So even if you can’t stomach most horror films and horror shows, Shudder may still be worth subscribing to—costing only $5.99/mo (or $4.75/mo if you grab the yearly plan), it’s an excellent value. If you like thriller movies, Shudder has a solid selection. The line between thriller and horror can get fuzzy at times, and a lot of movies can be both thriller and horror. For this list, I’m focusing on movies that want to fill you with suspense rather than dread or terror. Without further ado, here are the best thriller movies you can watch on Shudder. A lot of these aren’t on other streaming services, which is another big point in Shudder’s favor.
10. Stuck (2007)
Based on a true story, Stuck centers on a woman who goes out for a night of drinking and drugs, only to hit a man as she drives home. She takes the man home, intending to help him—but as she begins to worry how this will impact her life, she leaves him to die. It’s a grim, disorienting, and at times bloody depiction of two true-to-life characters who are caught in a darkly comical yet horrifying situation. The quiet twists and turns make for a thrilling ride.
9. Revenge (2017)
A woman takes a secret trip with her married lover and his two friends for a weekend out in the desert. After a violent altercation, she’s left for dead and abandoned. But she survives and, after recovering, sets out to get vengeance on the men who did this to her. Revenge is one of the few out-and-out action flicks in Shudder’s library, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s packed with blood-pumping action, thrilling sequences, and satisfying revenge—all with a fresh flavor of female empowerment.
8. A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019)
A young mother does everything she can to protect her children, all while looking to uncover the truth behind the recent murder of her late husband—and the truth precedes a trail of blood. A Good Woman Is Hard to Find is nothing new as far as crime-thriller movies go, but Sarah Bolger’s performance as the young widowed mother is thrilling to watch. This gritty film is one of the better thriller movies that came out in 2019.
7. Compliance (2012)
A strange man calls into a fast food restaurant while posing as a police officer, and manages to convince the restaurant manager to carry out increasingly vulgar and invasive acts on her employees. Compliance is a crazy film. The kind that stretches credulity and makes you doubt that something like this could ever happen—but then you realize that this movie is actually based on a true story, and that just makes it all the more crazy.
6. Timecrimes (2007)
While renovating his home, a man notices something unusual in the surrounding woods. He goes out to investigate, and after one thing leads to another, he ends up in a time loop and must do whatever he can to break free of it. Timecrimes is a Spanish sci-fi thriller that goes hard on its causal time loop premise, all while making it as thrilling and mysterious as it can be. You can tell that it’s a low-budget production, but it’s full of top-class twists and turns that’ll keep you guessing ’til the end.
5. Exam (2009)
Eight candidates are locked in a room for a mysterious employment assessment exam. There’s an armed guard at the door. They look at their exam sheet—it’s blank. They try to figure out what’s going on, but that only leads to unforeseen chaos and conflicts. Exam is a psychological thriller that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through. The endings in these types of high-concept movies rarely live up to the premise, but Exam is certainly one of the better ones. This movie is all about the journey.
4. Coherence (2013)
A group of friends gets together for a dinner party, during which a comet passes overhead. Suddenly, there’s a power outage. As they try to get the lights back on, they encounter one strange occurrence after another, leading them to question their reality. Coherence has a slow start, but once it gets going, it ends up being one of the most mind-bending sci-fi thriller movies of the decade. The twists will throw you for a loop, and it’s the kind of movie that’s even more enjoyable on repeat viewings.
3. Buried (2010)
A man wakes up and finds himself buried alive in a coffin. He only has a lighter, a flask, a knife, some glowsticks, and a mobile phone that’s running low on battery. He needs to figure out how he got here and how to get out, but there’s more to it than he knows. Buried holds a special seat in my heart because it manages to do so much with so little. The entire movie takes place inside a coffin—and manages to be one of the most thrilling cinema experiences. Buried is a masterclass in dramatic tension.
2. Train to Busan (2016)
A divorced father takes his daughter to visit her mother in Busan—all without realizing that a zombie apocalypse has broken out across South Korea. An infected woman on their train attacks the passengers, spreading the infection to everyone on board. Train to Busan turned all kinds of heads when it came out in 2016 because it revitalized a zombie genre that had grown stale. With fleshed-out characters, real stakes, and emotional highpoints, it’s one of the best zombie thrillers on film.
1. Predestination (2014)
An elite Temporal Agent—one who can travel through time—has one final assignment: to apprehend the one criminal who’s always eluded him. But this final assignment takes all kinds of turns, taking him on a path that transcends even himself. Predestination is a smartly written sci-fi thriller with deep characters and an intricately woven plot. It’s the pinnacle of time travel movies, successfully elevating the form in a way that makes it more than “just” a time-travel movie, while embracing time travel throughout.
