406 Best Mystery Movies to Watch (Page 25)

Feeling investigative? If you’re not sure which movie to go for, allow us to clue you in. From detective stories and whodunnits to suspenseful dramas, here are the best mystery-themed movies and shows to stream now.

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361. Bad Education, 2023

With its wildly different shifts between the film’s chapters, Bad Education feels like it doesn’t know what to do with itself, like plenty of newly graduated teenagers. The first chapter holds such visceral revulsion that it first feels like it would be a serious cautionary tale, commenting on how, without guidance, teenagers will led each other astray. However, its next chapter takes a more comedic route as the kids try to escape from gangsters and the police. While director Kai Ko reveals an excellent sense of direction and imagery, his style feels like it’s been wasted on ill-thought intentions and a poorly written script. Bad Education at least has stunning visuals and a short runtime to get through it all.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Berant Zhu, Cheng Chih-wei, Chu-Ping Liu, Edison Song, Hong Yu Hong, Huang Hsin-Yao, Kai Ko, Kent Tsai, Kurt Hsiao, Leon Dai, McFly Wu, Ning Chang, Tzu-Chiang Wang

Director: Kai Ko

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362. A Thousand Days, 2023

Fairly atmospheric, visually creepy, and with a unique premise, A Thousand Days had the potential to be a downright terrifying Indonesian horror film. There’s something here about how rich families are willing to sacrifice impoverished young women in order to save one of their own, especially with the way the Atmojo family hasn’t given the full job details to the three girls in this film. There’s something here as well about how various Indonesian ethnic groups treat each other. However, the way the film arranged its scenes, as well as the film’s casting, fails to match the terror of the original Twitter thread that inspired the film. These choices take away some of the scariness that would have made Sewu Dino totally terrifying.

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Agla Artalidia, Ayez Kassar, Delia Husein, Gisellma Firmansyah, Givina Lukita, Karina Suwandi, Marthino Lio, Maryam Supraba, Mikha Tambayong, Pritt Timothy, Rantya Affandy, Rio Dewanto

Director: Kimo Stamboel

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363. Tierra Incognita, 2023

Returning to your hometown can be an eerie thing, mostly because of the way plenty of things would feel familiar, but they’ve either stayed in stasis all these years, or they’ve changed so much. Tierra Incognita takes that eeriness and uses it to craft a mysterious vibe in the small town of Cabo Qwert, a town now best known in the series for its titular abandoned amusement park. It relies a tad bit on jump scares and family melodrama, and the theme park itself seems much more pristine than an abandoned park would look like, but Tierra Incognita would be an okay series for kids to enjoy.

Genre: Family, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Rating: TV-14

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364. Cuckoo, 2024

	
When your parent decides to marry another person with kids, it can feel like you’re not really part of the family, more so, if you’re forced to move to a completely different country altogether. This is the unsettling feeling that drives Cuckoo, directly inspired by the way some cuckoo species engage in brood parasitism, or rely on other birds to raise their young. It’s an interesting concept, and the feeling of exclusion and being out of place is evoked expertly by Hunter Schafer of Euphoria fame, but why Gretchen’s antagonists would bother to do all of this is over-explained yet still feels quite nonsensical. For horror fans willing to go on this bizarre ride, Cuckoo is visually inventive, unnervingly scored, and decently performed, and would be enjoyable, as long as you don’t really think about the logistics of this strange parenting situation.Genre: Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction
Actor: Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Dan Stevens, Greta Fernández, Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Jessica Henwick, Lesley Jennifer Higl, Marton Csokas, Mila Lieu, Proschat Madani
Director: Tilman Singer
Rating: R

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365. Susie Searches, 2023

Susie Searches begins intriguingly for two reasons: first, there’s the strange disappearance of popular college student Jesse Wilcox (Alex Wolff), and then there’s the fact that that mystery is solved in the film's first 20-ish minutes. With over an hour left of its runtime at this point, Susie Searches seems to suggest Jesse’s disappearance was only a red herring, and that we’re in for something juicier now.

Alas, the rest of the movie — which stars Kiersey Clemons as the titular socially awkward student sleuth who finds Jesse — never lives up to this promise. An encouraging cast list is let down by thin characters; this isn’t true just for the supporting parts played by Rachel Sennott, Jim Gaffigan, Ken Marino, Dolly Wells, and Wolff, but, far more detrimentally to the film, Susie herself. Her motivations are complicated by more than just a desire for the truth, but, despite Clemons’ best efforts, this not-quite Nancy Drew is never all that psychologically compelling or believable. In a film that hinges on big twists revolving around its protagonist, that’s a fatal flaw, because we’re only ever half-invested. Though it may play better with younger audiences, anyone else will likely find its promising cast to be the biggest red herring of all.

Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Aaron Costa Ganis, Alex Moffat, Alex Wolff, Ana Cruz Kayne, Ana Kayne, Chris Sheffield, David Walton, Dolly Wells, Ellie Reine, Geoffrey Owens, Isaac Powell, Jammie Patton, Jared Gilman, Jim Gaffigan, Juliette Goglia, Kat Foster, Ken Marino, Kiersey Clemons, Mellanie Hubert, Neal Bledsoe, Rachel Sennott

Director: Sophie Kargman

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366. See How They Run, 2022

Whodunnits are the cornerstone of murder mysteries, and their occasional resurgence is usually a reprieve from films with more complicated structures and twists. See How They Run gives the Agatha Christie mystery spoof a go, dissecting the cozy mystery conventions anew. With quirky British humor, solid acting, and good period-piece visuals, the familiarity and predictability culminate into an easy, well-paced watch. With no desire to reinvent the genre, the film seems to implore its audience to indulge in self-indulgence. Enjoy watching a piece of cinema for the sake of it.

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Adrien Brody, Angus Wright, Ania Marson, Charlie Cooper, David Oyelowo, Gregory Cox, Harris Dickinson, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Kieran Hodgson, Laura Morgan, Lucian Msamati, Maggie McCarthy, Oliver Jackson, Paul Chahidi, Pearl Chanda, Philip Desmeules, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Reece Shearsmith, Ruth Wilson, Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Shirley Henderson, Sian Clifford, Tim Key, Tolu Ogunmefun

Director: Tom George

Rating: PG-13

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367. Jagged Mind, 2023

Built on promising ideas revolving around toxic relationships, exploitation of Black bodies, and a fading African heritage, Jagged Mind comes up with reasonably diverting genre thrills but stops short of taking advantage of the rich material it has at its fingertips. In getting caught up with its own premise, the film isn't able to craft a compelling enough journey for its protagonist to break free of the cycles she finds herself in. As a result, it becomes something that's fun to watch in the moment—thanks to some playful, misleading editing and a solid lead performance by Maisie Richardson-Sellers—but not something that leaves a lasting impression or makes a full, compelling statement.

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Casey Ford Alexander, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Kate Szekely, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Rosaline Elbay, Shannon Woodward, Shein Mompremier

Director: Kelley Kali

Rating: R

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368. Selenkay, 2024

	
The concept of Selenkay isn't so bad. If done right, it would have been a great way to experiment with special effects, introduce new Argentinian talents in a gorgeous lakeside location, and maybe, create good television. But things are introduced here in such derivative ways, that, when Sofía Rivera meets Gael Fénix, you can already tell how this Romeo & Juliet-esque relationship would go– boy loves girl, girl loves boy, parents disapprove, but whatever because the power of true love will triumph over all, etc. There's an interesting thread where the kids debate over ecological responsibility over guilt, and it's not totally atrocious, but Selenkay is much more interested in being a teen show, rather than exploring the world and powers that its premise has to offer.Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Carolina Kopelioff, Gina Mastronicola, Joaquín Berthold, Manuel Ramos, María Zubiri, Mario Alarcon, Mónica Antonópulos, Valentín Villafañe
Rating: TV-PG

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369. Tin & Tina, 2023

After Lola's miscarriage on her wedding day, she and her husband adopt orphaned twin siblings, Tin and Tina. However, the twins soon begin to exhibit strange and disturbing behavior, all influenced by their strict upbringing at the convent. Slow-burning and atmospheric, Tin & Tina uses the "evil child" trope to tackle the horrors of orthodox Catholicism and motherhood. While it does deliver on the bare bones of the conversations, the continuous disbelief that follows the provable, horrendous actions becomes tiresome. There is mention of Lola growing up in a convent, and the couple's insistence on not having a disabled child (even though Lola is disabled) creates more discussions that are never finished. Neither the story nor the scare is memorable enough.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Anastasia Russo, Carlos González Morollón, Chelo Vivares, Jaime Lorente, Milena Smit, Ruth Gabriel, Teresa Rabal

Director: Rubin Stein

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370. The Perfect Couple, 2024

	
The Perfect Couple is an uneven show. Some parts of it work, particularly the dramatic exchanges between members of the rich but strained Winbury family and the performances of its great actors. But most of it falls apart. The scenes where characters in the interrogation room provide information on the main characters aren’t just unhelpful, they’re deeply unfunny. Among the running jokes are that the feminine wedding planner may or may not be gay and that the French girl speaks funny. Oh, also, the maid hates poor people for some reason. The mystery and the writing of it are borderline soapy. Dakota Fanning and Meghann Fahy are always great, but multiple characters mean we don’t get to see a lot of them. Even Kidman and Schreiber, despite what the trailers suggest, are barely in it. The Perfect Couple is perfectly pleasant if you don’t mind your murder mysteries thin, but don’t expect it to be like The White Lotus, Big Little Lies, or Bad Sisters. Put those on instead if you want to see the actors here perform in much better shows.Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Actor: Billy Howle, Dakota Fanning, Donna Lynne Champlin, Eve Hewson, Ishaan Khattar, Jack Reynor, Liev Schreiber, Meghann Fahy, Mia Isaac, Michael Beach, Nicole Kidman, Sam Nivola
Rating: TV-MA

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371. Saw X, 2023

For its first half-hour or so, Saw X really doesn't feel like an entry in the long-running horror series commonly described by detractors as "torture porn." It's quiet and steadily paced and does a better job than many horror sequels and reboots of recent years in making its primary antagonist a sympathetic human being. The way the character of John Kramer (AKA Jigsaw) has been written here—elevated by Tobin Bell's performance—gives even the film's later, more extreme segments a hint of soulfulness, since we're made to feel exactly what drives his self-appointed mission to exact justice on other terrible people.

But this new, dramatic spin on Saw doesn't last for very long, and this tenth film eventually slides back into its trademark cheesy elements that won't make any new converts to the series. Overly aggressive editing and music, hammy performances from the supporting cast, and death traps that grow increasingly unimaginative all dull the greater impact that Saw X could have had. The batch of victims we get this time around are somewhat compelling given their connections they have to each other and to Kramer himself, but they're still ultimately more of the same—just cannon fodder waiting for execution.

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Costas Mandylor, Craig Hurley, Donagh Gordon, Isan Beomhyun Lee, Jorge Briseño, Joshua Okamoto, Katie Barberi, Kerry Ardra, Lucía Gómez-Robledo, Michael Beach, Natasha Goss, Octavio Hinojosa Martínez, Paulette Hernández, Renata Vaca, Shawnee Smith, Steven Brand, Synnøve Macody Lund, Tobin Bell

Director: Kevin Greutert

Rating: R

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372. Miss Night and Day, 2024

If you don’t like cheesy Koreanovelas to begin with, there’s no real reason to seek this out. You’re getting an over the top telenovela from the performances, to the wishing on a star and playful coincidences and all the forced meet-cutes. Lee Mi-jin (Jung Eun-ji) is sympathetic in her unenviable position receiving conditional kindness from her parents. And of course, the premise itself is just ridiculous enough to maybe stick around for. But what should be a simple story gets out of hand quickly, with an absolutely wack 60+ minute runtime per episode. While it can be a decent comfort show for the giggles, there’s no cheese you can get here that you can’t get anywhere else for better if you kept looking.

Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Baek Seo Hoo, Choi Jin-hyuk, Jeong Seok-yong, Jung Eun-ji, Jung Young-ju, Kim Ah-young, Lee Jung-eun, Yoon Byung-hee

Director: Lee Hyung-min

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373. In Love and Deep Water, 2023

	
In Love and Deep Water is torn between multiple concepts. There’s a murder, sure, and a butler trying to figure out who’s the killer, but there also happens to be a romance plot where the same butler falls in love with the passenger that informs him of their partners’ infidelity. The film also tries to squeeze in comedy with the way the killers try to hide the dead body, the ridiculousness of some passengers, and cheeky but contextless commentary. While the romance is lovely, In Love and Deep Water isn’t the fun and chaotic murder mystery promised, as it drowns itself with interesting ideas that never really fully pans out.Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Actor: Airi Matsui, Aju Makita, Amane Okayama, Aoi Miyazaki, Hatsunori Hasegawa, Hidekazu Mashima, Ken Mitsuishi, Ken Yasuda, Kento Nagayama, Michiko Tomura, Miyu Hayashida, Nahana, Rinko Kikuchi, Ryo Yoshizawa, Saki Takaoka, Takashi Okabe, Tomu Miyazaki, Yasuomi Sano, Yoh Yoshida, Yoshimasa Kondô, Yuki Izumisawa, Yunho
Director: Yusuke Taki
Rating: R, TV-MA

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374. Deliver Me, 2024

We don’t like to think about it, but there are children around the world recruited into organized crime, and sometimes, it leads to violent tragedies, the very kind we want to protect our children from. Deliver Me is a Swedish miniseries based on the best-selling novel of the same name that explores how a teen delinquent enters this vicious world. The series starts with the aftermath of an attempted murder– with Dogge holding a gun in his hands and his best friend Billy bleeding out in front of him. The cops in charge, led by Farid, hope to help him, by gaining more information about the gang they were recruited into, but it’s not an easy investigation. It’s depressing, especially when Dogge is so convinced he’d get off scot-free, and the issue is clearly important. But it also doesn’t stand out, as the series pulls off the same Netflix flair we’re already used to.

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Actor: Ane Dahl Torp, Ardalan Esmaili, Henrik Norlen, Jhullian Carlsson, Mahmut Suvakci, Yusra Warsama

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375. A Day and a Half, 2023

	
With its grounded approach, A Day and a Half feels real, even if the exact events are fictional. Inspired by a couple of lines from a 2008 news article, Fares Fares crafts an intimate family drama for his first directorial debut, built in the bones of a hostage thriller. As a thriller, Fares consistently maintains its suspense, camera eyeing the gun present in most of the film. However, as the cop Lucas tries to defuse the situation with hostage-taker Artan, and the situation escalates to the National Task Force, Artan and Louise confront their broken family, lines opened by improvised hostage negotiations. While Artan’s understandable reasons shouldn’t absolve him of his actions, A Day and a Half effectively builds tension, only relieved at its slightly unrealistic but cathartic ending.Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Actor: Alexej Manvelov, Alma Pöysti, Annica Liljeblad, Annika Hallin, Daniel Guldstrand, Fares Fares, Richard Forsgren, Stina Ekblad
Director: Fares Fares

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