In the mood for a good thriller? Subscribe to Prime Video? Eliza Janssen has searched through its archives and picked the top 25 thrillers currently available on the streaming platform.
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* All new movies & series on Prime Video
* All new streaming movies & series
Basic Instinct (1992)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOPerhaps the greatest example of an erotic thriller, Paul Verhoeven’s hyper sleazy murder mystery does not do subtle. What it achieves instead is a libidinal neo-noir plot that keeps you constantly guessing. Sharon Stone’s best-known femme fatale role sees her accused of her husband’s murder—done in exactly the same manner as a slaying in one of her best-selling crime novels.
Cape Fear (1991)
Watch on Prime VideoIn his seventh collaboration with Scorsese, Robert DeNiro bases his performance as fresh-out-of-prison villain Max Cady on a crab; its creeping movements, its beady gaze. A remake of the 1962 film of the same name, the North Carolina revenge story nicely gifts that film’s original cast cameo parts, cowering alongside Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and a preternaturally powerful Juliette Lewis. It’s hard to say which scenes are hardest to watch; that thumb-sucking predation, or the nail-biting houseboat climax.
Casino (1995)
Watch on Prime VideoThe eighth collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro follows the mafia’s chokehold over a legendary Vegas casino, fully fleshing out both the glamour and the danger of the consequences of those big bucks. Sharon Stone is fierce and messy and beautiful as the hustler girlfriend to De Niro’s Ace Rothstein, and Joe Pesci does the same, fantastic fed-up wise guy routine he won his Oscar for in Goodfellas.
Challengers (2024)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOA love triangle rom-com with the editing and pulse-pounding Reznor/Ross soundtrack to suit a thriller? Yes: the sexiest movie of 2024 belongs on this list. Zendaya slays as a tennis prodigy caught between the desires of two men (Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist) in this insanely energetic sports drama. It’ll have you whipping your head back and forth to catch the action.
Charade (1963)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOA blithe, breezy, near-Hitchockian spy story from Stanley Donen, best known as a director of musicals. It’s the definition of a “caper,” with American expat Audrey Hepburn stuck to mystery man Cary Grant’s side as they dodge bullets and discover a gold-nabbing plot around Paris. With its Mancini score and romantic setting, it’s certainly a feel-good thriller compared to the grittier fare on this list.
Emergency (2022)
Watch on Prime VideoSome of the best thriller films know just how to cut their tension with unexpected humour: the original short of this campus-set stress-fest managed to fit some nervous laughs into mere minutes. The film’s Black and Latino characters are plunged into a devious modern dilemma when an unconscious white woman crosses their paths, as can they really be seen as unlucky good samaritans by prejudiced onlookers?
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOAfter Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s passing in 2005, his string of steely crime novels were a complete phenomenon—and our greatest living thriller maestro, David Fincher, wanted his slice. He achieved it with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig as Larsson’s sleuths, scratching the surface of the wealthy Vanger family’s unspeakable secrets.
Goodnight Mommy (2022)
Watch on Prime VideoDid 2014’s super-creepy Austrian horror need to be remade? Maybe not, but a bandaged-up Naomi Watts makes the sickening family fable that bit more essential. Her two stoic kids begin to suspect the mummy-like figure recuperating in their home is not their flesh and blood, with their clumsy detective work getting appropriately bloody.
The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Watch on Prime VideoHere’s the first mainstream Hollywood film directed by a woman, and boy did Ida Lupino knock it out of the park. As the murderous drifter Myers, William Talman perfectly matches the brisk and the melodramatic tone of this noir classic: “you can get anything at the end of a gun”, he brags to his latest hostages.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOThis epic and brutal WWII film might be the greatest evocation of Tarantino’s bloodthirsty and pulpy sensibility, fortified by a historical reckoning that lends every tense moment needed weight. The performances are knitted together by ahistorical hysterics, from the titular gang of Yankee Nazi-bashers—led by a cowboyish Brad Pitt—to an Oscar-winning turn from Christoph Waltz, as the disarmingly cheery officer Hans Landa.
Long Weekend (1978)
Watch on Prime VideoThis is unfortunately our only Aussie thriller on the list, but it’s well-worth your time—especially before you consider taking a road trip into the outback. Gnarly and mean-spirited, the horror flick from our country’s 1970s new wave sees an entitled couple of tourists littering and disrespecting native wildlife. Mother Nature clearly takes this personally, and sics some nasty critters on the stranded duo.
Love Lies Bleeding (2023)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOPain is weakness leaving the body—or so says a poster in the gym where Lou (Kristen Stewart) works, and where she’ll meet bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian). Their intensely codependent and steroid-fuelled romance only causes more pain for everyone in Rose Glass’s amped-up noir, flushed in red neon hues and a painfully cool 1980s setting. It’s a lil Coen brothers, a lotta sapphic mayhem.
Monster (2003)
Watch on Prime VideoThere’s this boring trope in Hollywood that when gorgeous actresses wear prosthetics to ‘ugly themselves up’ on screen, they automatically win an Oscar. But there’s so much more going on in Charlize Theron’s performance here as Aileen Wuornos, a nervous and disembodied killer. Christina Ricci is captivating, too, playing Wuornos’s accomplice as a totally lost young woman.
My Son (2021)
Watch on Prime VideoJames McAvoy is a tremendous actor, facing an all-new challenge in this Scotland-filmed mystery. Playing the distraught dad of a missing boy, McAvoy was not given a script or dialogue to follow for his performance, organically improvising his character’s decisions as his supporting cast unfold a thriller that hits close to home. A bit of an improv masterclass, we think.
Panic Room (2002)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOConsidered a minor work for David Fincher, this contained location thriller makes a big impact with its single setting and limited cast of characters. Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart are entirely believable as a desperate mother and daughter, trapped like rats in their home’s fancy shmancy panic room, when crooks (including Forest Whitaker and Jared Leto) break in. The dollhouse-like camerawork is mind-boggling.
Sicario (2015)
Watch on Prime VideoAn anti-tourism campaign for Mexico. Emily Blunt’s virtuous agent makes the journey down south to the dangers of cartel-run Tijuana in Denis Villeneuve’s celebrated take on a Taylor Sheridan script. The violence of crooked authorities and gangs is shown with equal excitement and savagery. I still can’t forget the discovery of plastic-wrapped bodies within walls.
A Simple Favour (2018)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOWhat’s really going on with the other mums at the school pick-up line? Paul Feig brings his fizzy comedy to a novelistic domestic thriller format. Anna Kendrick’s mommy-vlogger gets wrapped up in the disappearance of a glam supermu (Blake Lively) in a film that’s like a cuter Gone Girl, with martinis, incredulous fashion moments, and big twists you can’t help but shake your head at.
Thirteen Lives (2022)
Watch on Prime VideoThe Tham Luang cave rescue kept the world on the edge of our seats until those adolescent soccer players were rescued. Ron Howard’s dramatisation of the multi-national rescue effort focuses on the people who could actually reach out and do something to help, starring Viggo Mortenson and Joel Edgerton as some of the heroic divers at its centre.
Twister (1996)
Watch on Prime VideoBefore you check out 2024’s decent-enough remake, the Jan De Bont original is worth another spin. It’s adrenaline-gushing stuntery for the sheer fun of it, starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as stormchasers distracted from their impending divorce by a string of killer tornados. Beyond the thrilling chase sequences and flying cows/Mac trucks/etc,, the cast is packed with memorably weird sidekicks—including a delightful Phillip Seymour Hoffman! And there’s some smooching, too, which Twisters disappointingly left out.
The Voyeurs (2021)
Watch on Prime VideoThe good old-fashioned erotic thriller is not especially in vogue these days, but this laugh-inducingly twisty peep show suggests that there’s still petrol in that horny tank. Sydney Sweeney plays a very inconsistent young lady who becomes fixated on the glamorous neighbours she and her BF can see from their apartment. Ultimately you’ll be left confused—in a great way—as to who’s watching who, and why.
Two Hands (1999)
WATCH ON PRIME VIDEOIf only poor baby Heath Ledger hadn’t gone for that swim at Bondi! Losing sight of a $10,000 bounty he was tasked to traffick, Ledger and his new love Alex (Rose Byrne) are forced into a run across Sydney to avoid Bryan Brown’s local mob boss. Gregor Jordan’s sweaty Aussie noir is packed with charm and familiar faces, quirky characters bouncing around town and serendipitously colliding with one another.
Titles are added and removed from his page to reflect changes to Prime Video’s catalogue. Reviews no longer available on this page can be read here.
