Psychological thrillers blend elements of horror, drama and suspense, creating stories that can be both heart-stopping and captivating.
Whether you’re getting inside the head of a criminal like in Joker or literally separating your work life from your personal one like in Severance, psychological thrillers can offer up gripping stories — all from the safety of your home.
Between the major streaming platforms — including Netflix, Hulu, Max, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock and Apple TV+ — viewers have tons of choices for a psychological thrill: some lean toward horror, others are heart-wrenching dramas and some have more twists and turns than a long-running soap opera.
Here’s your guide to the best psychological thrillers streaming right now.
Netflix
Inception
Christopher Nolan’s 2010 sci-fi thriller follows Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a spy who can infiltrate people’s dreams and steal secrets deep within their psyches. When he’s tasked with embedding an idea in someone’s mind, Dom is threatened by an ominous enemy who predicts his every move. The film is loaded with renowned Hollywood actors, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Elliot Page, Cillian Murphy and more.
Watch Inception on Netflix through Feb. 28
Ripley
Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley has seen many iterations on screen, this black-and-white eight-episode series stands out as “possibly the finest version yet.” Andrew Scott steps into the lead as the titular N.Y.C. grifter, who is assigned to bring back the Italy-bound Dickie (Johnny Flynn) to the States — only to find himself hypnotized by the allure of Dickie’s opulent world.
Watch Ripley on Netflix
Fair Play
Financial analysts Emily Meyers (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke Edmunds (Alden Ehrenreich) find themselves in a hidden romance within their shared workplace: a high-pressure Manhattan hedge fund office. However, when Emily secures a promotion that Luke coveted, their relationship is strained to its limits.
Watch Fair Play on Netflix
Gerald’s Game
In this Mike Flanagan-directed psychological horror adapted from a Stephen King novel, Jessie (Carla Gugino) and Gerald Burlingame (Bruce Greenwood) travel to a secluded Alabama lake house to reignite the spark in their marriage. However, when their foreplay takes a fatal turn with Gerald’s sudden death, Jessie — shackled to the bed without a key — has to summon every ounce of strength to survive, all while dealing with her inner demons.
Watch Gerald’s Game on Netflix
The Watcher
Released as a miniseries in 2022 — though picked up for a second season — and loosely based on a true story in New Jersey, The Watcher follows a family after they move into their dream home, only to discover they’re being stalked. But it’s unclear who the culprit is … or if the family is lying. The series had a fantastic cast, including Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Coolidge and Mia Farrow.
Watch The Watcher on Netflix
1922
Based on Stephen King’s novella of the same name, Netflix’s 1922 is a mix of psychological horror and drama. In the film, Wilf (Thomas Jane) convinces his son to help murder his wife after hearing she wants to sell their family farm and move to the city. After the murder, Wilf’s life crumbles under his own guilt and the trauma of his actions, leaving audiences to wonder if he’s still a villain … or now a victim.
Watch 1922 on Netflix
Apple TV+
Severance
To cope with the loss of his wife, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) takes a job at Lumon Industries, where he undergoes “severance” — a procedure that splits his work self (the “innie”) from his real-life identity (the “outie”). But when strange events disrupt the sterile order of his workplace, Mark’s innie begins to question what’s actually going on at Lumon. The second season is airing now, dropping a new episode every Friday through March 21.
Watch Severance on Apple TV+
Disclaimer
Directed by Gravity and Roma filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a renowned journalist praised for unmasking others’ wrongdoings. But when an anonymous novel arrives, Catherine is horrified to find herself cast as the protagonist in someone else’s exposé with her darkest secrets on the line. Binge the first six episodes before the final one premieres on Nov. 8.
Watch Disclaimer on Apple TV+
Presumed Innocent
Based on Scott Turow’s 1987 novel of the same name, Presumed Innocent stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich — a married man who develops an obsession with his colleague/mistress, Carolyn (Renate Reinsve). However, when Carolyn is found dead, Rusty becomes the No. 1 suspect of her murder and must fight to prove his innocence while trying to salvage his marriage. The series has been renewed for a second season.
Watch Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+
Constellation
Following a tragic accident aboard the International Space Station that kills one astronaut, Swedish space flyer Johanna “Jo” Ericsson (Noomi Rapace) returns to Earth with the body of her dead crewmate. However, during her homecoming, Jo discovers unsettling discrepancies in her life — with some aspects not aligning with her memories.
Watch Constellation on Apple TV+
Hulu
Gone Girl
The 2014 adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel stars Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne, a writer accused of the murder of his wife (Rosamund Pike). Despite his claiming innocence, his apparent apathy toward her disappearance is alarming to the public, pushing him further into the spotlight. Gone Girl was critically acclaimed, garnering nominations for a slew of awards, including Pike for an Oscar and director David Fincher for a Golden Globe.
Watch Gone Girl on Hulu
Missing
Missing is a standalone sequel to the 2018 hit Searching. In the film, a daughter (Euphoria’s Storm Reid) searches for her mother after she fails to return from a vacation to South America. The entire movie is shown through laptops, phones and security footage, and it’s never clear who the audience can trust.
Watch Missing on Hulu
Femme
After a brutal homophobic attack leaves drag queen Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) with shattered confidence, the now-careerless artist stumbles upon one of his attackers (George MacKay) in a gay bathhouse. Unrecognizable out of drag, Jules gets the chance to approach him discreetly and pursues a relationship with him to get sweet revenge.
Watch Femme on Hulu
Eileen
In this 2023 psychological thriller based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s book of the same name, Anne Hathaway stars as Rebecca — the mysterious, cigarette-smoking psychologist who begins to mentor her fellow employee Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie). As they both grow closer while working at a prison in 1960s Massachusetts, their unique relationship sends Eileen into a dark and twisted spiral.
Watch Eileen on Hulu
The Royal Hotel
When their backpacking funds run dry in Australia, American best friends Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) secure a temporary bartending gig at the Royal Hotel, a pub in a secluded outback mining town. Despite attempts by the bar owner and locals to immerse them in Aussie drinking traditions, Hanna and Liv face unsettling encounters with predatory male customers.
Watch The Royal Hotel on Hulu
Smile
After Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) witnesses one of her patients kill herself with an eerie grin, possessed by a soul-snatching spirit, she finds herself in the same inexplicable ordeal she was warned about. Battling disbelief from those around her, Rose fights to avoid the same fate and confronts her traumatic past to ensure her survival.
Watch Smile on Hulu
Clock
In 2023’s Clock, Dianna Agron plays Ella Patel, whose family and friends convince her to have a child before she gets too old. Unable to become pregnant, Ella undergoes an experimental procedure that produces horrible hallucinations and volatile behavior. Throughout the film, Ella must grapple with the pressures that society and her religion place on women to be nothing more than mothers.
Watch Clock on Hulu
Boston Strangler
The unbelievable true story of the Boston Strangler case is chronicled in Hulu’s 2023 film starring Keira Knightley. Knightley plays journalist Loretta McLaughlin, who is desperately trying to track down the person responsible for 13 murders in just a decade. But with unreliable informants, potential accomplices and the possibility of copycat killings, audiences are left guessing until the very end.
Watch Boston Strangler on Hulu
Run
In Run (2020), Chloe is a teenager who uses a wheelchair as a result of her numerous health ailments. After she discovers a dark secret about her own past, Chloe learns just how much of her life has been controlled and ruined by her manipulative mother (Sarah Paulson), who refuses to let her go.
Watch Run on Hulu
Candy
In 1980, Candy Montgomery (Jessica Biel) was accused of killing her best friend, Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey), by striking her with an ax 41 times. Montgomery claims it was self-defense, but the evidence proves otherwise. Hulu’s miniseries takes viewers inside Montgomery’s mind to explain why and how she might have killed her best friend.
Watch Candy on Hulu
The Clearing
In the 2023 miniseries The Clearing, a woman tries to stop a cult from killing a missing girl, but to do so, she must confront her inner demons and examine her own upbringing in a cult. The series is loaded with suspense and puts a psychological twist on the crime thriller genre. Leading the cast are Teresa Palmer, Miranda Otto and Guy Pearce.
Watch The Clearing on Hulu
Amazon Prime Video
Blink Twice
In this Cinderella story gone wrong, cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) catches the eye of charming tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) at his own charity gala. Upon meeting, Frida and her friend, Jess (Alia Shawkat), accept his invitation to join him and his entourage on his private island. But after the days in paradise blur together, Frida’s euphoric haze is disrupted when Jess — who had warned her that something sinister was happening on the island — suddenly disappears.
Watch Blink Twice on Amazon Prime Video
Saltburn
Igniting social media trends, viral candle scents and frequent mentions at awards shows, the name Saltburn has likely crossed your path — but consider this as a sign to finally press play. Emerald Fennell’s deliciously disturbing thriller takes audiences on a sun-drenched yet disorienting vacation to the king-size estate of Saltburn, where Oxford student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) finds himself drawn into the orbit of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) and his vibrant, eccentric family.
Watch Saltburn on Amazon Prime Video
The Invisible Man
Adapted from the classic H.G. Wells short story of the same name, The Invisible Man (2020) is a traditional thriller with a few major twists. With a suit that allows the wearer to become invisible, scientist Adrian Griffin uses the technology to terrorize his ex, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss). To get her life back, Cecilia must find out who is stalking her and how to stop them.
Watch The Invisible Man on Amazon Prime Video
Dead Ringers
In a gender-swapped reimagining of the iconic 1988 film led by Jeremy Irons, Rachel Weisz takes the reins as brilliant twin gynecologists, Beverly and Elliot Mantle. With ambitions to revolutionize women’s healthcare through a pioneering birthing center, their journey spirals into a haze of drug-induced malpractice and ethical gray areas while on the clock.
Watch Dead Ringers on Amazon Prime Video
Homecoming
In season 1 of Homecoming, the Homecoming Transitional Support Center offers a place for soldiers with PTSD to heal and readjust to the civilian world. But in helping these soldiers, the facility has another, darker goal, unbeknownst to its patients. Julia Roberts leads a fantastic cast that includes Dermot Mulroney, Stephan James and Sissy Spacek.
Watch Homecoming on Amazon Prime Video
Black Box
After surviving a deadly car accident, a widower (Mamoudou Athie) receives an experimental treatment meant to bring back memories and improve his concentration. But the procedure is not what he expected, and everything he believes to be real is turned upside down. The film premiered in 2020 as part of Prime Video’s Welcome to the Blumhouse anthology film series.
Watch Black Box on Amazon Prime Video
Max
A Different Man
In this A24 psychological thriller, Golden Globe-winner Sebastian Stan plays Edward, a struggling actor whose neurofibromatosis has left him with severe facial disfigurement. Years after undergoing an experimental medical treatment that radically alters his appearance, he has now reinvented himself as “Guy Moratz.” However, when another actor with the same medical condition, Oswald (Adam Pearson), shows up at the theater where “Guy” has landed a role, Edward becomes consumed with the need to reclaim what he feels is rightfully his.
Watch A Different Man on Max
Trap
At first glance, Cooper (Josh Hartnett) seems like an ordinary dad, taking his teen daughter (Ariel Donoghue) to a Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) concert. But what he doesn’t know is that the event is a covert FBI sting operation, and he’s the target: a notorious serial killer known as the Butcher. With surveillance cameras in place and police waiting to attack, Cooper will need to stay sharp if he’s going to outsmart the trap and make it out alive.
Watch Trap on Max
I Saw the TV Glow
In 1996, suburban teens Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) bond over their shared obsession with the eerie late-night TV show The Pink Opaque, which reveals a hidden supernatural world beneath theirs and leads them to question everything they thought they knew Directed by Jane Schoenbrun and produced by Emma Stone, I Saw the TV Glow uses the horror genre to explore queer identity and self-discovery.
Watch I Saw the TV Glow on Max
Joker
In the gritty streets of early-1980s Gotham City, aspiring stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) paints his face with blotchy makeup for his job as a clown, longing to carve out a space for himself in the world. Yet, as society subjects him to perpetual bullying and neglect, Fleck’s tenuous grip on reality falters — paving the way for the dawn of his villainous identity, the Joker. (Be sure to catch the 2024 sequel starring Phoenix and Lady Gaga, now available on Max.)
Watch Joker on Max
Black Swan
In this 2010 psychological thriller, Natalie Portman gracefully steps into the pointe shoes of a dedicated ballerina named Nina. When the principal dancer retires — leaving the lead role in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake up for grabs — the company’s artistic director (Vincent Cassel) seeks someone to portray both the innocent White Swan and the seductive Black Swan. Nina, ideal for the former role, finds her match in her enigmatic rival Lily (Mila Kunis), igniting a corrupt friendship as her mind descends into a dark spiral.
Watch Black Swan on Max
Misdommar
Haunted by the tragic loss of her parents and sister, Dani (Florence Pugh) accompanies her emotionally withdrawn boyfriend (Jack Reynor) and his friends on a trip to Sweden for a midsummer festival that only takes place every 90 years. But as they bear witness to unsettling rituals, they come to the horrifying realization they are ensnared in the custody of a menacing cult.
Watch Midsommar on Max
The Outsider
In the 2021 miniseries The Outsider, a murder in a small town has everyone on edge. Even more confusing is that, despite there being ample evidence placing Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman) as the killer, there’s also plenty of evidence proving he’s innocent. The police and town grapple with a murder that doesn’t make sense — and consider that supernatural forces may be at play. Bateman is joined in the cast by Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo, among others.
Watch The Outsider on Max
Peacock
Speak No Evil
On a trip to the Italian countryside, American couple Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy) hit it off with carefree British couple Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi). The Daltons later take up their new friends’ offer of staying at their secluded farmhouse in Devon, England. But as soon as they settle in, the hosts begin a deadly game — testing just how far they can push their guests’ limits.
Watch Speak No Evil on Peacock
Promising Young Woman
Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut — which snagged her an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay — follows Cassie (Carey Mulligan), a med school dropout who orchestrates her own form of justice: playing the drunken damsel at nightclubs to expose predatory men. Reconnecting with a former classmate, Ryan (Bo Burnham), Cassie’s journey takes a dark twist as she takes revenge on those who’ve wronged her best friend.
Wrapped in a candy-colored palette and accompanied by a bubblegum soundtrack, Promising Young Woman weaves a dark feminist tale with unexpected twists, and features exceptional performances from Mulligan, Burnham, Alison Brie, Chris Lowell, Jennifer Coolidge and more.
Watch Promising Young Woman on Peacock
We Need to Talk About Kevin
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) centers on Eva (Tilda Swinton), a mother struggling to cope following a mass murder committed by her son, Kevin (Ezra Miller). Kevin seems incapable of emotion and appears to feel no remorse for the killings.
Watch We Need to Talk About Kevin on Peacock
Donnie Darko
In Richard Kelly’s cult classic, teenager Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) begins to slip in and out of a space-time disturbance. A mysterious rabbit figure tells him the world is ending, and Donnie narrowly escapes death — for the time being. The indie film’s cast includes Jake’s sister Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze.
Watch Donnie Darko on Peacock
Paramount+
Smile 2
Smile 2 might follow the same blueprint as its predecessor — but with higher stakes, even more unpredictable scares and one hell of a soundtrack. One year after a life-changing car accident, pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is ready to revive her career with a world tour. However, when she witnesses her drug dealer’s (Lukas Gage) suicide, she becomes the next victim of the parasitic entity that forces its victims to hallucinate smiling faces until they reach the same end.
Watch Smile 2 on Paramount+
Beau Is Afraid
From the creative genius behind psychological horrors like Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019) comes a surrealist tragicomedy about a fear-ridden, agoraphobic man named Beau Wasserman, who confronts his biggest fears on an emotional odyssey to get home to his mother. With Joaquin Phoenix playing the adult Beau and Armen Nahapetian as his younger self, Beau Is Afraid showcases outstanding performances from a talented cast including Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey and more.
Watch Beau Is Afraid on Paramount+
Significant Other
In 2022’s Significant Other, invading aliens begin harvesting humans and taking their shape. Their first target before launching a full-blown invasion is a couple hiking in the woods. It’s impossible to know who is real and who is a decoy in this wildly trippy ride. The film stars Maika Monroe and Emmy nominee Jake Lacy.
Watch Significant Other on Paramount+
Disney+
WandaVision
Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprised their roles as Avengers Wanda Maximoff and Vision in the 2020 miniseries WandaVision. In the series, Wanda and Vision live the perfect suburban life… or so they think. The walls of reality begin to blur, and the couple realize they’re in danger. Also in the cast was Kathryn Hahn, who stole the show as audience favorite Agatha Harkness — she now has her own spinoff series, Agatha All Along.
Watch WandaVision on Disney+
Moon Knight
The 2022 series Moon Knight was notable for taking a much darker tone than other Marvel productions. It follows Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), a gift shop employee who realizes he has an alter ego, Marc Spector, a mercenary with connections to Egyptian gods. On top of being an action-packed series, the show is one of the most unique Marvel entities to date.
Watch Moon Knight on Disney+
Werewolf by Night
Werewolf by Night is a standalone Marvel special centered on a group of monster hunters gathered at a castle, all hoping to gain possession of a rare and powerful gem. However, many in the competition aren’t who they seem to be. Leading the cast is Gael García Bernal, best known for his Golden Globe-winning performance on Mozart in the Jungle.
Watch Werewolf by Night on Disney+
Read the full article here
