The Best Thrillers on Prime Video Right Now

Run Time: 1 hr 37 min | Director: Lorcan Finnegan

Cast: Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris

A harrowing and surrealist parable about the horrors of trying to buy a home, Vivarium is a vast experience even as it remains mostly confined to a single location. It follows the young couple of Gemma and Tom, who are looking to buy their first house. Played by the strong duo of Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg, they initially seem to be innocent about the whole affair. This will all change very quickly. When they take a tour of what they hope to be their home, they are left in an unfamiliar neighborhood. This suburban hell prevents them from escaping, as any time they try to leave will bring them right back to the same house. It is a claustrophobic and tense experience, never missing a beat as it all becomes increasingly suffocating to see the two people begin to fall apart. It reveals how we may be digging our own graves without knowing that we are doing it until it is all too late. – Chase Hutchinson

Run Time: 1 hr 57 min | Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells

Comedy director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) takes a step into the dark and twisted mystery genre with this deceptively bright suburban crime thriller based on the Darcey Bell novel of the same name. A Simple Favor puts Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect) opposite Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) as two mothers with opposite vibes: Kendrick plays the quirky and awkward Stephanie Smothers, while Lively is effortlessly cool and mysterious as Emily Nelson. The two form an unlikely bond right before Emily goes missing, and her new bestie is left trying to find her. But the more she investigates, the deeper she falls into a rabbit hole of lies, drugs, and murder. –Tauri Miller

Run Time: 1 hr 39 min | Director: William Brent Bell

Cast: Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Hiro Kanagawa

Isabelle Fuhrman (The Hunger Games) reprises the role of Esther in Orphan: First Kill, a prequel film to the growing Orphan franchise. Orphan: First Kill follows how Esther arrived in America, impersonating a missing child after escaping an Estonian psychiatric facility. Leaning into campy horror elements and surprising twists, Orphan: First Kill is a psychological horror with a ludicrous premise that manages to maintain fans who eagerly await a third chapter. Directed by William Brent Bell, Orphan: First Kill cleverly utilizes practical effects to de-age Fuhrman without depending heavily on CGI, allowing Fuhrman’s performance and commitment to the character to truly shine. – Yael Tygiel

Run Time: 1 hr 45 min | Director: Graham Moore

Cast: Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn, Dylan O’Brien

The Outfit, starring character actor Mark Rylance (Dunkirk), is a grounded crime thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Rylance plays Leonard Burling, the owner of a tailor shop in 1956 Chicago, who gets roped into helping the Irish mob after a job gone bad. The story is a knotted ball of twists and turns as Burling has to navigate this situation using his cunning, kindness, and cutting to survive the night. Zoey Deutch (Before I Fall) and Johnny Flynn (Stardust) also shine like diamonds in every scene, drawing the viewer in with each line while bouncing off of Rylance perfectly. Overall, The Outfit utilizes a wealth of amazing performances from a talented ensemble to create a tense environment that feels like a powder keg that could go off at any moment. –Tauri Miller

Run Time: 1 hr 39 min | Director: Nikyatu Jusu

Cast: Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Morgan Spector

Nanny is a suspense-filled drama written and directed by Nikyatu Jusu. Her feature directorial debut, Nanny follows Aisha (Anna Diop), a Senegalese immigrant who finds work taking care of a child for a wealthy Upper East Side family in New York City. Over the course of the movie, Aisha begins to hallucinate, having visions that are both influenced and influential on the journey of her life. Grounded by Diop’s haunting performance, Nanny also stars Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector as Aisha’s employers, with a rich performance from Sinqua Walls as her love interest, Malik. Nanny is a disquieting movie with a raw approach to revelations of the American Dream. – Yael Tygiel

Run Time: 1 hr 44 min | Director: Shana Feste

Cast: Ella Balinska, Pilou Asbæk, Clark Gregg, Shohreh Aghdashloo

Ella Balinska (Charlie’s Angels) stars as Cherie in Run Sweetheart Run, directed by Shana Feste, who co-wrote the screenplay with Keith Josef Adkins and Kellee Terrell. With a simple plot of a date gone wrong, Run Sweetheart Run reveals how Cherie escapes her sadistic terrorizer, played gruesomely by Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones). Run Sweetheart Run is overflowing with blood, gore, and incredible talent, including Clark Gregg (Agents of SHIELD) and Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse), but the true standout of this movie is how, even with such exaggerated circumstances, the danger itself is horrifyingly relatable. – Yael Tygiel

Run Time: 1 hr 32 min | Director: Matt Sobel

Cast: Naomi Watts, Cameron Crovetti, Nicholas Crovetti, Crystal Lucas-Perry

Goodnight Mommy is a nerve-wracking psychological horror film that centers on twins Elias (Cameron Crovetti) and Lukas (Nicholas Crovetti) who, after living with their father since their parents’ divorce, return to their mother’s (Naomi Watts) custody. Their mother, who has just had cosmetic surgery and wears a full bandage on her head, acts erratically, often drinking, getting angry, and refusing to bond with her children, which makes them suspect she may have been switched with an imposter. Though not as acclaimed as the Austrian version on which it’s based, there’s no doubt Goodnight Mommy is a chilling story that will keep suspense fans hooked. – Taylor Gates

Run Time: 1 hr 45 min | Director: Carey Williams

Cast: RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins, Sebastian Chacon, Sabrina Carpenter

Critically acclaimed Emergency premiered at Sundance Film Festival and was hailed as a refreshing perspective on the college party night and road trip tropes, billing it as an instant classic. When three Black and Latinx college boys (RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins, and Sebastian Chacon) face the unexpected situation of finding an unconscious white woman mysteriously appearing in their house, they are forced to decide the best way to resolve the situation. With an inherently suspenseful plot, festival favorite Carey Williams’ directed a heart-pumping story crafted on K.D. Dávila’s page. Emergency holds up a mirror to systemic injustices plaguing modern America, addressing societal discussions peppered in levity, making it a brilliant blend of Dope meets Superbad. – Yael Tygiel

Run Time: 1 hr 41 min | Director: Andrew Jarecki

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella

Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049) absolutely terrifies in All Good Things, a gripping movie loosely inspired by unbelievably true events where a New York real estate mogul was suspected of murdering his wife. Gosling and Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man) are delicately transported back to the late bright lights of the 1970s and early 80s where writers Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling detail the couple’s journey from meet-cute to her mysterious disappearance. All Good Things director Andrew Jarecki (The Jinx) has a particular fascination with the individual this film is based on, carefully crafting a fictional cinematic masterpiece and tight-roping the fine line between facts and creative liberties. Jarecki’s expertise on the matter is revealed with precision, uncovering unexpected details that perplex with every realization that they are likely based in reality. – Yael Tygiel

Run Time: 1 hr 33 min | Director: Sara Seligman

Cast: Camila Mendes, Adriana Barraza, Andres Velez

Camila Mendes (Riverdale) stars in a fast-paced thriller about a mother-daughter murdering team whose way of life is threatened when two drug dealers appear on their doorstep, threatening their lives while also seeking their help. In her feature directorial debut, Sara Seligman, who co-wrote the film with Thomas James Bond, expertly builds suspense, slowly peeling back layers of the characters and the secrets held within each of them while gingerly illuminating relevant issues facing people who live on the US/Mexico border. Cinematography Matthias Schubert unequivocally tackles nighttime filmmaking, adding textures to the landscape without distracting or detracting from the narrative. Mendes’ ability to breathtakingly break away from her vapid Riverdale persona, grounding a hostage story with compassion and authenticity, is both impressive and award-worthy. – Yael Tygiel

Run Time: 1 hr 58 min | Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves

A masterful work of the macabre, The Neon Demon is a vibrant and visceral work that makes for a scrumptious meal if you are able to stomach it. It follows a haunting Elle Fanning as Jesse, an aspiring model who has come to Los Angeles in the hopes of making it in a rather harsh and cruel industry. Directed by the enigmatic Nicolas Winding Refn, most known for Drive and Only God Forgives, it is an experience all its own that peels back the layers of beauty to reveal something far uglier underneath the polite face we put on the world. It is not a film that you can undertake lightly, as it constantly pushes into darker places that are as thematically dour as they are visually arresting. There also is a sinister sense of humor under it all, making the conclusion both a fitting and oddly funny way to end it all that hits home without missing a beat. – Chase Hutchinson

Run Time: 1 hr 52 min | Director: Lynne Ramsay

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly

A fortuitous film about how horrifying it would be to have Ezra Miller as your child, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a bleak yet incisive work from Lynne Ramsay that never pulls any punches in its devastating vision of violence. The story is that Tilda Swinton’s Eva is struggling to raise her child Kevin (Miller), who seems to loathe her. As they grow more aggressive, the film becomes about the horrors of what it means to have your offspring turn into someone you can’t recognize and whether you could have done anything to stop it. Swinton is outstanding, bringing a sense of the tragedy that permeates the existence of her character at every single turn. It is a film that abandons any sense of optimism to instead focus on the cold, hard reality of parenthood and the violence that is bubbling just underneath the surface. No matter how much we would like to pretend it doesn’t exist, it is there and just waiting to burst free — whether we are ready for it or not. – Chase Hutchinson

Run Time: 2 hr 24 min | Director: Chan-wook Park

Cast: Min-hee Kim, Tae-ri Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jing-woo Jo

The Handmaiden is the most downright gorgeous erotic thriller ever made. Liberally inspired by Sarah Waters‘ British melodrama, Chan-wook Park gives the source material a cultural transplant to 1930s Japan-occupied Korea where Sook-Hee (Tae-ri Kim) takes a job as a handmaiden to the mysterious, troubled Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim), sparking a passionate affair that reshapes their lives. Our entry point to the twisted tale is through Sook-Hee, a thief by trade and family tradition who is in fact teaming with a fake count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo) in a scheme to defraud Lady Hideko of her fortune, but when Sook-Hee falls for her mark, the fiendish plan is thrown for a loop as new layers of deception and manipulation are uncovered at every turn. — Haleigh Foutch

Run Time: 1 hr 39 min | Director: Christopher Smith

Cast: Melissa George, Liam Hemsworth, Joshua McIvor

After putting a delightfully cheeky spin on the backwoods slasher genre with his 2006 film Severance, writer-director Christopher Smith got even more creative with his next film, the time loop mind-bender Triangle. Centered on Melissa George‘s Jess, a woman with an undisclosed source of agony behind her surface-level calm, Triangle sees a group of friends on a yachting trip through the Bermuda Triangle, where they escape to a passing ocean liner in the midst of a terrible storm. Once aboard, they find that the massive ship is abandoned, and what’s worse, they’re being stalked by a hooded murderous figure who appears to be the only other inhabitant on the vessel.

It’s difficult to talk about Triangle without giving away its many clever twists and turns, but a vicious time loop repeatedly thrusts the group into the nightmare scenario where Jess emerges at the heart of a mystery that might just hold the key to their escape. Smith makes the most of his twisty concept with an intricately designed narrative of overlapping timelines, and a number of striking and creative that showcase the horror of being stuck in a hellish time loop. — Haleigh Foutch

Run Time: 1 hr 25 min | Director: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury

Cast: Camille Rowe, James Jagger, Eric Savin

A film that makes the most of its unique premise, The Deep House follows a young influencer couple who go for a dive to explore a submerged house and end up getting more than they bargained for. With oxygen steadily depleting and terrors beginning to take hold in the house, the duo will have to race against the clock in order to escape in one piece. Patient yet completely petrifying at the same time, the sluggishness at which the divers move through the water only makes it all the more terrifying when they need to move quickly when in danger. As the house and all that is in it begins to turn against them, the way everything is framed to maximize the claustrophobia gets so overwhelming that you yourself feel as though you can’t breathe. It is a film where its setting becomes a central part of the story, washing over you with each subsequent development until you are permanently stuck on the edge of your seat. – Chase Hutchinson

Run Time: 1 hr 51 min | Director: Dominic Cooke

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley

How does an ordinary businessman from London get mixed up with the KGB? Taking place in the 1960s, the spy thriller The Courier follows the true story of Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), an unassuming salesman whose life is turned upside down when he is recruited by CIA officer Helen Talbot (Rachel Brosnahan) and MI6 officer Dickie Franks (Angus Wright), who ask him to head to Russia and aid them in their mission to uncover disturbing truths about the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this tense historical drama, Greville covertly interacts with Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), a Soviet military source doubling as a British spy who has pertinent information on Russia’s nuclear plans. This literal life-and-death adventure debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. — Emily Bernard

Run Time: 1 hr 58 min | Director: Scott Z. Burns

Cast: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Tim Blake Nelson

Noted screenwriter and producer Scott Z. Burns made his feature film directorial debut with The Report. A real life tale about the CIA’s attempts to cover up a report detailing their disturbing torture methods deployed on captive prisoners after 9/11. The Report stars Adam Driver as Daniel Jones, an idealistic Senate staffer who is assigned by Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) to lead an investigation into the CIA’s post 9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program. Jones is initially hesitant to take on the task, but is soon consumed by his charge and becomes dogged and determined to issue this report despite the protestations of the CIA and other Senators in Congress. Burns, who also wrote the screenplay, does a masterful job of jumping back and forth in time throughout the film. He shows us the pressures and influences that led to the creating go this program, the consequences it led to in the future and why two administrations sought to cover it up for the supposed good of the country. It’s a topical film for our times and one that speaks volumes about the top levels of power in this country and what measures they are willing to take to bury information that reflects negatively on their abilities to protect our country. – John Rocha

Run Time: 1 hr 35 min | Director: Lynne Ramsay

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov

Director Lynne Ramsay directs this powerhouse of a film that features Joaquin Phoenix as Joe, a grizzled veteran of the Gulf War who’s lost in a world of hallucinations brought on by a tormented past. The fact that he is a hired hitman who delivers death in the most brutal of ways adds an unsettled and electric energy to this film. You’re not really sure if anything is actually happening or isn’t? While handing out deaths by hammer, Joe is also taking care of his elderly mother (Judith Roberts) and trying to remember to take his medicine. Joe gets hired to find Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), a 13-year-old innocent daughter of a New York senator who is about to be sold into teen sexual slavery…or is she? He makes it a personal mission to find her and to make those responsible for her kidnapping pay…even those who may have hired him to do the job. But is it all real or another one of his hallucinations? You’ll have to decide during a brilliantly confusing end scene. – John Rocha

Run Time: 1 hr 59 min | Director: Jeong-beom Lee

Cast: Won Bin, Sae-ron Kim, Tae-hoon Kim, and Hee-won Kim

2010’s The Man From Nowhere is one of those South Korean films that occasionally breaks thru to American audiences and leaves an indelible mark. An action-thriller starring Won Bin as an ex-special agent Cha Tae-sik turned pawn shop owner. He befriends his neighbor’s daughter, Jeong So-mi (Sae-ron Kim) in the normal course of his life. When So-mi’s mother, who dances at the local club, steals a large pack of heroin from that club at the behest of her low life boyfriend, it sets off a chain of events that ensnares Tae-sik and So-mi in the world of Korean gangs and drug runners. After a gang takes them hostage, they use them in a war against another rival gang which leads to the possible death of So-mi. Tae-sik, fearing the worst, employs all the expertise and weapons in his arsenal to save the young girl and make those responsible for her possible death pay. Think Taken mixed with John Wick mixed with León: The Professional and you’ve got The Man From Nowhere. Stream this one tonight and get ready for one helluva ride. – John Rocha

Run Time: 1 hr 43 min | Director: Daniel Barber

Cast: Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, David Bradley, Iain Glen

Once upon a time, Michael Caine was the premier badass in the late 60s and early 70s cinema. Films like The Italian Job and Get Carter really solidified Caine as a man not to be messed with. As he got older, he left those movies behind for more mainstream fare until 2009’s Harry Brown. This gritty action thriller from director and Academy Award nominee Daniel Barber, stars Caine as the titular character. Harry is as an elderly shut-in who plays chess in the local bar with his friend Leonard (David Bradley) and cares for his wife who is dying in a local hospital. The apartment complex he lives in is overrun by some brutal gangsters and drug dealers who care nothing about killing others to get what they want or for fun. When Leonard is killed so close to Harry’s apartment, the old man brushes the dust off his Royal Marine skills and sets about getting revenge on the people responsible for Leonard’s death and working out his anger on people who need to be punished in worst ways. Barber uses the film as a commentary on the way British society dismisses or minimizes the needs of the elderly. Giving them little respect as they try to live out the rest of their days in peace after giving so much to their country. It’s a graphic and savage film that features a tour de force performance from Caine that you won’t soon forget! – John Rocha