There's something undeniably addictive about a film with a great mystery at its core, and
there are plenty of these movies just begging to be discovered. From psychological puzzles
to harrowing whodunits to brooding procedurals, here are some great mystery movies on Netflix
you should watch before they're gone.
It took until 2007 before the right true-crime mystery came David Fincher's way. Not surprisingly,
the acclaimed director made the most of the moment, delivering what many consider one
of the best that the genre has ever produced. The film in question is Fincher's immaculate
thriller Zodiac, which details the years-long manhunt to find the man behind the brutal
killing spree that terrified the San Francisco area throughout the late '60s and early '70s.
Adapted from Robert Graysmith's book of the same name, Zodiac finds Jake Gyllenhaal portraying
Graysmith himself as the whip-smart former cartoonist who slipped headlong into his own
obsessive hunt for the taunting Zodiac killer.
"Just because you can't prove it doesn't mean it's not true."
Fincher approaches that hunt with the same obsessive manner as the man driving the narrative.
In doing so, he delivers a riveting first-person account of perhaps the most compelling true
crime mystery in U.S. history, if only because the Zodiac killer has never been captured.
He's featured prominently in two of the biggest trilogies in movie history, and even portrayed
one of the MCU's original evil villains, but there was a time when Hugo Weaving was just
a little-known actor trying to make his way in the Australian indie scene. And while common
knowledge would say that Weaving's rise to prominence came when he suited up as Agent
Smith in 1999's The Matrix, the truth is it actually began with a wickedly duplicitous
turn in 1998's Aussie thriller The Interview.
There's a good chance you haven't even heard of The Interview, so let us tell you two things:
it's a first rate crime thriller fueled by a fascinating central mystery, and it features
what may be the best performance of Hugo Weaving's career.
We should also let you know that, like many of the great mystery films out there, The
Interview's narrative takes the "unreliable narrator" approach. And the narrator here
is Weaving's Edward Fleming, a seemingly poor soul who's fallen on hard times. The film
is contained almost entirely inside an interrogation room, with Fleming playing the part of the
wrongfully accused as a pair of forceful detectives present their case and try to wear him down.
About halfway through The Interview, something happens that spins the entire narrative on
its head. In turn, the film unravels into a daring cat and mouse game that has as much
in common with The Usual Suspects as the work of Agatha Christie.
Directed with a simmering menace and fractious energy by David Bruckner, 2017's The Ritual
follows a disparate group of pals from college who, a year after a tragic death, come together
to pay respects to their dearly departed friend. They do so by hitting the far reaches of the
Swedish wilderness for a camping and hiking expedition. Needless to say, once the men
enter the deep, dark woods of Sweden, they're plunged headfirst into a supernatural nightmare
the likes of which must be seen to be believed.
Less a proper mystery movie than a film fueled by one unexpected moment after another, The
Ritual fully revels in its unholy mysteries for much of its 94-minute runtime. When those
mysteries are laid bare in the film's final act, well, nothing can fully prepare you for
that unveiling, so we'll simply leave you to discover and enjoy it on your own.
Over the course of the past 15 years, Mark and Jay Duplass have firmly established themselves
as the no-budget kings of the Hollywood underground. They've done so by writing, directing, and
starring in a string of audaciously original indie films stretching across every genre.
They've also dedicated themselves to giving up-and-coming filmmakers a crack at showbiz
by producing micro-budget flicks that might be considered too fringe for the mainstream.
Charlie McDowell's anti-rom-com fantasy The One I Love is among the best of those movies.
Produced on a reported $100,000 budget, The One I Love finds troubled married couple Sophie
and Ethan, played by Elizabeth Moss and Mark Duplass, struggling to save their relationship,
and deep in the throes of couples' therapy. When their therapist recommends a weekend
away at a secluded estate, the desperate duo jump at the chance to rekindle their romance.
Upon arriving, Sophie and Ethan do seemingly begin to spark their emotional and physical
connections, but it quickly becomes unclear whether or not they're actually connecting
with each other. At the risk of giving too much away, we're gonna let our synopsis stop
here, because the mystery driving McDowell's daringly evocative film is best explored with
as little information as possible. Just know that the film categorically refuses to fit
into any one narrative box and it's as thought-provoking as it is bizarre.
"Oh, my god. It's so weird. It's so strange, isn't it?"
"It's really odd."
There's a lot to be said for a filmmaker taking the slow-burn approach on a mystery movie.
In fact, the genre itself tends to encourage letting the unknown simmer just long enough
to bury into viewers' brains before letting the narrative boil over into whatever emotional
hellscape the filmmaker is planning to unleash. And in terms of starkly slow-burning hellscapes,
few have burned quite as destructively, or burrowed quite as deep, as Karyn Kusama's
propulsively somber study in grief, The Invitation.
Part bracing chamber drama and part tightly-wound psychological thriller, The Invitation follows
the story of Will, who's accepted an invitation for himself and his girlfriend Kira to attend
a dinner party at the home of his ex-wife, Eden, and her new husband, David. With their
old friends all joining the festivities, Will hopes the night won't be too awkward. While
the party starts off on the right foot, an ominous energy begins to seep through every
single moment, and it quickly becomes clear Eden and David have a very specific reason
for getting the old gang back together.
That reason is every bit as troubling as you might think. And yes, everyone on this party's
guest list is in imminent danger.
"There is something very strange going on here and no one is saying anything."
As the tragedy unfolds, Kusama meticulously ratchets up the tension and guides The Invitation
toward a finale as genuinely shocking as it is utterly inescapable, with viewers left
to wonder if anyone will make it out alive.
In the Shadow of the Moon is the story of ambitious beat cop, Thomas Lockhart, and his
charmingly unmotivated partner. In 1988, they happen upon a rash of wildly unusual deaths
that tease the possibility of a serial killer. When that possibility is confirmed, the night
takes a turn for the surreal. After being trapped by Lockhart in the subway, the fierce
but youthful-looking killer reveals intimate details of Lockhart's life before she seemingly
dies.
Nine years later, Lockhart has made detective, and is in utter shock when, on the anniversary
of the fateful night, the killer resurfaces for a fresh wave of mayhem.
"Nice to see you again."
The disturbing events that occur in the first part of this mysterious sci-fi thriller set
the stage for a taut anti-procedural which spins the who-done-it formula on its head.
On top of all that, the film also introduces a classic science fiction plot device into
the equation.
In the Shadow of the Moon's disparate narrative tools prove vital to its fateful story, utilizing
each to build an intricately orchestrated sci-fi house of cards that feels much bigger
than it is. In doing so, the director delivers a cleverly observed puzzle box of a film,
assembled with the eye of a detective to present a devastating view of the future.
If there's one inherent truth about the mystery genre on the whole, it's that mood and atmosphere
can make or break a movie. If you're a fan of writer-director Osgood Perkins' work, you
already know that mood and atmosphere are his specialty. But just in case you haven't
caught up with his 2016 haunted house thriller I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House,
you should know that it's all but consumed by both.
Perkins' bone-chilling story is also a masterwork of minimalist horror. The burgeoning auteur
indeed keeps this movie surprisingly compact. He uses just a single location and three central
characters to sow the sinister seeds of a brooding psychological thriller, fueled by
a finely-spun fiction bleeding horrifically into real world drama.
That drama opens with Ruth Wilson's Lily taking a job as a live-in nurse to a famed horror
novelist. The moment Lily moves into the house, unsettling events begin to occur that may
or may not be tied to the macabre narrative of the writer's most famous book. As the story
unfolds, it becomes increasingly unclear whether that book is fiction at all, and the answer
may not bode well for anyone in the house. In exploring that possibility, Perkins crafts
a bold, meticulously-paced haunted house chiller with gothic energy to spare.
We freely admit that we might be slightly bending the strictest definition of "mystery
movie" with the inclusion of Netflix's full-throttle action film Wheelman on this list, because
plot isn't really the point of the film. But if you'll bear with us, we think we can twist
your opinion on Wheelman, because at the core of the film's taut narrative is, in fact,
a marvelously constructed mystery.
The story follows a skilled getaway driver who's fresh out of prison and back on the
job purely as a means to pay off debts owed to local mobsters. One of his first gigs behind
the wheel is a bank heist that doesn't go as planned. In the aftermath of the bank melee,
the nameless driver has to ditch his accomplices and is stuck with a bag full of mob money,
and no way to reach the man who put him on the job.
To make matters worse, the driver is getting calls from a dangerous stranger demanding
the money be delivered to him, or his ex-wife and daughter will pay the price. Set almost
entirely inside the confines of the man's car, and told with a breathless sense of urgency,
Wheelman's mysteries unfold with a steady hand, an insatiable appetite for anarchy,
and an unapologetic tough-guy acting aesthetic.
"I drive the car. I'm the wheelman. Kay? That's it. End of story."
Along the way, Wheelman all but reinvents the action movie by framing its chaotic spirit
with what's essentially an Agatha Christie-styled mystery. And yes, that's every bit as exciting
as it sounds.
Over the past decade, Norwegian auteur André Øvredal has proven himself to be a bold and
brilliant filmmaker. After blowing the doors off the found footage genre with 2010's utterly
superb Trollhunter, Øvredal returned for a journey deep into unsettling territory with
his 2016 follow up, The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
While it doesn't innovate with quite as much zeal as Trollhunter, Jane Doe still finds
Øvredal taking a daring new approach to well-worn genre tropes, this time in service of casting
a manic web of menace over the mystery-horror subset.
"What's that for?"
"To make sure he's dead."
Øvredal expertly subverts every cliche he can conjure within the film's bracingly eerie
narrative; which follows a father and son coroner team who set about to identify the
body of a young woman and figure out how she was killed. Like the best horror-mysteries,
answers only raise more questions as the film ominously propels itself toward a shockingly
sinister finale as thrilling as it is terrifying.
The name Brad Anderson might not be instantly recognizable by general moviegoers. However,
among the psychological-thriller set, the talented director has more than earned their
respect with several gems, including The Machinist with Christian Bale and The Call with Halle
Berry.
Genre cred aside, Anderson's brooding indie film Session 9 proves that his ongoing success
is well deserved. This relentlessly eerie movie is about an asbestos removal crew that's
clearing out an abandoned psychiatric hospital. Equal parts psychological thriller and haunted
house flick, Session 9 so effectively shrouds its narrative in mystery that some viewers
might find themselves as lost in the story's exploration of soul-decaying trauma as the
characters within the walls of the hospital. It's a harrowing experience but well worth
the journey. And when the film finally pulls the rug out from under you, it does so in
a way that'll leave your head spinning for hours.
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