Hulu has a wide and growing selection of TV series and movies, including originals. And it has a pretty extensive library of titles across all genres, including the ever-popular thriller. There’s nothing better than turning down the lights, grabbing a bowl of popcorn, and immersing yourself in a good thriller, whether it’s a bumps-in-the-night scary flick or a high-flying action thriller that will get your adrenaline going.
Ready to dive in? Here are some of the best thrillers you can watch on Hulu, including recent films and ones that date back as far as 2008.
If you’re in the mood for something else, check out the best romance movies on Netflix right now and the overall 50 best shows on Hulu right now.
Arguably the most talked-about movie of 2019, director Bong Joon-ho hit it out of the park with this black comedy thriller about a poor family in South Korea who, in an attempt to improve their dire straits, hatch a seemingly clever plan. They each recommend one another for a job working for a wealthy family when, in reality, not a single one of them is qualified to fill the position they get. Sweeping the Academy Awards with four Oscars, including two of the most coveted ones, Best Picture and Best Director, the film transcends language and culture and gets right to the heart of issues like social inequality and wealth disparity.
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
Stars: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Lee Jung-eun, Jang Hye-jin
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Rating: R
Runtime: 132 minutes
Who would have believed that a film with almost no dialogue would be so well received? This post-apocalyptic thriller was not only universally lauded but solidified John Krasinski’s talents as a writer and director. The scene is some time in the near future where creatures in possession of an acute sense of hearing have taken over Earth. Make even the slightest sound and one will snatch you up instantly, devouring you alive. The film follows one family and their fight to survive, made all the more complicated by the pending birth of a new baby. Thankfully, however, their hearing-impaired teenage daughter and knowledge of sign language have given them a unique advantage in light of the circumstances. It’s intense all the way through; the riveting performances and captivating story will keep your eyes glued to the screen.
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski
Director: John Krasinski
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 90 minutes
The Mission Impossible films have been hugely successful, and this is just one of two of the films in the franchise that you can stream via Hulu. In this, the fourth installment, Tom Cruise reprises his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt whose latest mission (should he choose to accept it, of course) is to find the bad guy who is about to do something terrible with newly acquired Russian nuclear launch codes. Grab the popcorn as this one will be a bumpy, but thoroughly entertaining ride.
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton
Director: Brad Bird
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 128 minutes
When a group of college students set out to a remote cabin to party, they end up getting more than they bargained for. Pivoting more toward the horror genre, this thriller sees the young adults getting unknowingly drugged and used as lab rats by technicians in an underground lab who look on as monsters and zombies attack them, one by one. Co-written by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), the film has been praised for managing to be funny, strange, and scary, oddly all at the same time.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison
Director: Drew Goddard
Rating: R
Runtime: 95 minutes
Quantum of Solace is not the most beloved of the James Bond films starring Daniel Craig, but it’s still a fun and thrilling ride from beginning to end. Directly following the events of Casino Royale, Bond goes out in search of revenge for the death of his lover, leaving him on the trail of a wealthy businessman planning a seismic governmental overthrow to seize the water supply. This film is darker in tone than previous installments of the franchise and is also dramatically more violent. Still, it features the classic tropes of any James Bond film, promising action and adventure each step of the way.
Rotten Tomatoes: 65%
Stars: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench
Director: Marc Forster
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 106 minutes
Produced by Steven Spielberg, this movie is set is 1979, where a group of teenagers decides to film a movie on Super 8. But when a train derails, something strange starts happening in their town. Given the time period, it’s no surprise the movie has been compared to others that were actually made during the ’80s, like E.T., Stand by Me, and The Goonies, but with a darker, more ominous approach. While the concept might not be entirely original, the film is worth watching for the impressive technical and special effects alone, for which it won many awards.
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Stars: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Gabriel Basso, Noah Emmerich
Director: J.J. Abrams
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 112 minutes
When her new wealthy fashion executive friend (Blake Lively) mysteriously disappears, Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a widowed single mother and small-town vlogger, decides to take it upon herself to solve the mystery. But what she unearths is like nothing she could ever have expected. With two powerful female actors heading up the cast, the film performed well at the box office, and critics called it “twisted” and “fun.”
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells
Director: Paul Feig
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Delving into the financial crisis of 2007-08, this film looks at employees at a Wall Street investment bank and how they handle what’s to come when the markets are about to crash and they realize the truth. It’s an intense ride taking place over the span of just 24 hours, starting with mass layoffs, and one terminated employee handing off a USB drive with info that leads to the discovery of the impending crash. The financial scramble that follows is intense, to say the least. Widely considered to be one of the best Wall Street-based films ever made, the movie was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards.
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Ashley Williams, Aasif Mandvi
Director: J.C. Chandor
Rating: R
Runtime: 107 minutes
A former undercover cop seeks revenge on the gang she was once embedded in, over a decade after a bank robbery the gang committed. If the plot doesn’t drive you to watch Destroyer, the tour de force performance of Nicole Kidman should. Even though the film was a box office flop, Kidman gave it her all, turning in a remarkable performance that sheds any previous notions of limitations she has as an actress. Dark, gritty, and unrelenting, Destroyer is a tremendous trip that should go down as one of Kidman’s greatest cinematic roles, one which earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Star: Nicole Kidman
Director: Karyn Kusama
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
The film marks the late Alan Rickman’s last live-action project and was dedicated to his memory. Exploring the ethics of drone warfare, it is set in Nairobi, Kenya, where an undercover British/Kenyan agent has been murdered by a terrorist group and the hunt begins to take them down. British Army Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) must decide if she should give the go-ahead for a missile attack to take out suicide bombers. But there’s a wrench in the plan; an innocent young girl is on the premises and there’s a high probability she would be killed, too. The film truly makes you examine the question, what is the cost of war?
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Stars: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Iain Glen
Director: Gavin Hood
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
In the sixth and most recent installment in this hugely successful franchise (certainly not the last, as two more have been confirmed to be in the works), Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has yet another mission. There’s plutonium missing and he and his team must retrieve it. Except when a mission goes awry, the CIA steps in to monitor the hunt. It remains not only the highest-grossing film in the franchise but also Cruise’s highest-grossing film ever. Considered by many to be the best Mission Impossible film to date, it’s worth watching as you await the release of the seventh and eighth films, likely to be released in late 2021 and 2022.
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Stars: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 147 minutes
If you’re in the mood for a psychological thriller, this one might satisfy your craving. After a comet passes by while friends are enjoying a dinner party, there’s a strange power outage; then, strange things start to happen. The friends discover a box with photos of themselves at a dinner party set for eight in an empty house across the street. It turns out the other house is an alternate, a sort of upside-down, bizarro carbon copy of the world, with identical replicas of each person there, just as confused as they are. It’s like a twisty, mind-bending funhouse come to life, and viewers will enjoy going along for the ride.
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Stars: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon
Director: James Ward Byrkit
Rating: NR
Runtime: 88 minutes
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