21 Edge Of Your Seat Thrillers To Watch On Netflix Now

If you’re in the mood for a thriller, Netflix has got you covered. With plenty of modern greats and a growing number of terrific originals, Netflix’s collection of edge-of-your-seat thrillers offers something for all tastes.

Indeed, you’ve got everything from tense slow-burning police investigations and heart-stopping pursuits of serial killers, psychopaths and mad villains to movies about abduction and imprisonment, weird dystopian futures, home invasion, and real-life events. Expect sweaty palms and plenty of twists and turns.

What to watch on Netflix

Netflix’s great selection of thrillers for UK customers includes Denis Villeneuve’s relentlessly suspenseful child abduction film Prisoners, Dan Gilroy’s terrific neo-noir Nightcrawler, and the psychological terror of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island. 

Netflix’s collection of thrillers also includes some wonderful originals too such as Bird Box which, following its release in 2018, became the most-watched film on Netflix within 28 days of release.

The best thriller movies on Netflix right now

If you’re in the mood for tension-filled thrills and edge-of-your-seat suspense, check out our choices of the best thrillers to watch on Netflix UK right now.

Give me great thrillers Netflix!

The Guilty

The Guilty once again sees Jake Gyllenhaal showing audiences why he’s one of the best actors of his generation. Similar to Brad Anderson’s The Call starring Halle Berry about a police dispatcher who finds herself becoming an active participant in a live emergency, The Guilty enjoys a similar setup but adds subtle layers to its characterisation that elevate the thrills.

An American remake of the Danish film of the same name, director Antoine Fuqua stylishly translates the psychological drama to an LAPD 911 call centre where Gyllenhaal’s demoted cop finds his boredom at the dispatch desk interrupted by an abducted woman desperately calling for help.

Run

Dir. Chaganty (2020)

A home-schooled teenager (Kiera Allen) begins to suspect her mother (Sarah Poulson) is keeping a dark secret from her. One of Netflix’s best thrillers of recent years. You won’t see the ending coming! Dark but brilliant stuff!

Bird Box

Dir. Bier (2018)

Bird Box sees Sandra Bullock’s Malorie Hayes desperately try to protect herself and two children from entities which cause people who look at them to die by suicide. Very tense and disturbing. Those who easily get nightmares might want to skip this one.

Patriots Day

Dir. Berg (2016)

From the director of action thriller Lone Survivor and fun science-fiction romp Battleship, Patriot’s Day follows Mark Wahlberg’s Boston detective Sergeant Tommy Saunders (based on the real life Danny Keeler) who, having been assigned to police the Boston Marathon in 2013, is thrust into the panic of the bombings that take place near the finish line.

He becomes one of the key law enforcement officers on the ground as detectives rapidly piece together the evidence over the course of a few hours in order to apprehend the bombers.

The Pale Blue Eye

Dir. Cooper (2022)

A wonderfully snow-covered 19th century New York State awaits us in this mystery-thriller from the director of Black Mass and Crazy Heart. Starring Christian Bale as retired detective Augustus Landor, the alcoholic sleuth must try to stay sober in order to solve a case of murder involving cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Boasting a wonderful ensemble cast that includes Harry Potter’s Harry Melling alongside Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, and a brief appearance from Robert Duvall, The Pale Blue Eye will keep you guessing until its twist ending.

Cop Land

Dir. James Mangold (1997)

Sylvester Stallone stars as Sheriff Freddy Heflin, a man who once harboured a wish to be an NYPD cop but who had to resort to town sheriff  due to being deaf in one ear.

Maintaining an affection for the close-knit community of NYPD officers in his town of Garrison, New Jersey, Heflin has turned a blind eye to corruption for a long time. But when two teenagers are unlawfully killed by a cop, the sheriff begins to have a change of heart.

The Pledge

A slow-burning neo-noir thriller starring the inimitable Jack Nicholson, The Pledge from actor turned director Sean Penn sees Nicholson in the role of a retiring police detective who sets out to catch the killer of a young child.

It is based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s novella of the same name which was originally published in 1958. The film keeps you guessing all the way to its finale with Nicholson delivering one of the finest later-career performances.

Prisoners

Dir. Villeneuve (2013)

A terrific thriller from the unstoppable talents of director Denis Villeneuve (who also made Sicario, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049), Prisoners is relentless in its tension-filled thrills.

An ensemble piece, the film follows the investigation and search for two missing children. This includes Jake Gyllenhaal’s detective, who leads the police hunt. There’s also Hugh Jackman, the father of one of the missing girls, who goes on his own obsessive mission to discover the truth.

Terrific performances from the entire cast (Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano) ensure we’re engrossed in a mystery which moves along at breathtaking pace. Emotionally exhausting in all the right ways, this unpredictable thriller remains one of the best American films of the 2010s.

Calibre

Dir. Palmer (2018)

Calibre, the 2018 recipient of the Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Best British Film award, is impressive for the caustic, tightly wound tension it subjects us to from the outset.

Indeed, as an example in the art of creating and sustaining a palpable sense of unease, as if the very ground on which these characters walk upon is loose and crumbling, Matt Palmer’s film is a cinematic masterclass.

Shutter Island

Dir. Scorsese (2010)

Nothing is as it seems in this twisty thriller from director Martin Scorsese.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshall Edward Daniels who is sent to a psychiatric hospital located on the eponymous Shutter Island in Boston Harbor after a patient goes missing. The fun of this film is trying to work out what is real and what isn’t before the twisty finale. The film also looks gorgeous thanks to the cinematography of Robert Richardson.

The Net

Dir. Winkler (1995)

Sandra Bullock in 1995’s cyber-thriller The Net.

It might be dated but The Net is so much fun. Sandra Bullock plays a unlikely 1990s tech whizz during the early years of the internet when you had to dial-in to the internet and wait for some strange sounds from your modem to stop before slowly searching the World Wide Web and logging into to your favourite web chat.

An unwitting hero in a tale of killers, crime and government takeovers, Bullock’s Angela Bennett stumbles across a conspiracy which puts her life in danger. Suddenly the bad guys have taken away her identity, leaving her stranded without a home, money or even her own name. She also wanted for a murder she did not commit.  She has to race against time to piece together the mystery and clear her name. It’s fast-paced, edge of your seat stuff.

Nightcrawler

Dir. Gilroy (2014)

This absorbing neo-noir stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an opportunistic freelance video journalist who ambulance-chases his way to potential news stories he can sell to the networks.

Ethics are thrown out as Gyllenhaal’s stringer Lou Bloom finds his own dark niche, manufacturing events to profit from consumer demand for car crash television. As things become darker and darker, Nightcrawler discovers its own unique thrills. You won’t be able to predict where this one is going.

Surge

Dir. Karia (2020)

First unveiled at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival where Whishaw won a Special Jury Award for Acting, Surge finds his character Joseph trapped in a soulless job, living a life devoid of emotion and meaning. After an impulsive act of rebellion, Joseph unleashes a wilder version of himself. He is propelled on a reckless journey through London, ultimately experiencing what it feels like to be alive.

In his review, Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian, said: “The tension builds repeatedly in Aneil Karia’s fierce, atmospheric tale of a security officer who strides out on a surreal odyssey after losing his job.”

He says it’s “an intriguing essay in mood”, a “claustrophobic and atmospheric character study with a big pressure-cooker performance from Ben Whishaw”, and calls Karia “a smart filmmaker” with Surge being “a valuable beginning”.

Drive

Dir. Refn (2011)

Drive is a film that moves with meticulous ease. It is carefully considered and quietly assured before displaying, like flashes of lighting during a thunder storm, a breakneck sidestep into the muddy waters of man’s most violent fantasies. From time to time, its sedate majesty tumbles from the cliff’s edge and we are pummelled with a kinetic energy bathed in blood. Much like the anonymous driver himself, played here by Ryan Gosling, there’s two sides to every story. And as we see, sometimes, there’s two sides to every person as well.

Donnie Brasco

Dir. Newell (1997)

Notions pertaining to friendship, loyalty, personal conflict and betrayal all come under the microscope in this rather low key (not to mention poignant) gangster film in which an FBI agent (Johnny Depp) infiltrates a New York crime family – a soul crushing career move that almost ruins his marriage and directly leads to the death of an aging mobster (Al Pacino) who spends most of the movie treating him like a son.

As with BlacKkKlansman, Donnie Brasco is based on a true story. Unlike the Lee film, though, it doesn’t have a political axe to grind, instead focusing on a relationship between two men which, under a different set of circumstances, would never have ended so tragically.

Clear And Present Danger

Dir. Noyce (1994)

Playing CIA operative Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford finds himself drawn into an illegal war fought by the US government against a Colombian drug cartel in this sequel to 1990’s The Hunt for Red October and 1992’s Patriot Games.

The Platform

Dir. Gaztelu-Urrutia (2019)

The Platform is an ingenious thriller that sees a bunch of people locked up in a vertical prison, one cell per floor with two inmates in each. A huge food banquet is lowered from the top floor to each cell with inmates having only a few minutes to eat as much as they can before the food moves down to the level below. The lower the floor you’re on the less you have to eat. It’s a system the inevitably leads to bloody, brutal conflict. You won’t be able to predict where this one is going.

Primal Fear

Dir. Gregory Hoblit (1996)

Richard Gere stops chasing Julia Roberts for a moment and tries to defend Edward Norton’s alter boy after the young man is accused of viciously murdering an archbishop. The film features a “killer” twist!

The Departed

Dir. Scorsese (2006)

An alternative title for this rather violent movie could have been A Tale of Two Moles as it simultaneously involves Boston policeman Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) spying on his department for gangster boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) while plain clothes cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) infiltrates Costello’s mob on behalf of Mr Plod. Although the authorities ultimately come out on top, it turns out both moles are expendable.

The Game

Dir. Fincher (1997)

A commercial failure but a film that did win acclaim from critics and eventually grew a cult following, David Fincher’s The Game is a characteristically good looking piece of cinema from the director who had previously made crowd-pleasing crime-thriller Seven.

Michael Douglas is Gecko-esque as a rich investment banker who seemingly prefers his own company but whose younger brother insists needs an injection of excitement. That leads to the eponymous “game”, our immersion in which blurring the lines between reality and make-believe.

Red Eye

Dir. Craven (2005)

Celebrated horror filmmaker Wes Craven doesn’t waste a second of runtime in this taut thriller set largely on a red eye flight from Dallas to Miami. On the plane is Rachel McAdams’ Lisa, a hotel manager preparing to host a major US government official.

Seated next to her is Cillian Murphy’s Jackson Rippner, a terrorist working on a plot to assassinate the United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security during his stay at Lisa’s hotel.

He reveals he’s got an assassin outside Lisa’s father’s home ready to kill the man if she does not do everything he asks of her. Despite being at 35,000 feet and with nowhere to go, Lisa is, however,  unwilling to play ball so easily.

Did you have fun watching these thriller movies on Netflix? What was your fav?