"Thriller" is the most overworked word in the movie business.It gets slapped on everything from courtroom dramas and shark movies to high-octane spy pictures to shark movies .All these thrills make it tricky when browsing streaming services, and Paramount+, with its cavernous pit of thrillers, is definitely not immune ...
which I guess isn't a bad thing? This weekend I managed to rustle up four of the creepy little buggers—from a Vietnam nightmare that gave a very famous game franchise its creepy look, and a claustrophobic assassination plot on a plane, to a Paris ghost story and a new addition that takes obsession to a new level (my top pick).4 Jacob's Ladder The Vietnam nightmare that built Silent Hill While I have seen writer Bruce Joel Rubin's fever dream of a thriller, , a few times since its 1990 theatrical release, it was the late-great film critic Roger Ebert who nailed it first in his original review from back then, opining that it "enters into the hallucinations of a desperate mind, and lives there.It evokes a paranoid-schizophrenic state as effectively as any film I have ever seen." That desperate mind is Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), a Vietnam vet haunted by the death of his young son, Gabe (Macaulay Culkin), a failed marriage, and struggling to live life as a New York postal worker.
But when Jacob starts seeing faceless demons on the subway and in passing cars, and other terrible things start happening to him, he and the surviving members of his Vietnam unit (also seeing the same strange things) start to suspect they may have been subject to a nefarious military experiment.But is any of it real? Its surreal creatures became the visual blueprint for the entire game series.Jacob's Ladder R Drama Mystery Horror Release Date November 2, 1990 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Cast Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jason Alexander, Patricia Kalember, Eriq La Salle, Ving Rhames, Brian Tarantina, Anthony Alessandro, Brent Hinkley, S.
Epatha Merkerson, Suzanne Shepherd, Doug Barron, Jan Saint, Sam Coppola, Evan O'Meara, Kyle Gass, Gloria Irizarry, Lewis Black, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Christopher John Fields, Jaime Perry, Michael Tomlinson Runtime 113 minutes Director Adrian Lyne Writers Bruce Joel Rubin Producers Alan Marshall Main Genre Horror Budget $25 million Executive Producer(s) Andrew G.Vajna, Mario Kassar Powered by Expand Collapse 3 Red Eye Eighty-five minutes, one flight, and cunning Cillian Murphy Scream king Wes Craven was responsible for most of my nightmares growing up, with his iconic films like and the original But in 2005, the director proved that he could shoot heart rates up with just two people stuck on an airplane together for 85 minutes.In , sweet and unsuspecting hotel manager Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) boards an overnight flight from Dallas to Miami, and ends up being seated next to the cute and charming Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy).
Jackson builds trust and rapport with Lisa, but then drops a bomb on her that rocks her world—he's part of an assassination plot to kill a Homeland Security official who's staying at the hotel where she works.If Lisa doesn't call ahead to have him moved to a specified room, one of Jackson's henchmen will kill Lisa's dad (Brian Cox).It's no (Canadian Paramount+ subscribers can see that), but you'd be amazed at the action and intensity that can happen in a plane's cabin.
Red Eye PG-13 Thriller Mystery Release Date August 19, 2005 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Cast Cillian Murphy, Rachel McAdams, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, Jack Scalia, Robert Pine, Terry Press, Brittany Oaks, Laura Johnson, Max Kasch, Kyle Gallner, Angela Paton, Loren Lester, Suzie Plakson, Monica McSwain, Dane Farwell, Beth Toussaint, Adam Gobble, Megan Crawford, Carl Gilliard, Mary Kathleen Gordon, Philip Pavel, Amber Mead, Dey Young, Jeanine Jackson Runtime 85 minutes Director Wes Craven Writers Carl Ellsworth Producers Chris Bender, Marianne Maddalena Main Genre Thriller Executive Producer(s) Bonnie Curtis, J.C.Spink, Jim Lemley, Mason Novick Powered by Expand Collapse 2 Personal Shopper Kristen Stewart gets texts from dead people actually got booed at its press screening at the Cannes Film Festival, but the fest then shockingly awarded Olivier Assayas its Best Director prize.And it deserved it.
Another film on this list that teeters on the line between what's real and not, this ghost-story thriller stars Kristen Stewart as Maureen Cartwright, an American in Paris who works as a personal shopper for a celebrity, Kyra (Nora von Waldstätten).Oh, did I mention that Maureen also has a side hustle as a medium and has been getting mysterious text messages, presumably from beyond the grave? It turns out that Maureen is in Paris for another reason—her brother Lewis died there (from the same congenital heart defect that she has), and they had a pact that whoever died first would send a sign.As Maureen waits in his empty house, the text messages keep coming, taunting her to do things she wouldn't normally do.
Are they from Lewis? Then, something horrific happens, and Maureen struggles to figure it all out.Stewart is excellently broody as Maureen, and the movie has a solid 81% on Rotten Tomatoes.Personal Shopper R Thriller Mystery Release Date March 10, 2017 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Cast Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Anders Danielsen Lie, Ty Olwin, Hammou Graïa, Nora Waldstätten, Benjamin Biolay Runtime 105 minutes Director Olivier Assayas Writers Olivier Assayas Main Genre Thriller Powered by Expand Collapse 1 Sweetness It's Misery for a new generation The newest pick on this list is also my top pick, and not just because it's got the highest Rotten Tomatoes rating here at 88%, but because it's surprisingly dark, it was shot in the Canadian town of North Bay, and reminds me of Stephen King's shiver-inducing classic, .
In her feature debut, Vancouver writer-director Emma Higgins' R-rated thriller stars up-and-coming actress Kate Hallett as Rylee Hill, a lonely, bullied teen who uses music as an escape.The focus of her music obsession is a band (tragically) called Floorplan, whose troubled, drug-addicted frontman, Payton Adler (Herman Tømmeraas), accidentally hits Rylee with his car after a show.To make it up to her, the wasted Payton offers Rylee a ride home.
But when he wakes up the next morning handcuffed to Rylee's bed, she goes full groupie Annie Wilkes on him, convincing herself that she's helping him kick his addiction.Hallett is terrifyingly unhinged as Rylee, as is her bestie and accomplice, Sidney (Aya Furukawa).It's fun, bloody, and not at all sweet.
Sweetness R Music Thriller Release Date February 13, 2026 Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming RENT BUY Cast Justin Chatwin, Kate Hallett, Amanda Brugel, Steven Ogg, Erika Swayze, Herman Tømmeraas, Aya Furukawa, Kelsey Ruhl, Julius Cho, Kelly Reich, Andrea Senior Runtime 93 minutes Director Emma Higgins Writers Emma Higgins Producers Daniel Quinn, Taj Critchlow Main Genre Thriller Executive Producer(s) Amos Adetuyi, Will Clarke, Karena Evans, Ben Farella, Hazem Imam, Justin Kelly, Andy Mayson, Michael O'Leary, Fuliane Petikyan, Dean Rosen, Mike Runagall, Jeremy Smith Powered by Expand Collapse No sharknadoes, just bloody-good thrillers Any one of these Paramount+ thrillers will add some creep to your weekend (OK, that was bad), but in the best way.If not, then check out last week's selection for inspiration before they leave.And if you're not a one-service kind of streamer, head to our streaming section for coverage of Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV, HBO Max, and more.
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