15 Best Thrillers On Hulu

Hulu is one of the most beloved streaming platforms due to its vast library of series and movies and its dedication to serving up fresh content. When it comes to thrillers, the streamer is overflowing with selections for lovers of the genre. So if you're looking for a pulse-pounding flick that's worth your time, we've compiled a list of the 15 best thrillers streaming on Hulu right now. We've made our selections based on Rotten Tomatoes scores, fan response, and our expertise with the genre — so get ready to have one intense movie night. 

Updated on January 5, 2022: Hulu is constantly updating its streaming library and boasts an impressive number of thrillers. To make sure this list is current and to keep things new, we'll update these selections every month, so you'll always know what's been added and what's left. We'll also always ensure the thrillers were suggest are the best of the best, so you're not tricked into watching a horrible suspense flick where you've figured out the twist in the first five minutes.

This relatively unknown film is perfect for lovers of the thriller genre. "Alone" follows the story of a widow traveling in the Pacific Northwest, and she soon finds herself being stalked by suspicious man. He eventually captures her and holds her in his home. Needless to say, the widow doesn't plan on sticking around, but after she escapes, the stranger is soon hot on her trail, turning the film into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

• Starring: Jules Willcox, Marc Menchaca, Anthony Heald
• Director: John Hyams
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 98 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

"Black Sunday" is a massive, hyper-dramatic disaster movie, but it's also a thriller about domestic terrorism and a look at the social and mental aftereffects of the Vietnam War. Veteran Michael Lander has become dark and violent since returning home from Vietnam. He hatches a plan to bomb the Super Bowl, via the Goodyear Blimp he pilots. The FBI and top Israeli agents must prevent the whole deadly ordeal from ever happening — but the clock is ticking.

• Starring: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller
• Director: John Frankenheimer
• Year: 1977
• Runtime: 143 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

The lead for the New York City Ballet's "Swan Lake" is up for grabs. Artistic director Thomas is torn between which ballerina should get the lead, as Nina resembles the white swan while and Lily is much more of a black swan. Nina feels threatened by her fellow dancer and does whatever it takes to delve into her dark side so she can nab the lead. Portman took home the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal as Nina, making it a must-watch for fans of the star.

• Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Year: 2010
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Imagine you're broke and about to be homeless ... how far would you go for some cash? That's a question posed by shows like "Squid Game," but long before that popular Korean miniseries, there was "Cheap Thrills," which finds our down-on-his-luck protagonist in one desperate, depraved scenario after another.

Craig is broke. Craig is about to get kicked out of his home. Craig needs a break. Along comes a couple with a ton of money and no humanity. They're willing to give Craig and his hot-headed buddy stacks of cash if they perform a series of escalating stunts. It starts off simple enough — throw back a shot of whiskey. But soon enough, the dares get worse and worse, and eventually, people are losing body parts, leaving us to wonder how far will Craig go to get that ultimate payday.

• Starring: Pat Healy, David Koechner, Sara Paxton
• Director: E.L. Katz
• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 87 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

The Clovehitch Killer has haunted a Kentucky town for a decade, with the murders of 10 women remaining a mystery. And then, a Boy Scout starts to suspect his well-respected Scout leader father of being the man behind the crimes. Naturally, our hero often second-guesses himself, but as he secretly investigates his father, he learns more of the murders and the culprit behind them. You'll find yourself second-guessing the killer's identity more than the Boy Scout, and the film's resolution will surely surprise you.

• Starring: Dylan McDermott, Charlie Plummer, Samantha Mathis
• Director: Duncan Skiles
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

A gorgeously shot throwback to the film noir era, "Devil in a Blue Dress" is an engrossing adaptation of Walter Mosley's mystery novel of the same name. World War II veteran and reluctant detective Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins faces unemployment and racism in 1940s Los Angeles. He takes on a shady job offered by DeWitt Albright, who needs someone to locate a missing white woman last seen hanging around a jazz club. Desperate for cash, Easy takes the case — but what's supposed to be a simple investigation turns out to be more complicated and insidious than he ever could have imagined.

• Starring: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals
• Director: Carl Franklin
• Year: 1995
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

With convict Frank Morris leading the team, a trio of inmates attempts to escape the notoriously inescapable Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. After all, as it's governed by a vicious warden, Alcatraz prisoners live in inhumane conditions, forcing their hands to bust out for freedom. The resulting film has been praised for its portrayal of inmate life and is long considered one of the best films in the prison-break genre. It's a definite must for Clint Eastwood fans who may have missed it.

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jack Thibeau, Patrick McGoohan
• Director: Don Siegel
• Year: 1979
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Based on the "New York Times" bestseller of the same name by Gillian Flynn, "Gone Girl" is an incredible mystery thriller that delivers one of the biggest surprises you'll never see coming. Nick Dunne is surprised to find out his wife has gone missing, and a search begins, which is full of shocking twists and turns. The story is told through the narratives of Nick and his missing wife, Amy Dunne, which will leave you wondering which spouse you can actually trust.

• Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris
• Director: David Fincher
• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 146 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

William Friedkin has made some of the greatest movies of all time — "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist" — but he's also directed some forgotten gems. For example, take "The Hunted." Despised by critics upon release, this action thriller is actually a taut, bloody thriller, one that features some wonderfully nasty action scenes and some first-rate performances.

So what's it about? As Roger Ebert — one of the film's champions — put it, "The Hunted" is about "two hard-working men who are good at their jobs, although only one can be the best." Those men are Benicio Del Toro's Aaron Hallam, a special ops soldier who's gone rogue, and Tommy Lee Jones' L.T. Bonham, the survivalist/weapons expert who turned Hallam into a killer. As Hallam leaves body after body in his wake, it's up to Bonham to pursue his old pupil and put his survivalist skills to the ultimate test.

• Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Nielsen
• Director: William Friedkin
• Year: 2003
• Runtime: 94 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29%

One of Bong Joon-Ho's greatest films, "Memories of Murder" is based on the true story of South Korea's first known serial killer. The two detectives tasked with finding the killer have unconventional ways of investigating the crimes, which often leads them to the wrong suspects. A third detective is brought in to help, and the trio clash with one another as more bodies start to pile up. We recommend not looking into the real-life case if you want to be surprised by the finale of the film.

• Starring: Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Roi-ha
• Director: Bong Joon-Ho
• Year: 2003
• Runtime: 131 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

"Panic Room" unfolds in one place, in almost real time. This makes it an extremely exciting, intense, and claustrophobic thriller, with immediately high stakes. Newly single mother Meg and daughter Sarah live in a New York City brownstone so large and well-equipped, it has a highly secure, totally hidden panic room they retreat to when three ruthless criminals break in. But these crooks are after something that's hidden in the panic room. Meg and Sarah must defend their lives inside their own home while making sure Sarah, who is diabetic, secures her life-saving insulin.

• Starring: Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Kristen Stewart
• Director: David Fincher
• Year: 2002
• Runtime: 112 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

Winner of six Academy Awards, "Parasite" is easily one of the best films of 2019. The movie details the lives of the lower-class Kim family and upper-class Park family and how the groups come to know one another. The Kims hatch a scheme to weave their way into the Parks' lives, but when the wealthy family departs on a vacation, the Kims find something unusual in the beautiful home, catapulting a bizarre and devastating trail of events that lead up to one massive twist in the finale. Based on Rotten Tomatoes scores, "Parasite" leads the pack as the top Bong Joon-ho flick, and it's definitely not one to be missed.

• Starring: Song Kang-ho, Jo Yeo-jeong, Park So-dam
• Director: Bong Joon-ho
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 132 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Hugh Jackman delivers one of his best and grittiest performances in "Prisoners," where his character Keller Dover finds out his daughter and friend's daughter have been kidnapped. Jake Gyllenhaal's Detective Loki is assigned to the case and becomes just as obsessed with finding the kidnapper as Keller. A suspect, played by the great Paul Dano, is revealed immediately, leaving the audience to question if this is the true perpetrator or not. Keller takes the investigation into his own hands, which thrusts him into quite the predicament that keeps the heart-pounding pace of the movie going.

• Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano
• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 153 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

One of Hulu's best original flicks, "Run" is a scary take on the mother-daughter movie. Reminiscent of another Hulu project, "The Act," this Sarah Paulson-led film follows a mother and the disabled teenage daughter she cares for. Her daughter becomes increasingly suspicious of her mother after finding a shocking discovery in their medicine cabinet, and the twists and turns that follow after will surely surprise every viewer.

• Starring: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Pat Healy
• Director: Aneesh Chaganty
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 89 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Two best friends find themselves at odds after they're involved in a haunting accident. The boys deal with the aftermath in many different ways, which puts a major wedge in their friendship. Things continue to get worse as the pair's paranoia sets in, which leads to a path of more unsettling destruction. If you're looking for an unsettling gem of a thriller, "Super Dark Times" definitely delivers on the title.

• Starring: Owen Campbell, Charlie Tahan, Elizabeth Cappuccino
• Director: Kevin Phillips
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 103 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%