Here’s a mystery that Netflix has yet to solve: Why aren’t there more mysteries on Netflix? There’s no shortage of thrillers on Netflix, but those are usually mystery-adjacent films as opposed to actual mysteries. A good old-fashioned mystery is hard to come by on Netflix, which may be why the classic flick, Sea of Love, and the 2009 film State of Play are partially filling the gap this month. Netflix’s most recent mystery film, Reptile, naturally has a place as well, in addition to a less recent movie, The Weekend Away. Still, mysteries is a category that is not being given its due by Netflix compared to the other popular genres.
How can we change that? By watching as many mysteries as possible. That’s the only way to convince Netflix to invest in making more mysteries available in the future. For the moment, these are our picks for the best mysteries on Netflix right now.
Need more Netflix in your life? Check out our roundups of the best movies on Netflix and the best shows on Netflix as well.
Reptile (2023) new
Like 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.
State of Play (2009) new
There’s something rotten in the District of Columbia… and we mean more than the usual corruption in Washington. State of Play features Russell Crowe as Cal McAffrey, a reporter who is looking into the apparent suicide of Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), an aide for Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), who was also Collins’ lover.
McAffrey’s colleague, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), is also looking into an unrelated murder and shooting that took place the day before. But as McAffrey and Frye peel back the layers of these mysteries, they learn that the two crimes have a common factor.
Sea of Love (1989) new
In Sea of Love, Detective Frank Keller (Al Pacino) has a new love connection with a woman named Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin). Under ordinary circumstances, this would be a cause for celebration, because Frank’s been a little lovelorn since his wife left him for another man. The problem is that Frank met Helen while hunting down a psycho serial killer who is targeting lonely men. As you may have guessed, Helen is a good candidate to be the prime suspect in Frank’s case.
Frank’s heart and his career are on the line as he attempts to definitively learn if his new girlfriend is a killer. And if Frank doesn’t watch his back, he may find himself as the killer’s next victim.
The Weekend Away (2022) new
The 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.
Wind River (2017)
It’s somewhat ironic that one of the best mysteries on Netflix was written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, the most prolific creator that Paramount+ has its arsenal after he created Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, and Special Ops: Lioness. While Wind River is technically Sheridan’s second film as a director, it’s his first major release and it’s extremely well-executed and filmed.
The story is set in and around Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) finds the body of a Native woman, Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Asbille), frozen with signs of foul play. FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) is brought in to help investigate, but the case becomes even more complex when Natalie’s boyfriend, Matt Rayburn (Jon Bernthal), is also found murdered.
Prisoners (2013)
Before Denis Villeneuve seemingly devoted his life to directing some of the best sci-fi films of this generation, he helmed Prisoners, a thriller in which a small town in Pennsylvania is rocked by the disappearance and possible abduction of two young girls: Anna Dover (Erin Gerasimovich) and Joy Birch (Kyla-Drew Simmons).
Alex Jones (Paul Dano) is the first suspect picked up by police, but his diminished mental capacity quickly gets him released. Anna’s father, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), isn’t willing to give up so easily, which is why he kidnaps Alex and tortures him in order to get him to confess. Meanwhile, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) follows his own leads to find the girls, and his investigation takes him to some very disturbing places.
Non-Stop (2014)
When it comes to action movies, Liam Neeson’s always gonna Liam Neeson. The refreshing thing about Non-Stop is that Neeson’s character, Bill Marks, often finds his hands tied by his predicament. And every time he tries to use force to get answers it backfires in his face.
Marks is an Air Marshal on a flight from New York to London when he gets a text message demanding $150 million or else a passenger will die every 20 minutes. Much to Marks’ alarm, he is used as the instrument of murder on the first victim, and he has been so expertly framed for the crime that even the people on the plane believe that he is the mastermind of this act of terror. Who’s pulling Marks’ strings? And can he find out before he pays the ultimate price?
Missing (2023)
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
Catherine “Kya” Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is drawn to two men in Where the Crawdads Sing. After being abandoned by her family to grow up alone in a swamp, Kya befriends a young man named Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith). And when Kya’s romance with Tate burns out, she soon finds love in the arms of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), a popular jock in town.
However, when one of Kya’s lovers ends up dead, she finds herself on trial for murder. And the townspeople and the local police already believe that Kya is guilty. But if Kya didn’t kill her lover, then who did?
In for a Murder (2021)
If 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)
No 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.
Inheritance (2020)
In the mystery-thriller Inheritance, Lauren Monroe (Lily Collins) learns a dark family secret about her late father, Archer Monroe (Patrick Warburton), that could bring down their entire family. And that secret is Archer’s former friend and business partner, Morgan Warner (Simon Pegg).
Morgan tells Lauren that Archer held him captive for 30 years to prevent him from exposing his role in the death of an innocent person. And Morgan seems to know where all of the bodies are buried, so to speak. This forces Lauren to contend with her father’s legacy, and what she should do with Morgan now that she knows the truth.
I See You (2019)
Police Detective Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) is coming apart at the seams in I See You. While investigating an abduction of a young boy that mirrors events from decades earlier, Greg is also dealing with his unfaithful wife, Jackie (Helen Hunt), and his increasingly resentful son, Connor (Judah Lewis). To top things off, Greg’s home is seemingly haunted, as unexplainable happenings occur.
But when Jackie’s former lover, Todd (Sam Trammell), ends up dead in the house, Greg and Jackie are forced to wonder if Connor killed him, or if something else did him in.
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)
The Nice Guys (2016)
Murder Mystery (2019)
Spenser Confidential (2020)
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
Forgotten (2017)
In 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)
Fractured (2019)
Shimmer Lake (2017)
The Legacy of the Bones (2019)
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
Enola Holmes (2020)
Earthquake Bird (2019)
Lost Girls (2020)
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