Thrillers come in all shapes and sizes, from ones that are filled with horror to those that tell psychological, mind-bending stories. There are plenty of all kinds on Hulu. But the best movies on Hulu are always coming and going. Currently, there’s a diverse selection that makes up the best thrillers on Hulu right now.
From a classic movie starring Bruce Willis that people still quote today and exciting new movies that will traumatize to thrillers that fall into the action and dramatic camps, there’s a wide breadth from which to choose. Hulu has something that fits the bill if you’re in the mood for a creepy or action-packed thriller.
Hulu isn’t the only streaming platform around. We’ve also put together guides to the best new movies to stream, the best thrillers on Netflix, the best thrillers on Amazon Prime Video, and the best horror movies on Netflix if you want to crank up the terror!
Also, be sure to give the Disney Bundle a look — it’ll get you Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ for one price. That way, you’ll get thrillers and more from Hulu, plus tons of other great content.
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The Sixth Sense1999 -
Mr. Crocket2024
The Sixth Sense (1999)
At this point, anyone who doesn’t know about the big twist at the end of The Sixth Sense has been living under a rock for the last quarter of a century. That, however, doesn’t make the psychological thriller any less watchable. The M. Night Shyamalan film has his signature directorial style all over it. Bruce Willis stars as child psychologist Malcolm Crowe, who is working with a young boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment).
As Malcolm tries to work with the boy and understand his odd behaviors, he learns a troubling truth: Cole reveals in the famous line that he “sees dead people.” Without ruining the plot for those who happen to have never seen this movie, The Sixth Sense is arguably one of the best psychological thrillers ever made, with stellar performances all around from Willis, Osment, and Toni Collette.
Mr. Crocket (2024)
It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. Desperate to find a way to calm her child, a single mom in the 1990s resorts to a VHS copy of an old children’s show called Mr. Crocket’s World. But dark secrets reside in this tape, and the mysterious host has now been unleashed. Like an even creepier version of Pennywise the Clown, the colorfully dressed man comes through the screen to kidnap children and murder their parents.
This mother, however, isn’t going to let Mr. Crocket take her boy, and she begins a journey to rescue him and slay the terrifying children’s entertainer. Set in the ’90s, Mr. Crocket is the kind of thriller that will terrify and traumatize, so don’t watch this one in front of the kids.
Sanctuary (2023)
If you’re looking for something psychological with dark comedic undertones, Sanctuary will satiate your appetite for a thriller that touches on these themes. Margaret Qualley is Rebecca, a dominatrix, and Christopher Abbott is Hal, her client. It’s their final session of welcome degradation and humiliation before Hal reveals that he can no longer see Rebecca. He’s about to take on the demanding role of CEO for his company, and their relationship just isn’t a fit for his new life. Angered by being tossed aside, Rebecca decides to put her own business learnings to use and demands that Hal pay her half his salary. It’s her actions, after all, that turned him from weak man to leader. It’s easy to guess what she threatens him with should he not comply. Now, Hal is being humiliated and shamed for real, without deriving any sexual pleasure from it.
A terrifying tale of a man being challenged by a woman who maintains her power dynamic in a scenario he doesn’t want, Sanctuary follows Hal’s descent as he desperately tries to save his career and reputation. Receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews, Rotten Tomatoes-accredited reviewer Matt Pais of MattPais.com describes Sanctuary as playing “mental pinball and sexual chess and psychological sudoku set to expert.”
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023)
Praised for its focus on timely eco-related topics, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is set in West Texas. A group of young residents decide bold steps are needed to get their point across. So, they devise a plan to blow up an oil pipeline, their radical response to the climate crisis. The film examines their actions and the morality of them: Are these young individuals activists or terrorists?
Featuring an ensemble cast that includes Lukas Gage (The White Lotus, Euphoria), Marcus Scribner (Black-ish), Ariela Barer (Runaways), and Kristine Froseth (The Buccaneers), Forbes’ Scott Phillips classifies How to Blow Up a Pipeline both as a “top-notch thriller” and an “examination of our modern political system where the voices of individual citizens seem to carry no weight.”
The Negotiator (1998)
Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey shine in this action thriller about two Chicago police lieutenants who have a special expertise in hostage negotiations. Lieutenant Danny Roman (Jackson) is wrongly accused of murder and gets caught up in embezzlement accusations involving the department for which he serves as a board member. Desperate to prove his innocence, he does the unthinkable and takes hostages. Among his list of demands is that Lieutenant Chris Sabian (Spacey), another top negotiator, is present to help diffuse the situation, believing Sabian might be the only person he can trust to help him uncover the truth, and get out alive.
An intense ride the entire way through, The Negotiator is a cunning battle of wits as much as it is a movie filled with action. Jackson and Spacey lead the film with gripping, believable performances, while the supporting cast including Paul Giamatti, Michael Cudlitz, and David Morse help keep you on your toes through every scene.
Die Hard (1988)
Whether you call it a Christmas movie or not, there’s no denying that Die Hard is one of the best action thrillers around, and arguably one of Bruce Willis’ best movies. Spawning several sequels, Die Hard centers around John McClane (Willis), a New York City police detective who spends Christmas trying to stop a terrorist plot in a Los Angeles skyscraper.
Filled with fabulous fight scenes, heroic moments, and humor, too, Die Hard is considered to be one of the greatest action movies of all time. Don’t wait until the holiday season to watch this movie. Die Hard is the kind of movie you’ll want to watch again and again anyway, so enjoy its gripping plot and Willis at his best any time of year.
A Haunting in Venice (2023)
Kenneth Branagh (Oppenheimer) is behind this mystery film that serves as a sequel to Death on the Nile. In the same vein as movies like Knives Out and inspired by Agatha Christie’s novel Hallowe’en Party, there’s an ensemble cast of characters all caught up in a mysterious death. Branagh himself stars as detective Hercule Poirot, who has decided to retire just as he attends a Halloween party where someone is murdered.
Poirot uses his incredible perceptive abilities, interview techniques, and strategy of deduction to figure out what happened to the brutally departed. A Haunting in Venice is spookier and darker than other films that feature the same central character, but it has the same whodunit flavor you’ve come to expect and love from these types of movies.
No One Will Save You (2023)
If you’re looking for a thriller that skews more toward horror, No One Will Save You fits the bill. The movie centers around Brynn (Dopesick’s Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman living as a recluse. She has been shunned by her neighbors, so she spends her days and nights making a model town in her living room and mourning the loss of her best friend and mother. But when there’s a home invasion and Brynn discovers aliens have taken over, her life is turned upside down.
An interestingly quiet movie (there are only five words of dialogue through the entire thing), No One Will Save You is like nothing else you’ve ever seen. It has elements of horror and sci-fi smashed into one, with a commanding performance from Dever that will have you convinced she’s a widely underrated breakout star.
Prey (2022)
If you love Predator, you’ll want to check out Prey. The sci-fi action thriller serves as a prequel to the first four movies. Set in 1719 in the Great Plains, it follows Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman who wants to prove that she’s a good hunter. To do so, she does whatever is necessary to protect her people from a humanoid alien that is attacking them. She also has to fight off French fur traders who are after the buffalo she and her people need to survive.
Nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards, Prey was also the first in the franchise to win one, for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special. Critics say Prey stands on its own, so it’s worth watching even for those who have never watched other films in the franchise.
Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story (2019)
A hidden gem of a thriller, Escaping the Mad House: The Nellie Bly Story stars Christina Ricci and Judith Light. A young journalist decides to look into the goings-on at a local mental hospital. But what she discovers shocks her to her very core. Desperate to expose the asylum for what it does to its female patients, Nellie (Ricci) decides to fake having a mental illness so she can go deep undercover.
What’s most fascinating about this movie is that while a fictional account, it’s based on a real story and real person. Bly went undercover for the New York World and her book about the brutality and neglect helped spark real change in the handling of the care of the mentally ill.
Rogue Agent (2022)
The story in Rogue Agent is based on the real-life one of Robert Hendy-Freegard, who pretended to be an MI5 agent, successfully fooling many people. He went so far into the con, in fact, that he convinced several people to fear a fake assassination by the IRA. James Norton stars as the titular character in this British mystery drama thriller, while Gemma Arterton is Alice Archer, the woman who finally uncovered and revealed the truth.
Rogue Agent is so filled with plenty of twists, turns, and suspense that you’ll have a hard time believing something like it really happened.
The Hummingbird Project (2019)
Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård (Infinity Pool), Michael Mando, and Salma Hayek star in this thriller-drama about the inside lives of stockbrokers and the ever-moving stock exchange. When stockbroker Vincent (Eisenberg) convinces Bryan (Frank Schorpion) to order a new high-frequency trading (HFT) operation to invest in fiberoptic cable, the situation gets hairy at his company, particularly when he decides to leave.
The Hummingbird Project follows Vincent’s attempt to build a cable tunnel with his cousin, Anton (Skarsgård), so they can program trading software that will be faster than any other. The pair compete with their former employer, Eva (Hayek), in a high-stakes fight for market domination.
Girl in the Basement (2021)
This Lifetime movie is terrifyingly inspired by the real-life case of Josef Fritzl from Austria and his teenage daughter Elisabeth. In Girl in the Basement, the young girl is Sara (Stefanie Scott) a teen with so much potential who is excited for the arrival of her 18th birthday. She’s anxious for the day to come because finally, as a legal adult, she can escape the clutches of her controlling father Don (Judd Nelson).
However, before Sara can leave, her father does the unthinkable: he kidnaps her, keeping her imprisoned in the basement over what would eventually become a period of 24 harrowing years. Through that time, he rapes and assaults her, resulting in the birth of seven children. While Girl in the Basement is a dramatization of this disturbing true story, knowing the real story behind it makes the movie even more haunting.
Clock (2023)
Dianna Agron (Glee) stars as Ella in this sci-fi horror thriller with a premise that’s all-too-familiar for Millennial women nowadays. Ella is a 37-year-old woman who, despite being constantly pressured by friends and family members to start a family, has no interest in having children. But her journey to living life how she wants eventually takes a twisted, horrifying turn.
When Ella secretly undergoes an experimental treatment to help speed up her biological clock, she starts seeing and doing things she can’t quite control and doesn’t quite understand.
Fresh (2022)
After repeated frustration with dating apps, Noa (Where the Crawdads Sing‘s Daisy Edgar-Jones) decides to pursue things the old-fashioned way when she has a chance meeting with a striking man at the grocery store. Steve (Sebastian Stan) at first appears to be the perfect gentleman, sweeping Noa off her feet. So, she’s not hesitant at all to jump right into his invitation to spend a romantic weekend away.
But upon arrival, Noa discovers that Steve is hiding a dark, ominous secret. Her life is in serious danger and she’s in for a sick and twisted ride. Fresh is described as both upsetting and provocative but also widely praised for putting a modern spin on the traditional horror genre.
Down (2019)
Pig (2021)
82%
6.9/10The Secrets We Keep (2020)
48%
5.8/10Run (2020)
67%
6.7/10
