Summary Prime Video offers a variety of thrilling movies, but viewers must sift through low-budget options. All-star casts and directors enhance the experience.
South Korean films like Burning and Mother deliver engrossing psychological thrillers with suspense and thematic depth.
Joker and The Batman provide dark, gritty character studies within the comic book genre, while Chinatown offers a slower, contemplative burn with compelling plot twists.
For Amazon Prime Video subscribers looking for a thriller movie, there are plenty of options on the platform. Thriller films can spread across different genres, from superhero films to horror to intense action movies. The primary purpose of the genre is to evoke heightened feelings of tension, anxiety, and anticipation while the film quickly builds toward its conclusion. Thriller movies are often filled with shocking plot twists that help the fast-paced narrative escalate toward a dramatic climax.
Prime Video has a section for thriller films on the site, though there are a number of low-budget and mediocre offerings to weed through. The best thrillers to watch tend to include all-star casts and directors. However, a thriller film’s script is often what makes or breaks it, as such stories tend to explore darker ideas about humanity that are meant to linger with the audience after the film’s conclusion.
10 Burning (2018)
Burning is a psychological thriller from South Korean writer and director Lee Chang-dong. The film follows a young man, Jong-su, who runs into his childhood friend, Hae-mi. Hae-mi introduces Jong-su to a mysterious man she’s met named Ben, who Jong-su is suspicious of. This leads him to believe that his friend is in danger. Burning is engrossing and suspenseful, and it’s filled with thematic depth for viewers to explore.
9 Sicario (2015)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Taylor Sheridan, Sicario is an excellent action/thriller film. The movie follows Emily Blunt as Kate Mercy, an FBI agent who’s recruited to a team tasked with taking out a powerful cartel boss. The film is beautifully shot and well-written, as one would expect from the writer/director duo that made it happen. Sicario is a nerve-racking, action packed, and gritty thriller that builds its tension perfectly.
8 Mother (2010)
South Korean cinema gained a ton of popularity from the 2019 film Parasite. There are a number of other great psychological thrillers to explore from South Korean directors, including Bong Joon-ho’s other movies. Bong Joon-ho’s Mother is the best example currently available to stream on Prime Video. The film tells the story of a widow who must clear her intellectually disabled adult son of a murder he’s been accused of following a messy police investigation. Mother offers a tense murder mystery that fans of Parasite or Memories of Murder will surely enjoy.
7 Suspiria (2018)
The 2018 film Suspiria is a supernatural horror thriller inspired by the 1977 Italian film of the same name, directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name). The film follows a young dancer from America who arrives in Berlin in the 1970s to audition for a renowned dance studio. As the narrative progresses, the young woman unearths sinister witchcraft activity. The film isn’t as strong as the original, but it’s still one of the best original horror movies on Prime Video. Suspiria is filled with suspense, and it also contains body horror that will freak its audience out.
6 Joker (2019)
Joker is a comic book movie that’s received acclaim for its dark, gritty character study. Inspired by Martin Scorsese films like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Joker chronicles the deterioration of Arthur Fleck, an isolated man who feels rejected by society. As the film builds toward its climax, Fleck transitions further and further into becoming the Joker. Most of the praise for the film comes from the performance from Joaquin Phoenix, who captures the comic book character in a way that feels more realistic than previous variations.
5 Memento (2000)
Most modern moviegoers know of Christopher Nolan and that he’s capable of turning any genre or story into a sensory overloading, fast-paced, thrilling experience. His 2000 film Memento is perhaps the best bare-bones example of his style, crafting a simple story that is made complex by its scenes being displaced in time. The main character has short term memory loss, requiring him to utilize a system of notes and photographs to keep track of information as he seeks out revenge toward the men who murdered his wife. The film is complicated due to its narrative style, adding to the anticipation and its plot twists.
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4 Serpico (1973)
Directed by the great Sidney Lumet, Serpico is one of the earliest and best movies starring Al Pacino. While Pacino is known for playing mobsters, Serpico sees him on the other side of the law, playing a good cop in a New York City precinct full of bribery and corruption. The film depicts the true story of Frank Serpico, who was a whistleblower on police corruption in the ’60s and ’70s. The film is tense and gripping as obstacles build up in front of Serpico, who goes against the status quo and tries to oust the dirty cops.
3 The Batman (2022)
Another comic book adaptation, The Batman is the first version of the character on the big screen to primarily focus on detective work, allowing the film to lean heavily into thriller elements. Directed by Matt Reeves, the movie sees Batman pursuing the Riddler, who’s portrayed as a serial killer leaving behind clues. The film takes heavy inspiration from the mystery thrillers of David Fincher, such as Zodiac and Se7en, laying out clues and misdirection as Batman tracks down the Riddler and the motivations of the film’s villains.
2 Chinatown (1974)
Chinatown is one of the greatest mystery movies ever made, and one of the best examples of the neo-noir genre. While the film isn’t as fast-paced as many modern thrillers, its slower, contemplative burn allows for its script to fully take effect, maximizing the film’s foreshadowing and plot twists. The conflict of Chinatown is relentless, constantly evolving as it transitions from a murder mystery to a grander story about politics and corruption. This is a film that will fill its audience with a sense of tension and dread, both as it develops and long after it ends.
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1 Nope (2022)
Jordan Peele’s latest film, Nope, was one of the best new releases of 2022, celebrated for Peele’s usual mix of genres. Nope contains elements of sci-fi, comedy, and horror. The film follows a pair of siblings, played exceptionally by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, who discover what they believe to be a UFO above their horse ranch. Peele commonly subverts horror tropes, allowing his films to play out and build anticipation in ways that are unexpected, keeping audiences on the edge of their seats throughout. Nope is a must-watch thriller on Amazon Prime Video, especially for fans of thrilling narratives.