Around here, we are definitely not strangers to finishing an entire season in one weekend (who am I kidding? One day), but when the best thrillers to stream are available on our favorite platforms, all bets are off.
because periods CAN suck less
I have to admit: I am a total scaredy-cat, so I don’t seek out creepy vibes often, but when I do, I can’t bring myself to look away no matter how afraid of the dark I know I’ll be after watching. More times than I can count, my boyfriend has suggested a thriller, and I have quickly responded with “you’ll have to watch that without me.” Of course, when he does, I end up continuously peeking into the living room to see the TV and asking him “what just happened?” when I miss a scene. I’d rather not make up the details in my head, you know?
If you’re like me and you can’t look away even when you want to or if you don’t at all mind challenging your sanity, scaring your dog, and sleeping with the lights on, these are some of the best thrillers to stream right now.
1. Brazen
Where to Stream: Netflix
Length: 1 hour 36 minutes
Based on a novel by bestselling author Nora Roberts, Alyssa Milano and Sam Page (heart eyes for both of them) star in Brazen, which follows a mystery writer’s attempt to solve the murder of her sister. Since she has mystery-solving instincts of her own, she chooses to ignore the detective on the case and get involved. What follows is secrets, danger, and, of course, a little romance.
2. I Care a Lot
Where to Stream: Netflix
Length: 1 hour 58 minutes
Marla Grayson is a con artist who plays the legal system carefully. She makes a living by gaining guardianship over elderly people who can actually take care of themselves just fine. One by one, Marla sends them off to assisted living and pockets all of the money from their homes and possessions. Apparently, Marla isn’t careful enough to not mess with a woman who has ties to a powerful gangster, and she gets caught up with the wrong crowd.
3. The Weekend Away
Where to Stream: Netflix
Length: 1 hour 31 minutes
A girl’s trip takes a turn for the absolute worst when one of the girls goes missing. Beth, played by Leighton Meester, tries to piece together what happened the night of the murder, but every clue leads back to her as the suspect according to the investigators. Will she be able to prove her innocence? Is she even telling the truth? This thriller is based on the bestselling book by Sarah Alderson.
4. Kimi
Where to Stream: HBO Max
Length: 1 hour 29 minutes
Angela (played by Zoë Kravitz) is absolutely terrified of leaving her own home, so lucky for her, she is a remote tech worker who doesn’t have to. Her job is to resolve communication bugs in KIMI (comparable to Alexa), so she listens to odd recordings of users that are usually totally harmless—that is, until she thinks she discovers evidence of a violent crime through a recording. Still afraid of leaving her home, she calls in favors to get more information on the situation but is soon forced to venture outside to find real answers.
5. Nightmare Alley
Where to Stream: HBO Max and Hulu
Length: 2 hours 20 minutes
I might be a little biased to put Nightmare Alley on this list of thrillers because portions of it were shot in my hometown, but it already has an incredibly long list of nominations since being released at the beginning of December 2021. In this movie, Bradley Cooper plays Stanton Carlisle, who is down on his luck in 1940s New York before he meets a clairvoyant and her husband at a traveling carnival. From there, he learns how to swindle the elite and wealthy with a golden ticket until he meets his biggest opponent.
6. Fear of Rain
Where to Stream: Hulu
Length: 1 hour 49 minutes
This terrifying thriller takes you inside of the mind of a teenage girl named Rain Burroughs, who is living with schizophrenia and struggles with hallucinations. Every day, she experiences disturbing voices and images, and she has no idea which ones are real or just in her head. The cries from her neighbor’s attic sound all too real though, and she suspects that her neighbor has kidnapped a child. The only person who believes her is a new boy at school but is he even real?
7. The 355
Where to Stream: Peacock
Length: 2 hours 4 minutes
This is the story of women on a mission to save the world. Can I get a high-five? I love the sound of that. A CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a mission to retrieve a top-secret weapon that fell into the wrong hands. As they embark on this journey together, they must stay one step ahead of a mysterious woman who is tracking their every move.
8. Suspicion
Where to Stream: Apple TV
Number of Seasons: 1
Season one of this show just kicked off in February, so it is brand new to our list of favorites. Suspicion follows four ordinary people from Britain who are accused of kidnapping the son of a prominent U.S. media person. The series follows each of them as they decide how to prove their innocence. But are they all telling the truth? They might not be.
9. Stay Close
Where to Stream: Netflix
Number of Seasons: 1
Two men go missing on the same night 17 years apart. Creepy, right? What follows is a chain of events between the people who are closest to them: a photojournalist, a soccer mom, and a homicide detective. This mystery drama series is based on a novel of the same title by Harlan Coben and contains eight episodes that are each about 50 minutes long.
10. The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window
Where to Stream: Netflix
Number of Seasons: 1
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window is a thriller-parody hybrid that is perfect for those of you who don’t want to dive too deep into the thriller genre but still want to binge-watch a series that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The series follows Anna, a heartbroken woman, who swears she witnessed a murder. Since she has a bad habit of mixing alcohol and medications and has frequent hallucinations, nobody believes her, so she decides to find out the truth for herself. The eight-episode series runs less than four hours, so you can watch it all the way through on a rainy night.
11. The Endgame
Where to Stream: Hulu and Peacock
Number of Seasons: 1
Two badass women (one an arms dealer who coordinates robberies and the other a relentless FBI agent) go head to head in one of the newest thrillers to streaming. As Elena, the arms dealer, plans seven bank robberies across New York City for an unknown reason, Val, the FBI agent, vows to take her down by using clues from her complicated past. If you watched The Blacklist or Blindspot, this plot has similarities to both, so it already has loyal fans even after just a few episodes.
12. Nine Perfect Strangers
Where to Stream: Hulu
Number of Seasons: 1
A boutique health and wellness resort that promises healing and transformation? Sign me up. Nine stressed city dwellers say the same in this mini-series based on a New York Times bestselling book by author Liane Moriarty. The nine of them are led by the resort’s director, played by Nicole Kidman, who is on a mission to reinvigorate them and lead them on a path to a better life, but they quickly realize that maybe that’s the exact opposite of what she is doing to them.
13. Killing Eve
Where to Stream: Hulu
Number of Seasons: 3
Eve is a very bored spy, so the very talented assassin killer, Villanelle, finally gives her a reason to get up from her desk. The two women play a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game where they become obsessed with taking each other down as their lives get intertwined. There are already three full seasons available and the fourth and final season is airing new episodes every Sunday. Side note: What we love most about this show is that each season is led by a different female writer—we love to see that!
14. Mare of Easttown
Where to Stream: HBO Max
Number of Seasons: 1
Kate Winslet plays a small-town detective who has just as many problems at home as she does at work. She recently lost her son, her ex-husband is remarrying, and just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, she is now the only detective in her small police station who is working on straightening the details of an unsolved murder and a growing number of missing women. There is one season so far that you can watch in about seven hours total, and you’ll be glad you did because it’s so good that it was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards.
15. Home Before Dark
Where to Stream: Apple TV
Number of Seasons: 2
Based on the real life of a young detective and journalist named Hilde Lysiak, Home Before Dark is about Hilde’s discovery of an old case of a missing boy in her new town. After moving from Brooklyn, New York to her Dad’s hometown, Hilde learns that her dad actually was close friends with this young boy and was there when he was kidnapped. Desperate for the truth and unphased by the adults telling her to stop prying, Hilde joins with other kids in town who want to help her solve the case. There are two seasons out now on Apple TV, and we are not-so-patiently waiting to hear if it is being renewed for a third.
