The Best Thrillers to Watch on Netflix This August

Summer is coming to an end, but there are still plenty of long evenings to fill with movies. And what better way to cool down than with some of Netflix’s best thrillers?

Each month we select a few thrillers on Netflix that fit the current season. Sometimes they fit well with an upcoming release. Other titles may be new additions to the platform.

This time around we have a great little mystery about a missing person, a movie about a 911 operator trying to save a call center, and a chilling murder mystery from Quentin Tarantino set in the Wild West. All movies to end your summer with.

Editor’s Pick: Hateful Eight

Image: The Weinstein Company

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Form: Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Kurt Russell

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Three lawmen, a female fugitive on death row, and a stagecoach driver walk into a haberdashery in the middle of a heavy snowstorm. Inside the store are a cowboy, an executioner, and a man named Bob who are running the store while the owners are away. They are all connected to each other’s pasts in some way, and one or more of these men are not who they say they are. Can you find the wolves in this photo?

The Hateful Eight earns its title from its cast of characters, all of whom are guilty of their share of duplicity and ruthlessness in some measure. Inspired by 1960s westerns like Lucky charm And The VirginianTarantino’s period drama is a violent, miserable, and nerve-wracking thriller whose story unfolds like a tragedy waiting to happen. By the end, you’re no longer wondering which of these men will get out of this situation alive. Instead, the real question is: Does any of them deserve it? —Toussaint Egan

Missing

Image: Temma Hankin/Sony Pictures

Director: Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick
Form: Storm Reid, Joaquim de Almeida, Megan Suri

One of the best and most enjoyable mystery films of recent years, Missing is a thriller that takes place almost entirely on a computer screen. The film follows a young woman named June (Storm Reid) who lives in Los Angeles with her mother. Her mother goes on vacation with her new boyfriend Kevin, but when she is supposed to be home a few weeks later, she never shows up. This prompts June to investigate and find her missing mother, using some very clever internet tricks.

Missing is clever and smart with online tools in exactly the way most movies get it wrong. It understands the limitations and potential of search engines, password phishing, and more, and stretches them just a little to make a great thriller. —Austen Goslin

The culprit

Photo: Netflix

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Form: Jake Gyllenhaal, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Ethan Hawke

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the finest actors of his generation, known for his melodramatic ability to portray brooding, calculating characters whose barely suppressed anger and fear simmer beneath their otherwise steely exteriors. That quality is at the forefront in The culprita one-room crime thriller that stars Gyllenhaal as Joe Baylor, an LAPD officer who works as a 911 operator during a chaotic wildfire that engulfs the city in smoke. After receiving a disturbing phone call from a distraught woman (Riley Keough) who he believes has been kidnapped by her abusive ex-husband (Peter Sarsgaard), Joe goes above and beyond to intervene as an act of redemption for his own troubled past.

Although it was not as well received by critics as the 2018 Danish film on which it is based, The culprit is nonetheless an excellent showcase for Gyllenhaal’s range as a performer, capturing his character’s jaded cynicism and his fleeting but defining moments of vulnerability and self-reflection. It’s an intimate and harrowing thriller that relies entirely on its terrific lead actor, making it an absolutely watchable film. -AT