Mysteries are so rare on Netflix that you’d think they were a dying breed. In this case, a classic film genre is dramatically underserved, and if we had to guess why, it probably comes down to Netflix’s algorithm. The real enigma we want to be solved is why mystery movies aren’t more popular on Netflix.
With not many fresh options to choose from, we’re going to go with the classics. This month, we’re adding the South Korean thriller Oldboy, as well as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s all-time great films, Marnie. You can find those films and the rest of the best mysteries on Netflix below.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Oldboy (2003)
78%
8.3/10Some of the best mysteries are personal, and for Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), it doesn’t get more meaningful than losing 15 years of his life. Oldboy is a classic of South Korean cinema with a deceptively simple setup. Dae-su was just a businessman with a wife and child when someone kidnapped him and locked him away from his loved ones. Dae-su was even framed for his wife’s murder and seemingly left to rot away.
But that’s just the beginning of Dae-su’s story. Someone put him through this ordeal and then released him back on the streets. This leaves Dae-su consumed with thoughts of revenge on his captor as he strives to discover who put him through this ordeal. More importantly, why did they do it?
Marnie (1964)
73%
7.1/10Alfred Hitchcock was called “the Master of Suspense” during his era, and he earned that honor with films like Marnie. The title character is played by Tippi Hedren, but her real name is Margaret Edgar. She’s a very impressive con artist, so much so that her new boss, Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), hires her even though he fully expects her to steal from him.
When Marnie lives up to her reputation, Mark blackmails her into marriage. Mark may think he’s got the upper hand, but Marnie still has some closely guarded secrets. She’s also got an enemy in the form of Mark’s former sister-in-law, Lil Mainwaring (Diane Baker), a woman who would do almost anything to have Mark for herself.
Wicked Little Letters (2023)
58%
7.0/10The stakes of the mystery in Wicked Little Letters may be small, but the freedom of a single mother depends on the outcome. Set over a century ago during the women’s suffragette movement, an unmarried older woman, Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), has been the target of a series of hateful letters. Edith’s overbearing father, Edward Swan (Timothy Spall), accuses her former friend, Rose Gooding (Men’s Jessie Buckley), of orchestrating the campaign.
With Rose locked up and unable to post bail, PC Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) is the only one among the police who believes she may be innocent. But, proving innocence and exposing the real writer will take the help of Rose’s closest friends.
Vanished into the Night (2024)
5.2/10Vanished Into the Night is an Italian mystery thriller that features Riccardo Scamarcio as Pietro and Annabelle Wallis as Elena, a married couple who are working their way through a divorce. The only thing that unites them is the love they share for their children. When the kids are abducted from Pietro’s home, Elena pushes him to do anything to get them back.
When a ransom demand arrives, Pietro risks his life and his freedom by doing a job for a sketchy friend to raise the money. However, Pietro begins to suspect that the abduction was pulled off by someone he knows.
Colors of Evil: Red (2024)
6.3/10In the Polish thriller Colors of Evil: Red, a popular local bartender, Monika Bogucka (Zofia Jastrzebska), has been brutally murdered. And whoever the killer was couldn’t resist mutilating her as well. The news shatters Monika’s mother, Judge Helena Bogucka (Maja Ostaszewski), and she soon has reasons to suspect that the criminal connections of her husband, Roman (Andrzej Zieliński), may have links to their daughter’s murder.
Leopold Bilski (Jakub Gierszał) leads the investigation into Monkia’s death, and he makes the connection between this case and a murder from years earlier. As Leopold and Helena continue to search for answers, their own lives become endangered when they attract the wrong kind of attention from the criminal element.
A Simple Favor (2018)
67%
6.8/10What is the simple favor mentioned in this film’s title? Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) asks her new best friend, Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), to babysit her child while Emily’s husband, Sean Townsend (Henry Golding), is out of town. From there, A Simple Favor throws Stephanie into a world of intrigue when Emily doesn’t show up to collect her son, leaving the former with a lot of questions.
When Emily turns up dead, Stephanie and Sean become closer. But the more that Stephanie looks into Emily’s life, the less sense it makes. And Stephanie is forced to wonder if she even knew Emily at all, and if her death was more than just a tragic event.
All Good Things (2010)
57%
6.3/10The Fall Guy‘s Ryan Gosling may be the big attraction for All Good Things, but this film actually has a connection to the true life crime that inspired it. Following its release, director Andrew Jarecki was contacted by Robert Durst, the potential murderer loosely played by Gosling in the film, and agreed to make on-camera interviews for HBO’s The Jinx, which ultimately landed Durst behind bars.
The names have been changed for the film, so Gosling’s character is David Marks instead of Robert Durst. In the ‘70s, David marries Katie McCarthy (Kirsten Dunst), and they try to make a life together. When their relationship sours and Katie disappears, suspicion falls on David even though no charges are filed. Then, several years later, another woman close to David meets a similar fate.
The Postcard Killings (2020)
29%
5.8/10The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan headlines this adaptation of James Patterson and Liza Marklund’s The Postcard Killers, which was retitled The Postcard Killings for the big screen. Morgan plays Jacob Kanon, a New York City police detective who is devastated when his adult daughter and her fiancé are murdered in Europe in an elaborate and deliberate fashion.
While struggling to contain his grief, Jacob learns that the killer or killers have been striking all over Europe. Despite lacking jurisdiction, Jacob takes it upon himself to find his daughter’s murderers, with the help of crime reporter Désirée “Dessie” Lombard (Désirée “Dessie” Lombard) and even some remote assistance from his wife, Valerie Kanon (Famke Janssen).
Reptile (2023)
52%
6.8/10Like many mysteries, Reptile opens with the discovery of a dead body. In this film, the victim is Summer Elswick (Matilda Lutz). And between Summer’s boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), her estranged husband, Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman), and Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt), there’s no shortage of suspects.
Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio del Toro) has had to solve plenty of murders before. But Tom finds this case particularly challenging because the clues lead him to people he knows and works with. The rot goes deep in this police department, and Tom’s life is about to be turned upside down.
The Weekend Away (2022)
51%
5.7/10The Weekend Away starts with a girls weekend gone wrong, as Beth (Leighton Meester) awakens without clear memories of what happened to her the night before. More alarmingly, Beth’s friend, Kate (Christina Wolfe), is missing without a trace. Beth’s husband, Rob (Luke Norris), is surprisingly unmoved by her panic. So Beth turns to a local cab driver, Zain (Ziad Bakri), to help her piece together the previous night’s events.
But when Kate’s body finally turns up, Beth and Zain are both considered suspects by the police. And that’s not the only unpleasant surprise waiting for Beth as she attempts to discover who killed her friend.
In for a Murder (2021)
5.4/10If you don’t speak Polish, then you should be glad to hear that In For a Murder has an English dub. Anna Smolowik headlines the film as Magda Borowska, a mother and a true crime fan who gave up on her dreams a long time ago. But when a dead young woman is found in town, Magda is taken aback when she realizes that the girl was wearing the same necklace that her friend, Weronika Bielecka (Emma Giegzno), wore before she disappeared years ago.
Determined to know if the girl is somehow linked to Weronika, Magda embarks on her own investigation, much to the annoyance of her ex, Commissioner Jacek Sikora (Pawel Domagala). And while Magda’s family mocks her amateur detective routine, the danger she uncovers is all too real.
No One Gets Out Alive (2021)
43%
5.3/10No One Gets Out Alive blends mystery and horror as it puts the audience in the shoes of Ambar (Cristina Rodlo), an undocumented Mexican immigrant who has few options in the U.S.
After finding a place to stay courtesy of her landlord, Red (Marc Menchaca), Ambar is unnerved by Red’s unhinged brother, Becker (David Figlioli). More alarmingly, Ambar witnesses several ghostly women in the house and becomes convinced that it is haunted. But given her situation, Ambar has no choice but to stay until it becomes too late to run.
Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023)
Serving as a cinematic follow-up to the Luther series, Luther: The Fallen Sun follows the titular detective on an all-new adventure. After a stint behind bars, Luther is forced to plan a prison break when elusive serial killer David Robey (Andy Serkis) starts hunting people down. As the clock starts ticking and the bodies start piling up, Luther must make a series of harrowing decisions to track down and eliminate his foe before his evildoing becomes totally unstoppable.
For those dedicated viewers of the episodic run, The Fallen Sun plays like a silver screen extension of the series which precedes it. Gripping from start to finish, it’s not exactly changing the genre in any way, but The Fallen Sun certainly delivers an exceptional story with great characters.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Christian Bale and writer-director Scott Cooper unite once again for the latter’s latest feature, The Pale Blue Eye. Bale stars as Augustus Landor, an 1830s New York detective who is tasked with investigating a horrific murder at the United States Military Academy. Hoping to gain intel from a devoutly silent bunch of cadets, Landor takes on an assistant for the homicide case — a disillusioned recruit named Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).
Together, the hardened vet and aspiring poet follow a series of leads that seem to point toward an especially sinister kind of black magic as the culprit. While Bale may be the reason we arrive to the film, the performance that will bewilder most viewers is that of Harry Melling, who delivers a defiant take on the classic American writer.
Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
58%
7.8/10Murder Mystery (2019)
38%
6/10Spenser Confidential (2020)
49%
6.2/10A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
57%
6.5/10In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
48%
6.2/10Forgotten (2017)
7.5/10In the Korean thriller, Forgotten, Kang Ha-neul stars as Jin-seok, a young man living with his family in 1997. After moving into a new home, Jin witnesses the abduction of his brother, Yoo-seok (Kim Mu-yeol). Nineteen days later, Yoo is seemingly returned unharmed. And yet Jin becomes convinced that not only is his brother an impersonator, but so are their parents. Jin’s attempt to go for help leads to another shocking twist that completely destroys his world. There’s been a crime committed, but who is responsible and how is Jin connected to it?
Your Son (2018)
6.1/10Fractured (2019)
36%
6.4/10Shimmer Lake (2017)
6%
6.3/10The Legacy of the Bones (2019)
6.3/10I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
68%
4.6/10Enola Holmes (2020)
68%
6.6/10Earthquake Bird (2019)
51%
5.9/10Lost Girls (2020)
67%
6.1/10
