set in present-day Chicago, and adapted from a British show in the ‘80s. Widows is based around a fun conceit: what would happen if the guys mounting a heist were all wiped out, and their wives had to take up the mantle? A gut-busting ensemble thriller starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo and Elizabeth Debicki follows, rounded off by a spine-chilling performance by Daniel Kaluuya, starring as a daggers-for-eyes mob enforcer with zero chill. amazon.co.uk
8/20Cam
This mind-melting Black Mirror-like flick focuses on Alice, an ambitious sex worker who suddenly realises that she’s been replaced on her very own online account with an exact replica of herself. If that wasn’t enough, her mysterious doppelgänger carries out increasingly more intense acts, forcing her to work out the unnerving mystery before things go too far. netflix.com
9/20I Am All Girls
A special crimes investigator played by Erica Wessels unexpectedly finds common ground with a serial killer who targets the men linked to a global child trafficking syndicate. I Am All Girls is loosely inspired by true events which took place in 1980s South Africa. Directed by Donovan Marsh, it tackles a weighty subject and does a good job of unpacking the horrors of the human trafficking, all while maintaining nail-biting levels of suspense. netflix.com
Claudette Barius/Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock10/20Velvet Buzzsaw
What starts as a sneering satire descends into a comment on greed and ownership. Gallery assistant Josephina (Zawe Ashton) discovers a hoard of paintings in her dead neighbour's apartment. The artist wanted the entire collection destroyed upon his death and when they begin to appear in galleries and exhibitions across LA his reasoning becomes clear. Packed with A-listers including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, John Malkovich and Natalia Dyer, the film serves melodrama and gore by the bucket-load. netflix.com
Ben Rothstein/Netflix/Sony/Kobal/Shutterstock11/20El Camino
Jesse Pinkman is back at it again in the Breaking Bad spinoff El Camino. Released in 2019, it follows on from the series finale, in which Walt Whitman evaded a nationwide manhunt and Pinkman escaped his neo-Nazi captors, the Aryan Brotherhood. The film follows his attempts to evade the law and his own inner demons. No spoilers, but it’s a worthy follow up to the hit TV drama featuring a career-best performance from Aaron Paul. netflix.com
Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock12/20Shutter Island
Leonardo DiCaprio fronts this Martin Scorsese-directed film as Teddy Daniels, a marshal tasked with investigating Ashecliffe Hospital after the escape of a dangerous patient. Following a series of whiplash-inducing plot twists, Daniels begins to question the veracity of his own thoughts. And while the ending is immensely satisfying, it famously leaves viewers with more questions than answers. netflix.com
13/20Nightcrawler
One of Jake Gyllenhaal’s finest performances. The actor transforms into the snivelling, deeply creepy freelance videographer Lou Bloom, out to make a name for himself in the competitive world of local TV news. Told by his boss that viewers are particularly interested in graphic footage, he begins to tamper with crime scenes in order to make his stories more salacious. netflix.com
14/20Good Time
From the makers of Uncut Gems, this one is a slightly less accessible but no less fascinating odyssey through the grimy underbelly of New York City. It follows Connie (Robert Pattinson), a low-life who involves his mentally disabled brother in an ill-planned and poorly executed bank robbery and spends the rest of the movie trying to get him out of prison when things go sideways. homecinema.curzon.com
15/20I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
When Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) comes home from the worst day of her life to find out she’s been burgled, she snaps. With the help of her neighbour (Elijah Wood) and no support from the condescending local police, she tracks down the nefarious intruders, looking to get her revenge. Part thriller, part black comedy, this is a fun watch filled with eccentric characters. netflix.com
16/20Bodyguard
Jed Mercurio’s 2018 political thriller was a universal hit when it arrived in 2018, with ten million viewers tuning in to BBC each Sunday night to watch PTSD-riddled David Budd (Richard Madden) attempt to unravel a government conspiracy and protect home secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), who he also happens to be sleeping with. Like most of Mercurio’s stuff, it is highly entertaining, even if it does border on the absurd as it reaches its climax. netflix.com
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection17/20Beef
Steven Yeun and Ali Wong star in this powder keg of a ten-part thriller from A24 and Netflix in collaboration. Beginning with a trivial moment of road rage, Danny Cho (Yeun) and Amy Lau (Wong) soon find themselves butting heads in increasingly absurd and violent ways. Cho pisses on Lau's rug, who vandalises his car; Cho then turns up at her house with a hammer, and so on. netflix.com
18/20Money Heist
One of Netflix’s biggest hits, this Spanish crime saga is well worth a look. It revolves around two meticulously planned heists orchestrated by master criminal “the Professor” in Madrid. As with any heist drama worth its salt, it features a ragtag crew of criminals pulled together from various backgrounds, all donning Salvador Dalí masks, referring to one another by code name only. It’s got romance, betrayal and plenty of twists. What more could you want? netflix.com
19/20The Fall
This Northern Ireland-set crime drama enjoyed a resurgence in the cultural consciousness when it dropped on Netflix last year. It stars the powerhouse duo of Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan as a Met police officer who is seconded to Belfast and the serial killer she is charged with taking down. netflix.com
20/20Mindhunter
David Fincher took on a police line-up's worth of real-life slashers in his prematurely butchered Netflix murderthon, Mindhunter, which saw a special unit of the FBI invade the minds of America's most notorious ne'er-do-wells. Looking and Glee's Jonathan Groff stars as the the lead badge-and-suit. He and his team try to crack the psyche of such serial savages as Ed Kemper, Charles Manson (and his merry Mansonites) and Jerry Brudos, known as the “shoe fetish slayer.” This is what you get when Fincher goes full Fincher, and Netflix will never see peace for sending it to an early grave. You can watch Mindhunter on Netflix.
