The 15 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in January, from ‘Fair Play’ to ‘Emily the Criminal’
Sometimes, when you’re looking to be entertained, only a thriller will cut it. Sure, everybody loves a rom-com or an action movie, but If you ever find yourself feeling like life is getting inexplicably dark and morality is becoming more ambiguous, immersing yourself in a tense world of serial killers, terrorists, crooked sleazebags, and jaw-dropping twists of all kinds is a pretty great form of escapism. The genre is broad enough to encompass a wide variety of tropes. So you could probably watch thrillers forever and never get bored.
Netflix’s thriller offerings are surprisingly well-rounded this month, offering a good mix of undisputed classics from the likes of Steven Spielberg as well as newer indie flicks that you may have missed. This January, top-tier archival titles include “Oldboy” along with Netflix Originals like “Fair Play” and “Run Rabbit Run.” Whether you’re looking to revisit an old favorite, fill an embarrassing gap in your movie knowledge, or find something new and cutting-edge that will blow your mind, the thriller genre always has something for you.
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Keep reading for 21 of our favorite thrillers streaming on Netflix in January 2025.
With editorial contributions from Christian Zilko.
15. “The Snowman”
Is “The Snowman” a good movie? Absolutely not. But Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s (the man behind acclaimed films like “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Let the Right One In,” to give some comparison) 2017 thriller is such a baffling, ill-conceived misfire that it loops around to become compulsively watchable. Starring Michael Fassbender as Harry Hole (yes, really), a detective searching for an illusive serial killer known for building snowmen at crime scenes, the movie has all the ingredients for a good thriller, from good source material (it’s based on a 2007 Norwegian crime thriller) to a good director and a solid cast (supporting actors include Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, and J. K. Simmons). And yet, quite literally nothing about it works: The plot is incomprehensible, the performances are scattered and uncertain, and the direction is shockingly amateurish. It’s a bad film, but one that proves genuinely memorable in a sea of far more anonymous Netflix productions. Watch it on a rainy day, and there’s plenty of entertainment value to be found in such an all-time bad thriller. —WC
14. “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile”
At first glance, the casting of Zac Efron as Ted Bundy seemed like an indulgence of all of the worst parts of mainstream true crime culture. As America’s fascination with serial killers continued to skyrocket, bringing in a former Disney star to play a brutal serial killer could have been a shameless attempt to cash in on the trend. But Efron delivers an excellent performance in a nuanced film that does nothing to glamorize the murderer, choosing instead to break down the cult of personality surrounding Bundy at every turn. —CZ
13. “Run Rabbit Run”
Sarah Snook took on her first post-“Succession” leading role in this Australian thriller about a fertility doctor who begins to suspect that something is very, very wrong with her young daughter. In a performance that wildly diverges from her tightly-wound Waystar Royco heiress persona, Snook goes to great lengths to elevate a conventional thriller premise (complete with familiar tropes like ominous animal iconography) into one of the more entertaining films to hit Netflix in recent memory. Equal parts “The Babadook” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” it’s a film that will push you to your breaking point as quickly as Snook’s character reaches hers. —CZ
12. “A Simple Favor”
“A Simple Favor” is not a particularly successful thriller in terms of, er, thrilling you, but it does succeed wildly at entertaining you. Paul Feig’s comedic take on the genre is a lightly satirical look at mommy blogging culture and suburban discontent, filtered through the perspective of Anna Kendrick’s dissatisfied Stephanie. When her best friend, the highly successful Emily (Blake Lively) mysteriously disappears, Stephanie throws herself into the investigation and digs up dirt on her seemingly perfect counterpart. If “A Simple Favor” proves a bit wobbly, then Kendrick’s go-for-broke performance and the often genuinely funny script just as frequently steadies the ship. It’s less “Psycho” than it is “Desperate Housewives,” which will be music to anyone who misses “Desperate Housewives.” —WC
11. “Carry-On”
Netflix’s latest action movie hit, “Carry-On” is better than the average original from the streamer. It helps that it comes from Jaume Collet-Serra, a journeyman director who nonetheless has all the chops to produce a great action thriller. And he gives the thriller some real panache, with some expertly staged action scenes that liven up the so-so storyline. Taron Egerton stars as Ethan, a TSA officer who gets way in over his head when a ruthless mercenary (Jason Bateman) blackmails him with his pregnant girlfriend’s life for access onto a commercial flight while carrying a case of Novichok nerve agent gas. The plot is full of holes, but the tension and action is top-tier, and Egerton and especially Bateman give excellently committed performances that make the lark all the more fun. —WC
10. “Emily the Criminal”
A nasty crime thriller about how economic uncertainty can push people to desperate extremes, “Emily the Criminal” stars Aubrey Plaza as the titular Emily, a former art student whose college debt and former felony charge prevents her from escaping the drudgeries of service work. When a coworker connects her to a credit card fraud ring, Emily leaps at the opportunity to make some fast cash, and under the tutelage of organizer Youcef (Theo Rossi), she quickly becomes a natural at this very unsavory line of work. The screenplay is occasionally a bit silly, but John Patton Ford’s feature directorial debut shows great promise, and Plaza’s charismatic performance as an ordinary woman with a surprising capacity for violence and crime is damn near flawless. —WC
9. “Gerald’s Game”
Stephen King’s chilling tale of bondage sex gone wrong was long thought to be unfilmable, due to so much of the novel “Gerald’s Game” taking place inside the mind of a woman who is chained to her bed. But “The Haunting of Hill House” creator Mike Flanagan found a way, turning the story into a chilling two-hander starring Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood that remains faithful to the novel while still thrilling viewers. —CZ
8. “Fair Play”
The buzziest title of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival made its way to Netflix in October 2023 following a $20 million acquisition from the streaming giant. Chloe Domont’s take on the sexual power dynamics at the apex of the financial industry stunned Park City audiences by offering an unapologetic throwback to 1990s erotic thrillers like “Basic Instinct” and “Fatal Attraction” while still exploring contemporary gender politics. Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich star as two corporate climbers at an elite hedge fund whose dueling ambitions and depraved sexual chemistry reach a breaking point when her career begins to surpass his. It’s a non-stop thrill ride that never shies away from the ugly side of sex and is one of the most shocking titles to hit Netflix in 2024. —CZ
7. “The Guilty”
It hews a tad too close to the story of the Danish film it is originally based on, but Jake Gyllenhaal’s one-man show “The Guilty” is still very much a clever, worthy watch. Antoine Fuqua directs the crime thriller, which casts Gyllenhaal as a police detective demoted to 911 phone operator duty who scrambles alone at his desk during the night shift to help save a caller who claims to have been abducted. For nearly the entire film, Gyllenhaal is the only face on screen, communicating with a parade of voices played by actors like Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Eli Goree, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard. It works because Gyllenhaal, with his famously expressive eyes and hyper-intense performing style, is precisely the type of actor who’s capable of carrying a thriller like this, and his growing distress makes “The Guilty” the most nerve-wracking way to spend 90 minutes watching a man sitting at a desk. —WC
6. “The Killer”
David Fincher’s latest is one of his slightest works, but the “Fight Club” director is still in top form with “The Killer.” Based on a French graphic novel series, the film stars Michael Fassbender as a highly experienced professional hitman who’s more than a little burnt out by his profession and ends up flubbing a mission, leading him on an international journey to take out his former employers before they take him out first. The film’s dryly funny sense of humor and Fassbender’s perfectly stoic performance sometimes make it feel like a lark more than a pulsing thriller, but Fincher’s nimble direction and sleekly executed action can still get your heart racing. —WC
5. “The Hateful Eight”
Probably Quentin Tarantino’s most divisive film, “The Hateful Eight” polarized critics when it premiered in 2015, with audiences alternatively praising or deriding its script and stage-like setup. But even Tarantino’s worst films are worth watching, and this one remains a fascinating and ambitious work. Set almost entirely in one cabin, the film focuses on a group of eight strangers stranded with one another during a blizzard in post-Civil War Wyoming. All of the characters have their secrets and agendas that raise suspicions throughout the night, and they’re played by a uniformly terrific cast, including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. If you don’t think the original, nearly three-hour cut of the film works, you can check out the extended four-episode limited series version, also available on Netflix. —WC
4. “Woman of the Hour”
One of the more impressive directorial debuts from an actor in recent memory, “Woman of the Hour” is an uncommonly smart and empathetic true crime story that’s tightly focused on the way institutions ignore and fail women. Heavily fictionalized, Anna Kendrick’s thriller nonetheless is based on the real 1978 taping of an episode of the syndicated game show “The Dating Game,” where serial killer Rodney Alcala (played by a menacing Daniel Zovatto) won a date with bachelorette Sheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick, whose typical spunky intelligence is used terrifically here). The date didn’t happen in real life — Bradshaw found Alcala creepy and canceled — but it does in the film, and “Woman of the Hour” is consistently suspenseful as it shows all the ways Sheryl and other women are put in danger by a system that doesn’t recognize violence until it’s too late. —WC
3. “Burning”
Lee Chang-dong’s acclaimed Korean thriller has a strong literary pedigree, mixing elements of two different short stories both titled “Barn Burning” by writers Haruki Murakami and William Faulkner. But the result is an extraordinary cinematic creation: a nervy, slow-moving, and absorbing look into the relationships between its three main characters, childhood friends Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) and Hae-Mi (Jong-seo), alongside stranger Ben (Steven Yeun, in a charming but unnerving performance). On the surface, the two are lifelong pals — but a possessive attitude towards Hae-Mi becomes apparent, and Ben clearly hides strange secrets. A deep sense of unease is palpable in every scene and “Burning” keeps that tension growing thicker and thicker, until the final horrifying release that closes the film. —WC
2. “Rebel Ridge”
“Rebel Ridge” is the rarest of things: a truly great Netflix Original action thriller. That’s not surprising when it’s coming from Jeremy Saulnier, who has made some of the best recent films in the genre like “Blue Ruin” and “Green Room.” His latest is a tense slow burn set in a small Louisiana town where handsome stranger Terry Richmond (a terrific Aaron Pierre) cycles in one summer day looking to post-bail for his younger cousin. Instead, he’s harassed and hounded after by the town’s corrupt, racist police force, led by the sniveling Sandy Burne (Don Johnson, having a great time). The film’s anti-cop messaging is a refreshing antidote to years of copagada action movies of its ilk, but what makes the movie so good is Saulnier’s careful, immaculate pacing, which builds up the characters and their desperation before the situation boils over into immaculately staged fights. —WC
1. “Oldboy”
Forget Spike Lee’s regrettable American remake if you somehow haven’t already; Park Chan-wook’s original “Oldboy” still thrills over 20 years later. One of the most acclaimed films of its decade, the film tells the propulsive, zig-zagging, and subversive story of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), an ordinary businessman who is suddenly and abruptly captured and placed in captivity for 15 years. When he’s just as abruptly freed, he goes on a rampage to figure out who was responsible for his torture. Park shoots the hell out of “Oldboy” — that hallway fight scene remains justly influential — but the movie is just as much a deconstruction of the thriller genre than a straight example of the form, examining the depths people can sink to in the pursuit of vengeance. Its horrifying ending is well-known to many, but regardless of whether or not the film can still surprise, its critical look at the futility of revenge remains just as insightful and devastating. —WC
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