5 Best Thrillers to Watch Now, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes Score (October 2025)

Rotten Tomatoes can be a great place to get an idea of whether or not a movie is worth watching, based on both the critical and audience score.

Of course, sometimes critics and audiences can get it wrong — that’s why it’s important to form opinions for yourself.

So, Watch With Us pooled a list of recommendations for what to watch right now on streaming, ranked by their scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

But don’t let these ratings put you off. Check out all five films and see where they fall on your personal Tomatometer.

‘Old’ (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 50%

M. Night Shyamalan has his share of detractors as well as his die-hard shooters, but Old is easily up there as one of the director’s best. The cast includes Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie, in this absurd mystery-thriller film with body horror elements. The film was praised by critics for taking a simple premise with a universal message and turning it into something unique and haunting, in addition to its exceptional camerawork and cinematography. Old ultimately plays out like a really good episode of The Twilight Zone, in all the best ways.

The film follows a family who takes a vacation to a tropical locale, spending their first day lounging at a nearby beach along with a group of other tourists. But their tranquil holiday goes horribly wrong when they realize that they are all beginning to age rapidly. With time literally running out before their very eyes, the vacationers must figure out how to escape from The Beach That Makes Them Old before it’s too late.

Watch Old on Amazon Prime Video.

‘Leave the World Behind’ (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 73%

While on a weekend getaway to an Airbnb in Long Island, an idyllic family vacation is interrupted by a blackout. Shortly after their power and internet disappear, they are greeted by the unwelcome arrival of two strangers, a man and his daughter, who claim to be the owners of the Airbnb and need shelter in the wake of the blackout. Reluctantly confined together in the home with the two families, both suspicious of the other’s motives, a greater threat grows from beyond Long Island that threatens both families’ lives.

Starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali and Mhya’la, Leave the World Behind is directed and written by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, adapted from a novel by Rumaan Alam. The intense film excels at creating an atmosphere of fear, distrust and anxiety to match that of its characters. While the social commentary may be a little simplistic for some viewers, the form and technical prowess of the film will keep you hooked. All in all, Leave the World Behind is a dynamite little thrill ride of a film, stylish, surprising and breathless in execution.

Watch Leave the World Behind on Netflix.

‘The Hateful Eight’ (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 74%

Quentin Tarantino’s claustrophobic neo-western thriller is a deluge of mystery and suspense, as eight mysterious strangers find themselves holed up in an abandoned stagecoach stopover during a snowstorm. While cooped up together, the ragtag group of miscreants — including a bounty hunter and his captive, a second bounty hunter, a sheriff, a hangman, and a cowboy — realizes some of them are lying about who they are and why they’re there. It soon becomes clear that not all of the refugees will survive the snowstorm in the quest to figure out who’s lying and who’s telling the truth.

The Hateful Eight features an ensemble cast led by Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Walton Goggins. Tarantino’s ninth film (if you count the Kill Bills as two separate films, that is) is a pulsing, powder keg of building tension until it all inevitably explodes in a bloody mess. While slower and more patient than Tarantino’s past work, The Hateful Eight is no less gratifying. With exceptional performances from an A-list cast and a sharp, nail-biting script, you wouldn’t believe how fast the near-three-hour runtime flies by.

Watch The Hateful Eight on Netflix.

‘The Gift’ (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%

The Gift stars and is directed by actor Joel Edgerton in his feature directorial debut, about a mysterious man who emerges from another man’s past bearing an ominous secret. Co-starring Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, The Gift was a low-budget film (made for only $5 million) that performed well at the box office, with critics praising it for its smart script and command of tone and narrative, proving that Edgerton knows his way around being behind the camera as well as in front of it.

The Gift follows married couple Simon (Bateman) and Robyn (Hall), who run into an old acquaintance of Simon’s named Gordo (Edgerton). While Simon doesn’t seem to recognize Gordo at first, Gordo’s continued, uninvited presence in their lives that cascades into more troubling encounters and a series a mysterious gifts, it becomes clear that there lies a dark secret between Simon and Gordo. When Robyn discovers what that secret is, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her husband.

Watch The Gift on Hulu.

‘Kimi’ (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%

In this brisk thriller from Steven Soderbergh, an agoraphobic woman named Angela (Zoë Kravitz) works remotely for a major tech company, monitoring recordings made by a new smart speaker device called “Kimi” in order to improve the system algorithm. One day, while working, Angela receives a recording that sounds like a woman being assaulted — then, she discovers another recording that sounds like that same woman’s murder.

When Angela’s attempts to report the crime are met with opposition, she realizes she must do the one thing she fears the most in the world to bring the killer down: leaving the sanctity of her apartment. A fast-paced crowd-pleaser that’s in no way short on thrills, Kimi bears clear influence from Alfred Hitchcock‘s Rear Window in its premise. Kimi is an engrossing genre flick by a craftsman at the top of his game.

Watch Kimi on HBO Max.