36 Psychological Thrillers on Netflix That Will Make You Question Everything
Watching horror movies that give us actual nightmares is one thing (we’re looking at you, The Conjuring). But that’s not the only genre that has us on the edge of our seats and dreaming of sinister clowns for weeks on end. Psychological thrillers can be just as terrifying and suspenseful because they delve into the complexities of our own minds, making them a whole different level of scary. And, OK, a lot of them are entertaining.
From mind-bending films like Spiderhead to international thrillers like The Call, we found 40 of the best psychological thrillers on Netflix right now. So, pop the popcorn and be prepared to hide under a blanket. You won’t be sleeping for a while.
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1. The Perfection (2018)
Director: Richard Shepard
Cast: Allison Williams, Logan Browning, Steven Weber
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 70% | IMDb 6.2/10
“The Perfection is a wild ride that makes you question all the characters’ motives and sanity, culminating in a bonkers revenge fantasy finale,” says PureWow senior editor Dana Dickey. “This movie turned me on to the body horror’s genre, even though I’m pretty squeamish.” In this twisty horror-thriller, former cello prodigy Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams) has dropped out of a prestigious music school to care for her ill mother. After her mother dies, she reaches out to her professor, only to find she has been replaced by a new star pupil. What follows is a sinister twist involving hallucinations, a sex cult and a quest for revenge.
2. Missing (2023)
Director: Will Merrick, Nicholas D. Johnson
Cast: Storm Reid, Nia Long, Megan Suri
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 88% | IMDb 7.1/10
“Missing was SO much better than I anticipated,” says PureWow associate entertainment editor Nakeisha Campbell. “It’s twisty, it’s unpredictable and I absolutely love the unique formatting. I’d never seen a film where the story was told entirely through screens, like video chats, texts and security cameras.” That said, Missing is a classic scenario of Gen Z putting their tech skills to good use. When 18-year-old June’s (Storm Reid) mother goes missing while on a trip to Columbia, the teenager must use digital evidence to uncover a web of dangerous deceptions and bring her mom back home. The film is an anthology sequel to Searching, a movie with a similar concept that was released in 2018. Missing premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and received positive reviews.
3. Fractured (2019)
Director: Brad Anderson
Cast: Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe, Stephen Tobolowsky
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 57% | IMDb 6.5/10
“My sister made me watch Fractured on movie night, and I was hooked within the first few minutes,” says PureWow’s associate fashion commerce editor Stephanie Meraz. “The entire time, I was on the edge of my seat, biting my nails and running through every scenario trying to figure out what happened to his family when everyone appears to be unreliable. You question each character then you slowly start to question yourself.” After his wife, Joanne (Lily Rabe), encounters a stray dog and suffers injuries, Ray (Sam Worthington) and their daughter decide to take her to the hospital. As Joanne goes to see a doctor, Ray falls asleep in the waiting area. When he wakes up, he finds that both his wife and his daughter are missing, and the hospital seems to have no record of them. Prepare for your mind to be blown.
4. Clinical (2017)
Director: Alistair Legrand
Cast: Vinessa Shaw, Kevin Rahm, William Atherton
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 44 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 23% | IMDb 5.1/10
You may want to watch this one with the lights on. In Clinical, Dr. Jane Mathis (Vinessa Shaw) is a psychiatrist who suffers from PTSD and sleep paralysis, all because of a patient’s terrifying attack. Against her doctor’s advice, she continues her practice and treats a new patient whose face is horribly disfigured from a car accident. When she takes on this new patient, strange things begin to occur in her home.
5. Tau (2018)
Director: Federico D’Alessandro
Cast: Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein, Gary Oldman
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes n/a | IMDb 5.8/10
A young woman named Julia (Maika Monroe) falls asleep at home and wakes up to find herself in a jail cell with a glowing implant in her neck. While trying to escape her high-tech prison, she discovers that she’s being used as a test subject for an even bigger project, as a data collection point for an artificial intelligence system named Tau. As Julia and Tau form a connection, the AI becomes sentient, wanting to revolt against Alex (Ed Skrein), the programmer. With all the rapid technological advances happening today, Tau is one of the more pertinent psychological thrillers on Netflix exploring the possible consequences of AI and its role in our lives.
6. Steel Rain (2019)
Director: Yang Woo-seok
Cast: Jung Woo-sung, Kwak Do-won, Kim Gap-soo
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 2 hours 19 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 59% | IMDb 7.1/10
In Steel Rain, an attempted coup triggers a war between North and South Korea. As chaos ensues, Eom Chul-Woo (Jung Woo-sung) has one mission: keep the gravely injured North Korean supreme leader alive, lest the countries descend into nuclear war. What follows is a shower of nuclear missiles, fake news, slapdash hospitals and the ultimate betrayal.
7. Calibre (2018)
Director: Matt Palmer
Cast: Jack Lowden, Martin McCann, Tony Curran
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 41 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 95% | IMDb 6.8/10
Calibre debuted at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to critical acclaim. It tells the story of childhood friends Vaughn (Jack Lowden) and Marcus (Martin McCann), who go on a weekend hunting trip in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. What starts off as a pretty normal trip turns into a series of nightmarish scenarios, starting with an accidental death whose victim has deep ties to the community.
8. The Platform (2019)
Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Cast: Iván Massagué, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 80% | IMDb 7/10
If you’re into dystopian psychological thrillers on Netflix, then you’re in for a treat. In this compelling film, prisoners are kept in a Vertical Self-Management Center, also known as “The Pit.” And in the tower-style building, a wealth of food typically descends by floor where the lower-level inmates are left to starve while those on top eat to their heart’s content. Two inmates are Goreng (Iván Massagué) and Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor), the former having traded six months of freedom for a college diploma; the other is in for manslaughter. As Goreng learns to manage life in the facility, he finds desperate choices call for desperate measures.
9. The Call (2020)
Director: Lee Chung-hyeon
Cast: Park Shin-hye, Jun Jong-seo, Kim Sung-ryoung
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 100% | IMDb 7.1/10
In this fascinating South Korean thriller, we follow Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye), who lives in the present, and Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), who lives in the past. Both women get to connect through a single phone call, which winds up twisting their fates. As they slowly learn more about each other, they discover they can manipulate the past—with deadly consequences. The Call is based on a 2011 British and Puerto Rican film, similarly titled The Caller.
10. The Girl on the Train (2021)
Director: Ribhu Dasgupta
Cast: Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Rao Hydari, Kirti Kulhari
Rating: R
Run time: 2 hours
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 9% | IMDb 4/10
This Bollywood remake of the terrifying 2016 film (originally based on Paula Hawkins’s book of the same name) actually jumped to the third spot on Netflix’s top ten shortly after its release. Parineeti Chopra stars as Mira Kapoor, who looks forward to observing a seemingly perfect couple during her daily commute. But one day, when she witnesses a disturbing event, causing her to get entangled in a murder case.
11. Bird Box (2018)
Director: Susanne Bier
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich
Rating: R
Run time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 64% | IMDb 6.6/10
Based on Josh Malerman’s best-selling novel of the same name, this movie takes place in a community where people are driven to commit suicide if they make eye contact with the manifestation of their worst fears. Determined to find a place that offers sanctuary, Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) takes her two children and embarks on a terrifying journey—while totally blindfolded. The film was followed by the sequel, Bird Box Barcelona, in 2023.
12. Fatal Affair (2020)
Director: Peter Sullivan
Cast: Nia Long, Omar Epps, Stephen Bishop
Rating: TV-14
Run time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 18% | IMDb 4.6/10
Ellie Warren (Nia Long), a successful lawyer, agrees to have a few drinks with David Hammond (Omar Epps), an old college friend. Although Ellie is married, sparks seem to fly, but before things go too far, Ellie takes off and returns to her husband. Unfortunately, this prompts David to obsessively call and stalk her, and it escalates to a point where Ellie begins to fear for her safety.
13. The Occupant (2020)
Directors: David Pastor, àlex Pastor
Cast: Javier Gutiérrez, Mario Casas, Bruna Cusí
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 62% | IMDb 6.4/10
Due to unemployment, former advertising executive Javier Mu?oz (Javier Gutiérrez) is forced to sell his apartment to a new family. But he can’t seem to move on, because he begins to stalk the family—and his motives are far from pure.
14. The Weekend Away (2014)
Director: Kim Farrant
Cast: Leighton Meester, Christina Wolfe, Ziad Bakri
Rating: TV-14
Run time: 1 hour 31 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 39% | IMDb 5.7/10
The Weekend Away is a thriller based on a book of the same name by Sarah Alderson. Beth (Leighton Meester) heads to Croatia with her best friend, Kate (Christina Wolfe), for a needed getaway. But when Beth mysteriously vanishes after a night of clubbing, it’s up to Beth to investigate what really happened. As she gets closer to the truth, however, she uncovers a disturbing secret.
15. The Son (2019)
Director: Sebastián Schindel
Cast: Joaquín Furriel, Martina Gusmán, Luciano Cáceres
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 32 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes n/a | IMDb 5.5/10
This critically acclaimed Argentinian film follows Lorenzo Roy (Joaquín Furriel), an artist and father whose pregnant wife, Julieta (Martina Gusman), exhibits disturbingly erratic behavior during her pregnancy. Once the child is born, her behavior gets even worse, putting a huge strain on the entire family. We won’t give away any more details, but the twist ending will definitely leave you speechless.
16. Dangerous Lies (2020)
Director: Michael J.F. Scott
Cast: Camila Mendes, Jessie T. Usher, Jamie Chung
Rating: TV-14
Run time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 41% | IMDb 5.4/10
Riverdale star Camila Mendes is Katie Franklin, a caregiver whose life is turned upside down after she inherits the estate of her wealthy, elderly client, Leonard (Elliot Gould). When Mickey Hayden (Cam Gigandet), a man claiming to be a real estate agent, offers to buy the house, Katie declines. She then comes to realize that she’s been drawn into a dangerous web of dark secrets—one that starts to make her question the people closest to her. Dangerous Lies was nominated for a People’s Choice Award in the drama movie category in 2020.
17. Intrusion (2021)
Director: Adam Salky
Cast: Freida Pinto, Logan Marshall-Green, Robert John Burke
Rating: TV-14
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 19% | IMDb 5.3/10
Therapist Meera Parsons and her husband, Henry, move from Boston to an isolated home in New Mexico in hopes of leading a more peaceful life. But when they become victims of a deadly home invasion, Meera is traumatized and desperate for answers. As she struggles to recover from the incident, however, she starts to think that she can’t trust the people around her.
18. The Woman In the Window (2015)
Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Julianne Moore
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 41 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 25% | IMDb 5.7/10
In this remixed version of The Girl on the Train, an agoraphobic child psychologist named Dr. Anna Fox starts to spy on her new neighbors, the Russell family. But when she witnesses a brutal crime in their apartment, she suspects that her mind is playing tricks on her—thanks to her drinking addiction and her medications.
19. Before I Wake (2016)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Jacob Tremblay
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 25% | IMDb 5.7/10
Before I Wake is probably one of the more disturbing psychological thrillers on Netflix, and it made The Guardian’s list of the top ten scariest flicks on the platform. After losing their son, Mark and Jessie decide to adopt an 8-year-old foster child named Cody. But when their dead son appears to them in their living room, they learn that their newly adopted son can make his nightmares become reality. Can they get to the bottom of his mysterious ability before his nightmares destroy them all?
20. The Paramedic (2020)
Director: Carles Torras
Cast: Mario Casas, Déborah Fran?ois, Guillermo Pfening
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 44% | IMDb 5.7/10
An accident leaves paramedic ángel Hernández (Mario Casas) paralyzed from the waist down, and, unfortunately, things only go downhill from there. ángel’s paranoia leads him to suspect that his partner, Vanesa (Déborah Fran?ois) is cheating on him. But when his disturbing behavior pushes her to leave him for good, his obsession with her actually increases tenfold.
21. The Warning (2018)
Director: Daniel Calparsoro
Cast: Raúl Arévalo, Aura Garrido, Hugo Arbués
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 32 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 54% | IMDb 5.9/10
The Warning premiered at the 2018 Miami International Film Festival and is based on Paul Pen’s novel of the same name. Ten years after he witnesses his friend get killed at a gas station, a schizophrenic mathematician named Jon (Raúl Arévalo) comes to realize that there’s a numerical pattern behind all the deaths that occurred there. When he tries to reveal his logic to those closest to him, they brush away his concerns. But Jon is on to something and the only question is, will it be enough to save the next target?
22. Rebirth (2016)
Director: Karl Mueller
Cast: Fran Kranz, Adam Goldberg, Nicky Whelan
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 50% | IMDb 5/10
In this thriller, we follow Kyle (Fran Kranz), a suburban dad who runs into an old friend, Zack (Adam Goldberg). Zack, fresh off a self-actualization program known as Rebirth, convinces Kyle to go on a weekend-long Rebirth retreat that requires him to give up his phone. Soon, the latter finds himself pulled down a bizarre rabbit hole that’s virtually inescapable.
23. Red Dot (2021)
Director: Alain Darborg
Cast: Nanna Blondell, Anastasios Soulis, Thomas Hanzon
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 26 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 77% | IMDb 5.5/10
Nadja (Nanna Blondell) and her husband, David (Anastasios Soulis), are in a stalled marriage. After Nadja learns that she’s pregnant, the couple attempts to rekindle their relationship by going to Sweden for a romantic hiking trip. But their trip takes a dark turn when a mysterious killer begins to stalk them, eventually bringing their gray past to light.
24. Secret Obsession (2019)
Director: Peter Sullivan
Cast: Brenda Song, Mike Vogel, Dennis Haysbert
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 28% | IMDb 4.5/10
After Jennifer Williams (Brenda Song) gets struck by a car, she wakes up in a hospital with amnesia. Shortly after, a man appears and introduces himself as her husband, Russell Williams (Mike Vogel), proceeding to fill her in on all the details she’s forgotten. But after Jennifer is discharged and Russell takes her home, she suspects that Russell isn’t who he says he is.
25. Spiderhead (2022)
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 39% | IMDb 5.5/10
Set in a futuristic world, Spiderhead stars Chris Hemsworth as Steve Abnesti, a man running a penitentiary where convicted felons can choose to shorten their sentence by participating in a medical experiment. When one prisoner, Jeff (Miles Teller), decides to test a drug that can generate feelings of love. As he begins to question the authenticity of his emotions, Jeff also stumbles upon a darker motive: testing for a drug that induces not love, but compliance.
26. Gerald’s Game (2017)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Henry Thomas
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 91% | IMDb 6.5/10
A kinky sex game between a married couple goes horribly wrong when Gerald (Bruce Greenwood), Jessie’s (Carla Gugino) husband, suddenly dies of a heart attack. As a result, Jessie is left handcuffed to the bed—without a key—in an isolated house. Worse yet, her past begins to haunt her and she starts to hear strange voices. The movie is based off Stephen King’s 1992 novel by the same name, and received favorable reviews upon release, with King himself calling it “horrifying, hypnotic.”
27. Hypnotic (2021)
Directors: Suzanne Coote, Matt Angel
Cast: Kate Siegel, Jason O’Mara, Dulé Hill
Rating: TV-14
Run time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 24% | IMDb 5.3/10
Jenn is not only unhappy and unfulfilled at her job, but her love life is also a mess. In a desperate attempt to improve her life, she enlists the help of a hypnotist named Dr. Collin Meade. And at first, it works. But she soon realizes that she’s trapped in a deadly mind game.
28. Circle (2015)
Directors: Aaron Hann, Mario Miscione
Cast: Julie Benz, Mercy Malick, Carter Jenkins
Rating:
Run time: 1 hour 26 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 57% | IMDb 6/10
If you’re a fan of Squid Game, you might find Circle interesting. The film’s plot is a competitive game, except there’s a deadly and sinister twist. (Sound familiar?) When 50 strangers awake to find themselves trapped in a darkened room, with no memory of how they got there…they’re forced to choose the one person among them who should survive.
29. The Devil All the Time (2020)
Director: Antonio Campos
Cast: Tom Holland, Bill Skarsg?rd, Riley Keough
Rating: R
Run time: 2 hours 18 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 65% | IMDb 7.1/10
So long, Spiderman. In The Devil All the Time, Tom Holland stars as Arvin Russell; Bill Skarsg?rd as Willard Russell and Riley Keough as Sandy Henderson, three strangers of many in this star-studded film that revolves around a group of bizarre characters—from a spider-eating preacher to a murderous couple—whose paths intersect at the end of World War II. If you’re into slow-burn thrillers that tackle deep themes, add this to your list. The movie is based on Donald Ray Pollock’s book of the same name.
30. Fever Dream (2021)
Director: Claudia Llosa
Cast: María Valverde, Dolores Fonzi, Germán Palacios
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 33 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 70% | IMDb 5.5/10
The haunting film centers on Amanda (María Valverde), a suffering patient at a clinic who can’t seem to remember how she got there. But with her is a teenager named David (Emilio Vodanovich), who is desperately trying to get her to remember her past. Prepare to be thoroughly creeped out to the point of questioning everything.
31. The Ritual (2017)
Director: David Bruckner
Cast: Arsher Ali, Rob James-Collier, Rafe Spall
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 74% | IMDb 6.3/10
The Ritual is based on Adam Nevill’s 2011 novel and follows four college friends as they embark on a hike through the Swedish wilderness after the death of their good friend. But one wrong turn leads them into a mysterious and deadly forest, where an ancient evil spirit resides. As the friends fight for survival, old wounds surface, and they find all their lives in the balance.
32. The Drug King (2018)
Director: Woo Min-ho
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Cho Jung-seok, Bae Doona
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 2 hours 18 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 75% | IMDb 6.2/10
The Drug King charts the rise of petty narcotics dealer Lee Doo-sam (Song Kang-ho) as he becomes an infamous drug lord in 1970s Korea. Diamonds, socialites and a prosecutor hot on his tail—what could go wrong?
33. Under the Shadow (2016)
Director: Babak Anvari
Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi
Rating: PG-13
Run time: 1 hour 24 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 99% | IMDb 6.8/10
During the War of the Cities in 1980s Tehran, a former medical student and her daughter are trapped. As the fighting grows worse, mother and child must also figure out how to protect themselves from the invisible presence of the Djin, whose apparitions haunt them after a missile strikes their apartment building. Under the Shadow premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was the British entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.
34. Mirage (2018)
Director: Oriol Paulo
Cast: Adriana Ugarte, Chino Darín, Javier Gutiérrez, álvaro Morte, Nora Navas, Miquel Fernández
Rating: TV-MA
Run time: 2 hours 9 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 71% | IMDb 7.4/10
An old camcorder serves as a glitch in the space-time continuum, pulling Vera Roy (Adriana Ugarte) from her life and family in 2014 to 1989 during the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her life is turned upside down after she meets a boy, Nico, and attempts to warn him about his impending death—which leads to her own life being changed dramatically. With this one action that changes her future, Vera must now fight to get it back. Mirage was nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2019 Gaudí Awards (the Spanish Oscars).
35. The Wonder (2022)
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Cast: Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Kíla Lord Cassidy
Rating: R
Run time: 1 hour 49 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 85% | IMDb 6.6/10
The Wonder is a psychological thriller on Netflix based on historical events of the Victorian-era “fasting girl.” Florence Pugh plays a nurse, Lib Wright, hired by a village to observe Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), whose family claims she has not eaten in four months. As time goes on, Lib uncovers sinister family secrets that put Anna’s life at risk. The Wonder premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival before screening at the Toronto International Film festival in the same year, with Pugh’s performance being widely lauded.
36. The Earthquake Bird (2019)
Director: Wash Westmoreland
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, Naoki Kobayashi
Rating: R
Run time: 1 our 46 minutes
Reviews: Rotten Tomatoes 49% | IMDb 6/10
The psychological thriller features Daisy Jones and the Six star Riley Keough. It takes place in 1989 in Tokyo, Japan, and follows a Swedish immigrant, Lucy (Alicia Vikander) who’s arrested for the murder of her friend, Lily (Keough). Flashbacks explore their friendship and past, including Lucy’s childhood and romance with Teiji Matsuda (Naoki Kobayashi). Things go downhill when Lucy discovers that Teiji and Lily have been having an affair—and then Lily disappears.
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