June is here to make us sweat. But if you need more sweat, good news: We’ve got a whole new list of the best thrillers to watch on Netflix this month. Between the psychological and action thrillers, there’s something on Netflix that will crank up the heat in the room for everyone.
From the screenlife mystery thriller Missing with Storm Reid and Nia Long and the Korean dystopian thriller Time to hunt with Park Hae-soo van Squid game fame to the shocking sadomasochistic psychological horror drama Piercing with Christopher Abbott (Possessor) and more, this month is packed with movies to shock and excite you. Let’s round up the best of the best thrillers on Netflix this month.
Missing
Image: Sony Pictures
Year: 2023
Duration: 1h 51m
Drivers: Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick
Form: Storm Reid, Joaquim de Almeida, Ken Leung
Missingone of the best movies of 2023 so far, starring Storm Reid (A wrinkle in time) as June Allen, a teenage girl who suspects something terrible has happened to her mother, Grace (Nia Long), after she doesn’t come home from a trip to Colombia with her beau Kevin (Ken Leung). Desperate to find her, June resorts to her skills as an amateur online sleuth to get to the bottom of her mother’s disappearance. The events of the film are conveyed entirely through the framing device of online screens, capturing the drama as it unfolds through a cascade of webcam footage, email inboxes, FaceTime video calls, and home security footage. Will Merrick and Nicholas Johnson’s directorial debut is a masterful mystery thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you glued to the screen as June’s investigation yields increasingly gruesome and personal revelations all the way to the heartbreaking climax.
Time to hunt
Image: Netflix
Year: 2020
Duration: 2h 14m
Director: Yoon Sung-hyun
Form: Lee Je-hoon, Ahn Jae-hong, Choi Woo-sik
If you count yourself a fan of movies like Andrew Dominik’s Kill them gently or the Coen brothers No country for old menyou owe it to yourself to watch this Korean dystopian action thriller. Time to hunt follows a group of four friends who, in their desperation to escape the desperation and poverty of a near-future Korea, plan to rob an underground casino. The group succeeds, but not without incurring the wrath of the powerful crime syndicate that runs the group, who then hire a sadistic hitman (played by Park Hae-soo from Squid game fame) to track them down and reclaim their stolen property. With the killer closing in and their options dwindling by the minute, the four friends must band together and fight to survive.
Time to hunt is a beautiful cat-and-mouse thriller with beautiful lighting, impressive gunfights and a very convincing portrayal of a society teetering on the edge of unlivability.
And tomorrow the whole world
Image: Netflix
Year: 2020
Duration: 1h 51m
Director: Juliet von Heinz
Form: Mala Emde, Noah Saavedra, Tonio Schneider
If you’re hungry for yet another timely, politically charged thriller along the lines of this year’s How to blow up a pipeline, this taut thriller about the breakup of an Antifa commune in Mannheim, Germany, is for you. The film follows the story of Luisa (Mala Emde), a law student from an upper-class family who joins an anti-fascist activist group to fight the rise of neo-Nazism in Germany. After recovering a burner phone at a protest with details of a secret far-right demonstration, Luisa plots with a faction of the commune to use a more proactive tactic in their fight against tyranny. As the nonviolent and violent members of the commune begin to drift apart, Luisa finds herself caught in the middle, becoming increasingly radical in her ideology and actions. As an examination of growing up along the fault lines of political unrest and rising fascism, and the challenge of choosing not only who you want to become, but how far you are willing to go to fight for your beliefs, And tomorrow the whole world is current and sober.
Of Good Report
Image: Netflix
Year: 2013
Duration: 1h 49m
Director: Jahmil XT Qubeka
Form: Mothusi Magano, Petronella Tshuma, Tshamano Sebe
This gritty noir thriller is best known for being initially banned in South Africa before premiering on the last day of the 2013 Durban International Film Festival. Of Good Report follows the story of Parker Sithole, a shy and soft-spoken high school English teacher with a secretive past and latently violent nature, who embarks on a clandestine affair with Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma), a seductive young woman who becomes one of his students. As their relationship unfolds, the contours of the world, as seen through Parker’s eyes, twist and morph into a macabre tableau of scenes that confuse past with present, dark fantasy with an even darker reality. Jahmil XT Qubeka’s film is disturbing, disturbing and subtly terrifying before finally revealing its more maniacally absurd side. It’s also undoubtedly one of the best thrillers available to stream on Netflix and unlike anything you’ll see anywhere else.
Piercing
Image: Universal Pictures
Year: 2018
Duration: 1h 22m
Director: Nicholas Pesce
Form: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa
sanctuarythe new psychological thriller starring Margaret Qualley (Once upon a time in Hollywood) and Christopher Abbott (Possessor) about a dominatrix who takes one of her clients hostage after he tries to leave her is in theaters now and will be released on VOD later this month. If that premise sounds intriguing to you, bide your time by looking at Christopher Abbott’s other sadomasochistic horror thriller about a John who gets more than he bargained for during a terrifying night. Abbott plays Reed, a new father and doting husband who harbors otherwise secret violent fantasies. Reed leaves on a business trip and calls in a prostitute (Mia Wasikowska) to indulge his dark impulses, only to be caught off guard by her own disturbing and self-destructive tendencies.
Warning: this movie sucks. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a trigger warning for the 25 minutes of Piercing, with an invigorating scene of simulated self-harm worthy of the film’s name. If you’re in the mood to watch something conceptually weirder, more obtuse and violent than typical Netflix fare, this movie is perfect – it’s for anyone who considers themselves a living embodiment of the “Sickos Haha Yeahreverie.