Hulu is a great destination to watch almost every type of movie imaginable.
In the mood for a comedy? Monster-in-Law with Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda is just a click away. Or if you prefer an action flick, take a ride on Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train and watch him punch, kick and kill all kinds of assassins.
Hulu even has a decent selection of thrillers, and Watch With Us has curated a list of the best of them to watch in June.
From Americana with Sydney Sweeney to In Cold Light with Oscar winners Troy Kotsur and Helen Hunt, these suspense stories are guaranteed to get your heart racing this summer.
‘Americana’ (2023)
Americana opens with a young boy killing a grown man with a bow and arrow, and it doesn’t let up from there. The film largely takes place in a small South Dakota town, where several of its citizens try desperately to leave in any way they can. That involves the theft of a million-dollar ghost shirt, which could finance struggling waitress Penny Jo’s (Sydney Sweeney) country music dreams or Mandy’s (Halsey) desire to leave her no-good husband. But stealing only leads to bigger and bloodier acts, until most people are leaving town in caskets rather than cars.
Americana harkens back to the ‘90s, when Tarantino-esque crime dramas had non-linear narratives and an eclectic cast of down-on-their-luck characters using violence as a way to advance in life. Americana isn’t nearly as good as Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown, of course, but it’s a decent thriller that weaves a compelling story. Sweeney stands out as a wannabe LeAnn Rimes with a stutter, while her Euphoria costar Eric Dane is chilling as a man who doesn’t think twice about killing others to get what he wants.
Americana starts streaming on June 26.
Ava (Maika Monroe) has a hard life. Busted for dealing drugs, she spent two years in prison before being released for good behavior. She vows never to go back, and she takes any job she can get to restart her life. She winds up cleaning rodeo stalls for her father, Will (Troy Kotsur), who hasn’t quite forgiven her for becoming a criminal. What he doesn’t know, and what Ava quickly finds out, is that her brother, Tom (Jesse Irving), has picked up where she left off and is knee-deep in the local drug trade. When tragedy strikes, Ava is forced to return to the criminal underworld she promised she had left behind for good.
In Cold Light is a gritty crime thriller that doesn’t exploit characters or all the awful things that happen to them. Ava is a mess, but she’s not a bad person. She genuinely wants to leave her criminal past behind her, but the same circumstances that forced her into a life of crime in the first place keep pulling her back. Monroe is mostly known as a “Scream Queen,” but she shows some seriously impressive dramatic chops in this movie. Her Ava isn’t all that likeable, but it’s to Monroe’s credit that she doesn’t really ask to be liked in the first place.
Like thrillers with some healthy doses of horror and comedy thrown in? Then Sam Raimi’s fun and funny Send Help should satisfy you. Rachel McAdams stars as Linda Liddle, a meek corporate strategist who finds herself stranded on a deserted island with her egotistical boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien).
Since Linda knows how to survive without modern conveniences, the power dynamic between the pair shifts in her favor. But Bradley’s resentment grows into a murderous rage, and soon they’re locked in a battle of wits where only one will emerge victorious.
Teenager Alice (Megan McDonnell) is in trouble, and she doesn’t know what to do. After a fight with her parents, Maddie (Rosamund Pike) and Frank (Matthew Rhys), she angrily leaves the house in her car, driving down the titular Hallow Road with no destination in mind. When she hits a woman with her car, she stops and calls her parents for advice. They tell her to refrain from calling the cops and wait for them to arrive at the scene to take care of it.
That’s the intriguing set-up of Hallow Road, a thriller that devolves into something more horrific as time progresses. The film is mostly set in Maddie and Frank’s car as they drive to help their daughter, who tells them another couple has stopped to help. But nothing is what it appears to be in Hallow Road, and the thriller constantly makes you question whether what you’re watching — and hearing — is real or not. The ending poses more questions than answers, but in Hallow Road’s case, that‘s a good thing.
Sean (Ross Marquand) has a lot on his mind when he climbs up on his roof late at night to fix a broken light bulb. His wife, Andrea (Sarah Bolger), is expecting their first child, and his job as an elementary school security guard is more stressful than he bargained for. That still doesn’t explain the unidentified flying object he sees in the night sky right before an unknown white light knocks him off the roof and into a hospital bed. Even after he recovers, Sean is plagued by visions of a mysterious spacecraft, which he draws with an artistic ability he’s never possessed before. What’s going on with Sean? And is a close encounter with an unknown kind to blame?
Descendent is a thriller with a creepy sci-fi edge that works all too well. It’s unsettling, especially when Sean believes the unborn child his wife is carrying could be affected by his encounter. The movie works as a metaphor for all the fears expectant fathers face when they are about to become parents. Can they be responsible for another living being? And what kind of person will their child become? Descendent poses these questions subtly, even as it depicts one man’s descent into uncertainty — and maybe insanity.
‘Dangerous Animals’ (2025)
The deadliest creature in Dangerous Animals isn’t a shark, it’s Tucker (Jai Courtney), a serial killer who uses sharks to dispose of his prey in ritualistic fashion. As long as Tucker gets his kills on VHS, he’s okay with letting the sharks deliver the decisive blows.
Tucker’s latest victims are a pair of strangers, Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) and Heather (Ella Newton), both of whom he intends to feed to the sharks. Zephyr’s one-night stand, Moses (Josh Heuston), soon comes looking for her, but he’s far from prepared to deal with Tucker or the threat he represents to their lives.
Dangerous Animals is streaming on Hulu.
In 1977, former technology professor Armando Solimões (Wagner Moura) flees persecution in an act of resistance against the authoritarian regime of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Armando relocates from São Paulo to Recife during the carnival holiday in an attempt to start over and protect his young son (Enzo Nunes), but in his new and highly surveilled environment, he finds himself hounded by paranoid neighbors and the constant sense that he is being watched.
The Secret Agent sadly did not end up taking home any of its four Academy Award nominations, but it still handily reigns as one of the best films from last year. The Portuguese-language thriller is rich in a unique style and visual sensibility, which perfectly carries its intelligent political commentary and weighty themes. Moura (of Narcos fame) gives an impressively nuanced and restrained performance that evokes startling power with subtle physicality. Ultimately, The Secret Agent is top-notch filmmaking and a can’t-miss modern masterpiece.
In 2007, stripper Destiny (Constance Wu) dances in a New York City club to make ends meet, but she’s barely getting by. When the club’s extremely popular dancer Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) decides to take Destiny under her wing, the two make a powerhouse team. Destiny finds her money problems solved — until the following year’s financial crisis. Struggling and newly a single mom, Destiny joins Ramona and two other dancers in a scheme to drug wealthy men and steal their money. But when cracks start to show in their operation, it’s only a matter of time before their house of cards comes crashing down.
Hustlers is widely considered to feature the career-best performance for Lopez, who received major awards attention at the time, including a Golden Globe nomination. Director Lorene Scafaria gives Martin Scorsese-like energy to her film that is kinetic, emotional and exciting; a perfect mix of sexy, funny, shocking and scary. While avoiding being a cautionary tale of “girls gone wild,” Hustlers is instead an empathetic portrait of rage against an unjust system, the lengths people are forced to go to regain their autonomy — and the collateral damage that will always follow.
Buried under a mountain of debt and an impending audit that will reveal his embezzlement, Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) decides to employ his younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) for a desperate scheme to rob their parents’ jewelry store. Laid out in a nonlinear narrative showing differing perspectives, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead follows Andy and Hank as their heist goes horribly wrong, with their father (Albert Finney) seeking justice against criminals he has no idea are his own children.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead made several “best movies of the year” lists in 2007, cracking the top 10 at publications like The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. Director Sidney Lumet‘s final film before he died four years later was hailed as a triumphant return to form for the veteran filmmaker. It’s a tense, hypnotizing thriller that deftly explores family dysfunction and features incredible performances from Hawke and Hoffman.
Sovereign tells a story of two fathers — Jerry (Nick Offerman), who homeschools his son Joe (Jacob Tremblay) and believes in the sovereign citizen movement, and John (Dennis Quaid), a police chief who looks on with pride as his son, Adam (Thomas Mann), starts his new job as an officer. Neither man knows it yet, but their paths will soon collide violently, changing all their lives forever.
Sovereign is best watched without knowing too much of the plot going in. All you need to know is that it’s very good, with a surprisingly somber performance from Parks and Recreation star Offerman. A thriller grounded in reality, Sovereign is based on a real-life incident but told with appropriate but respectful dramatic license. It’s a tragedy for everyone involved, and it’s an indication of Sovereign’s strength as a movie that it can make you feel empathy for people even when they do terrible things.
No one does “weird, tense thriller” like Nicolas Cage — when you see this actor, you know to expect the unexpected, and The Surfer doesn’t disappoint. Cage plays a father known only as The Surfer, who is desperate to purchase his childhood home on the beach so he can surf with his son (Finn Little).
But a battle over beach territory soon begins, with local self-proclaimed surf guru Scally (Julian McMahon) and a local homeless Bum (Nic Cassim) vying for control of the waves. Rapidly escalating feats of obsession and toxic masculinity swirl around the three men. Before long, they’re not just competing for territory — they’re competing for their very survival.
In modern dating, where is the line between being awkward and being creepy? Between bad sex and sex that isn’t consensual? Is it possible to actually feel safe when going on a date with a stranger? These are the questions asked in Cat Person, an indie film based on the viral short story by Kristen Roupenian. It follows Margot (Emilia Jones), a college student who works at a movie theater concessions stand. When an older customer named Robert (Nicholas Braun) asks her out, Margot begins viscerally imagining the worst-case scenario.
Cat Person is a comedic psychological thriller that plays with our perceptions of romance, dating and sex. If you’ve ever wondered if your new Tinder match might be a serial killer, you won’t want to miss this highly underrated film.
After being abandoned by her family and left to fend for herself in the marshlands of North Carolina, Kya Crawford (Daisy Edgar-Jones) doesn’t know if she wants everyone to leave her alone or if she desperately wants a friend. Reviled by the nearby town, she nonetheless connects with two local boys — sweet and earnest Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith) and handsome football hero Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson). When one of them is found dead, the town immediately suspects Kya — and as she tries to prove her innocence, we’re left to wonder what really happened in that wild marsh.
Stunning cinematography and a magnetic performance from Edgar-Jones (plus an original Taylor Swift song!) make this a captivating, lush thriller about what happens to people who are forced to make their own way in the world — for better or for worse.
Hope Goldman (Elizabeth Banks) is a successful owner of a Los Angeles skincare clinic who is upset that a rival aesthetician, Angel (Luis Gerardo Mendez), is stealing her clients. When her tires are slashed and someone seems to be stalking her, she hires a life coach, Jordan (Lewis Pullman), to help her. Will Hope and Jordan find out who is harassing her before her personal life is compromised and her career is destroyed?
Skincare is a psychological thriller that takes its time to build up tension. It’s more interested in focusing on Hope and her gradual breakdown as she compromises her own morals to solve her problems. Banks and Pullman have great chemistry together as an unlikely duo pulled into a complicated web of lust and violence. Skincare has an unusual premise, but it’s a satisfying suspense movie that will make you think twice about applying that cold cream to your face.
Thrillers based on real-life events are usually creepier than fictional stories, and Boston Strangler is one of the better ones out there. Boston newspaper reporters Loretta McCaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) investigate a series of murders they believe are caused by one man. But the police are reluctant to admit they have a serial killer on their hands until Loretta and Jean’s persistent reporting forces the authorities to face the hard truth — there’s a Boston Strangler on the loose, and he’s preying on the city’s women.
Fans of Zodiac will like Boston Strangler as the film borrows liberally from David Fincher’s 2007 masterpiece. That’s OK, though, as it works well in depicting its protagonists’ dogged investigative efforts to catch a slippery killer. Knightley in particular stands out as a reporter fighting not only the police force’s indifference to her work, but also a sexist workplace that continually undermines her efforts.
Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is a teenager who has every reason to be moody. She’s still getting over the death of her mother, and her dad’s work has taken her away from her home. Stuck in a remote resort in the Bavarian Alps, Gretchen notices some unusual things, like strange screams in the distance and a hooded woman who seems to be stalking her. She begins to suspect her father’s employer, the weird Herr Koning (Dan Stevens), is behind it all, but how can she prove it and stay alive?
Cuckoo lives up to its title — it’s genuinely bonkers in all the right ways. The film’s bucolic European setting is used effectively, with the Alps casting sinister shadows over Gretchen and her family. Schafer is a great addition to the Final Girl Hall of Fame, and Stevens adds another madman role to his already impressive resume of unhinged weirdos.
Eileen Dunlop’s (Thomasin McKenzie) life is pretty drab. She lives in Massachusetts, where the winters are long and bleak, and she works at a juvenile detention facility for teenage boys, which is about as exciting as it sounds. But one day, in walks the platinum blonde Rebecca Saint John (Anne Hathaway), and Eileen’s life is forever changed — at first for the better, and then for the worse. Who is Rebecca, and what exactly does she want from Eileen besides mere friendship?
Eileen is an excellent thriller that’s also a compelling character study as it follows both women’s interest in a young inmate, Lee Polk (The White Lotus star Sam Nivola), who Rebecca suspects is hiding a dark family secret. Hathaway is in full movie-star mode as the glamorous Rebecca, and McKenzie is convincing as the sexually repressed Eileen. The film is a straightforward thriller with a deliberately anti-climactic ending that may anger some and please others.
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