If you, like me, love nothing more than a movie that makes you grip your chair so hard you realise that either the chair's arms or your fingers might pop right out of their joints, then take a look at the movies below.
These thrillers are all available to stream on Netflix, and have 90% or higher ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that almost all critics agree that they're at least a little bit good. All could appear on our best Netflix movies list – and if it were all about thrillers, they surely would.
So if you're at a loss for what to watch this week, add these to your watchlist – and don't forget to check out our guide of new Netflix movies recently added to the service!
His House
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
Our first movie walks the line between horror and thriller, and tells the story of a Sudanese couple who come to the UK as refugees, settling in a small English town. But as anyone who's seen Hot Fuzz knows, small English towns are full of dark secrets. It weaves the more horrific side of its premise with its social commentary into one seamless whole, where the traumas that refugees have faced and that can threaten their ability to build a new life become something that is literally threatening.
Emily the Criminal
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
I watched this on a plane, which – given its slow build of tension – is ill-suited in some ways (not ideal for ambiance!). But on the other hand, at least no one could hear me muttering out loud about people making an on-going series of poor decisions. Aubrey Plaza plays Emily, who is a criminal, you will not surprised to hear. This means she's having trouble holding down jobs that pay enough to have any kind of meaningful life, so is quickly pulled into running scams when an opportunity presents itself. What follows is someone continually biting off more and more, until suddenly discovering they've taken more than they can chew. Plaza is great as the sardonic but vulnerable Emily, and the film is very much a character exploration for her – about how far you'll go when pushed and whether you'll realise it's going to be too far before things turn sour.
Power of the Dog
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
I struggled with the pacing of this movie after I saw it for the first time back in 2021, but I think about it all the time since then. It's the perfect blend of thoughtful, ambiguous and impactful. Directed by Jane Campion, who directed the incredible The Piano, it's about… well, lots of things, but not all are what it's really about. The plot, at least, follows Kirsten Dunst and her son, Kodi Smit-McPhee, as they move to a ranch following Dunst's marriage to Jesse Plemons. But Plemons' brother, Benedict Cumberbatch, isn't happy with this arrangement. He takes to tormenting Dunst and belittling Smit-McPhee, growing increasingly threatening towards him, until suddenly his tune seems to change. By the end, the power dynamic between all these characters has become so fascinatingly dense, and we've subtly peeled back so many layers of their personality, that every single look or movement feels filled with purpose. By the time it culminates in a death, it feels absolutely inevitable… and yet, still leaves open questions that will drive you to think it over repeatedly for two years. At least, it will if you're me.
Captain Phillips
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
How Hanks didn't get his third Oscar for this is a mystery only the movie gods can answer. Frantic and claustrophobic (despite being set in, y'know, the middle of the ocean), this thriller from The Bourne Identity director Paul Greengrass is about Somali pirates taking over a container ship, and the tense battle of wills and power between them and the ship's crew, and within the pirate group itself. Hanks does his specialty at this point in his career – handles tough situations with poise and determinations, but clearly with no small amount of fear under the surface (see also: Bridge of Spies).
The Stranger
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Based on a true story, and starring notable Mission: Impossible villain Sean Harris and notable Luke Skywalker's uncle Joel Edgerton, this movie is about the slow, tense process of a police officer (Edgerton) gaining the friendship and trust of a suspected child abductor and murderer (Harris) in an attempt to gain a confession – or at least further information about the case. It's about going so deep down the rabbit hole that your physical and mental wellbeing are eroding rapidly, but being committed to the good that you're doing. But if catharsis comes, will it ever be enough?
Dunkirk
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Christopher Nolan's second shortest movie, and you have to assume that's because he knows we really couldn't have dealt with more than 106 minutes of this. It's about the evacuation of allied forced from Dunkirk during the second world war, with German forces rapidly closing on a beach, where a massacre is likely. The large evacuation ships are easy target practice for artillery, the troops are crowded in one area… it's not looking good. The film follows three different perspectives: a soldier on the beach, one of the small boats in a fleet that set out from England to rescue them, and an Air Force pilot heading to support the operation. How much can go wrong in each of these threads? Oh boy, so much. You can read more about why I think Dunkirk is the perfect primer for Oppenheimer here.
Gerald's Game
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
Based on a Stephen King story, and directed by Mike Flanagan, who shortly after this will direct the masterpiece Doctor Sleep (it's a masterpiece as long as you watch the Director's Cut, at least), this is about a woman who's left handcuffed to a bed after her husband dies of a heart attack in the middle of some light bondage fun. You can already imagine that there's a survival story at the center of this movie, then… but it's the psychological thriller aspect that has to carry it. Stuck in an extreme situation, without food or water to hand, how long do you think it would take you to start hallucinating? Not very long, according to this movie! Indeed, you might find yourself being taken to the darkest parts of your past, and you might find that these horrors are somehow affecting the real world around you, seemingly. It's nightmarish, but you'll be locked into watching it, a little bit as if you were… well, you get it.
