The best thrillers to watch on Netflix this July
Summer is finally here, and unfortunately, in most places that means it’s now too hot to do anything at all outside. Instead, why not settle into the AC and relax with a nice thriller or two?
Every month, we handpick a few thrillers on Netflix that fit the current season. Sometimes they pair well with an upcoming release. Other titles might be new additions to the platform.
But these are all just prime summer viewing — with a healthy dose of serial killing mixed in. This time around, we’ve got a modern South Korean classic about finding friends and the joy and tragedy of sunsets; Christian Bale’s most deranged performance; and a survival thriller that’s sure to keep you out of the woods this summer.
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo
Lee Chang-dong’s psychological thriller starts out simply enough: Lee Jong-su (Hellbound’s Yoo Ah-in), an aspiring novelist living in Seoul, runs into Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), an old classmate, while out delivering a package for his day job. Hae-mi is about to leave on a trip to Africa and asks Jong-su to look after her cat while she’s away. So far, so good. It’s when Hae-mi returns from Africa with Ben (Steven Yeun), a wealthy man she’s bonded with, that things begin to spiral into unsavory territory.
What is the true nature of Ben and Hae-mi’s relationship? Did she really take a trip to Africa, and if not, where did she really go? I can’t promise you’ll find definitive answers to those questions by watching Burning. What I can promise, however, is that you’ll be treated to one of the most viscerally unsettling, tragic, and unforgettable films of the 2010s. —Toussaint Egan
Director: Mary Harron
Cast: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto
In his 1986 sci-fi novel Count Zero, William Gibson wrote, “the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.” He could have easily been talking about the homicidal yuppie protagonist of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel American Psycho. Mary Harron’s
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