15 Best Mystery Movies On Hulu

From Edgar Allan Poe all the way to David Lynch and beyond, mysteries are a permanent fixture in escapist entertainment. It would seem, every once in a while, we prefer to read stories and watch films without advance knowledge of how they're likely to end. 

For the sake of composing this list, we're talking about mystery as though it's a genre, but what we really mean when we say "mystery" is more like an approach to storytelling than an easily definable subset of media. Mysteries need elements of suspense and ambiguity, as well as, perhaps, a smidgen of atmospheric doom to represent our collective fear of the unknowable. As you'll see, the best mysteries on Hulu tend to also fit under the categorical signifiers of drama or horror. On rare occasion, you might even come across a mystery that's also an action movie or a comedy.  

So if you've got a spare evening on your hands and a Hulu login, and you're aiming to kick back and not immediately know what's going on in the movie you're watching, here are your best options. 

Updated on December 29, 2021: If you're in the mood for a mystery, check back here each month to discover new films to watch on Hulu. The streaming site constantly updates its offerings, and we'll keep you current on what intriguing, thrilling films are available.

"Black Swan" is arguably the closest thing Darren Aronofsky has ever made to a mainstream film, and it also ranks among his darkest and most unsettling endeavors. 

In an Oscar-winning performance, Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers — a ballerina on the cusp of realizing her lifelong dream by landing the lead role in "Swan Lake." Nina's abusive stage mom has also dreamed of Nina starring in "Swan Lake," yet her daughter's blossoming career does nothing to reduce either of their sky-high anxiety levels. When Nina's director — a #MeToo story waiting to happen — adds to her pre-existing issues, a free spirited new dancer who might not actually exist join's her troupe, and Nina can no longer trust what she sees in the mirror. We mean that last about the mirror figuratively and literally.

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

For those who live in major cities where municipal officials publicly fret about a growing unhoused population, "Borgman" resonates with an inescapable relevancy. 

Chased out of his self-fashioned underground living quarters, the eponymous protagonist asks a wealthy couple to use their bathroom for a desperately needed wash-up. For his audacity — and the questionable choice of claiming to know the presumed homeowner's wife — Borgman is beaten mercilessly. 

Borgman is a victim, no doubt, but the film's conspicuous use of ominous silence and deliberate pacing makes us wonder if there might be more to this particular sob story, especially when Borgman decides to pay a return visit to the aforementioned wealthy couple.

• Starring: Jan Bijvoet, Hadewych Minis, Jeroen Perceval
• Director: Alex van Warmerdam
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 113 minutes
• Rating: N/A
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Utterly overshadowed by the cinematic towers of the "Godfather" trilogy and "Apocalypse Now," "The Conversation" isn't Francis Ford Coppola's most famous or visually adventurous project. However, it might be his most cerebral movie.

Spy-for-hire Harry Caul will bug any phone for a price, but he obsesses over preventing violations of his own privacy. His life gets even more complicated when he's hired to follow a young couple and starts to think that perhaps these two are in serious danger. "The Conversation" features one of Gene Hackman's best performances, and maybe in this day and age where nobody sees a problem with sharing the intimate details of our lives with the executive boards of Google and Facebook, we could learn a thing or two from Harry Caul!   

• Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Harrison Ford
• Director: Francis Ford Coppola
• Year: 1974
• Runtime: 114 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

The promotional materials for 2017's "Gemini" paint a picture of a murder mystery set in Los Angeles that involves two women, one of whom is a movie star, and includes plenty of nighttime footage of the Hollywood highways. There's some strong "Mulholland Drive" energy afoot, which is never a bad thing. 

Zoë Kravitz plays beleaguered nouveau A-lister Heather Anderson, whose violent demise — in the macabre tradition of Laura Palmer — initiates the story. John Cho portrays the detective on the hunt for Heather's killer, and to our not insignificant astonishment, '90s daytime TV personality Ricki Lake is also in this movie.     

• Starring: Lola Kirke, Zoë Kravitz, John Cho
• Director: Aaron Katz
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 93 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Did Nick Dunne murder his wife, Amy? We ask because nobody seems able to find Amy, and Nick definitely gives off the vibe of somebody who would murder his wife. 

With Nick, David Fincher revisits his penchant for externally respectable, internally collapsing protagonists that also brought us the Narrator from "Fight Club" and tormented businessman Nicholas Van Orton from "The Game." If you're a Fincher nerd, that's got to be your favorite movie character archetype. 

"Gone Girl" also marks Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' third collaboration with Fincher on an original soundtrack. There's nothing like warm, sentimental ambiance from the mastermind of Nine Inch Nails to reassure us that Nick Dunne did not kill his wife. How could he have? He looks so happy! And happy people never do murders ... right?      

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

Younger viewers might think of Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close as the Dude and the first live-action Cruella de Vil, respectively, but even they won't be able to resist this sexy murder mystery from "Return of the Jedi" director Richard Marquand. Teddy Barnes (Close), a whip-smart lawyer, has been hired to defend a man accused of killing his wife. Is he guilty? She's not sure — and neither will you be, until this thrilling film reaches its explosive ending.

• Starring: Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges, Peter Coyote
• Director: Richard Marquand
• Year: 1985
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

This Victorian-era whodunit announces itself as the sort of stern, hushed affair you might expect to see serialized on the public television program formerly known as "Masterpiece Theater." However, don't panic — we promise "The Limehouse Golem" unleashes enough blood and guts to keep it safely beyond the grasp of PBS standards and practices, especially as it's about a detective hunting a serial killer through the dark streets of London.

Noted for supporting roles in "Bates Motel" and "The Sound Of Metal," Olivia Cooke gets a part that actually requires her to do and say things for a change, and she certainly does not squander the opportunity. 

• Starring: Bill Nighy, Olivia Cooke, Douglas Booth
• Director: Juan Carlos Medina
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: N/A
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

Often remembered as "that movie Christian Bale got insanely skinny for," there's much more going on with "The Machinist" than a dangerously underfed leading man. Factory worker Trevor Reznik (Bale) is going on a year without sleep, and his ability to distinguish between delusions and reality is growing increasingly slippery. This deeply unsettling film explores the subjective nature of perception, the trouble with imaginary friends during adulthood, and the ravages of guilt.   

• Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón
• Director: Brad Anderson
• Year: 2004
• Runtime: 101 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

Roughly 10 years before "Parasite" dominated the 2020 Oscars, director Bong Joon-ho was cranking out high-quality films that didn't necessary break any global records but are entirely worth watching nevertheless. For example, take "Mother."

In this incredible mystery flick, a working-class single mom fights to exonerate her mentally challenged son who's been accused of a murder. Perhaps its critique of capitalism is not as refined as "Parasite," but "Mother" shares that film's ability to pull visual and narrative potency out of seemingly mundane subject matter.      

• Starring: Kim Hye-ja, Won-bin, Jin Goo
• Director: Bong Joon-ho
• Year: 2009
• Runtime: 129 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Kristen Stewart is one of the best — and most underrated — actors of her generation. For years, people only associated her with the "Twilight" movies, but she would eventually wow critics with turns in highly acclaimed films like "Clouds of Sils Maria," "Camp X-Ray," and "Spencer." And one of her greatest performances comes from one of our favorite mystery films — the incredibly haunting "Personal Shopper." Here, Stewart plays Maureen Cartwright, a supermodel's assistant who attempts to communicate with the spirit of her recently deceased brother. Maureen's efforts to breach the Great Beyond pan out at even greater cost and with more complexity than you might expect.

• Starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz
• Director: Olivier Assayas
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 105 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Every now and again, folks find themselves in a state of mind to watch the most unforgiving, nihilistic piece of media possible. If such an occasion should arise, the South Korean-produced "Pieta" provides a perfectly effective abyss in which to stare. The plot follows a loan shark who, one day, meets a mysterious woman who claims to be his mom. Needless to say, this family reunion isn't exactly cheerful.

While noted for its ruthless violence and absolute lack of any hope for the redemption of humanity; "Pieta" was the darling of multiple 2012 film festivals, particularly the Venice International Film Festival. The film's undeniable creative integrity means we can't dismiss its depravity and misery as merely for shock value ... which makes the whole endeavor that much more disturbing, doesn't it?    

• Starring: Lee Jung-jin, Jo Min-soo, Woo Gi-hong
• Director: Kim Ki-duk
• Year: 2012
• Runtime: 104 minutes
• Rating: N/A
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

When judged according to Rotten Tomatoes score, "Pig" is the best live-action project in Nicolas Cage's entire career. If there's any recency bias influencing critics to nudge director Michael Sarnoski's feature-length debut over classics like "Adaptation" and "Raising Arizona," it's not a lot — "Pig" is just that good. Cage plays legendary chef Robin Feld, who emerges from a self-imposed spell of woodland isolation to rescue his kidnapped truffle pig. In the process, he inverts just about every payback movie trope.

• Starring: Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin
• Director: Michael Sarnoski
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

There's certainly no shortage of movies about main characters resorting to vigilante violence as a result of harm inflicted against loved ones. Here, we have a case of the right collection of talents coming together to turn a well-worn premise into a chilling examination of justice and morality. 

Hugh Jackman plays a righteously angry dad looking for answers and payback when his daughter disappears. But as it's directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by "Raised by Wolves" creator Aaron Guzikowski, "Prisoners" explores somewhat more cerebral terrains than your average revenge flick. Without giving too much away, it ain't exactly "Taken."     

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

While review aggregator sites tell us "The Social Network" is David Fincher's best film, many folks insist that title belongs to this rain-drenched thriller. Deeply cynical detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) reluctantly partners with novice detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) to capture a killer inspired by the seven deadly sins. The mysterious big bad commits some of the most deranged and graphic murders ever depicted in a mainstream movie, so if you've recently eaten a substantial meal, consider waiting an hour or two before jumping into "Se7en." Once you do, prepare for an unforgettable descent into darkness.

• Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow
• Director: David Fincher
• Year: 1995
• Runtime: 125 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Before Robert Redford made "All the President's Men," his literal Watergate movie, he starred in "Three Days of the Condor," a metaphorical take on the infamous scandal. This thrilling film sees Redford play a CIA researcher who is possibly being framed for massacring the rest of his covert team. What unfolds is a pulse-pounding espionage caper reminiscent of "The Prisoner." As it turns out, the 1970s was a much more intense and paranoid era than "The Brady Bunch" would have us believe — a fact "Three Days of the Condor" captures with aplomb.

• Starring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson
• Director: Sydney Pollack
• Year: 1975
• Runtime: 117 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%