While its name has changed too many times to count in the past five years, one thing that HBO MAX has consistently delivered on is the quality of its content library. And there’s one genre the streamer boasts an embarrassment of riches in – thrillers. With so much available, it can be daunting to pick the best options, but there are some real gems in the library that deserve your attention.
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Whatever you’re looking for from your thriller movies, HBO Max has it. And the following 5 movies are some of the best that you may not realize were available on the platform. From newer releases to classic Best Picture winners, all of these ought to be on your “to watch” list if you’re a lover of the genre.
5) Where the Crawdads Sing
Based on the best-selling novel, Where the Crawdads Sing paints a compelling, complex picture of poverty in mid-century rural North Carolina. Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kya Clark, a young woman who, after members of her family either die or abandon her, essentially raises herself in the marshes of North Carolina. She’s treated with varying degrees of compassion and revulsion by the people of Barkley Cove, and despite her solitary nature, finds herself at the center of a fraught love triangle. When the town’s golden boy Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), ends up dead and Kya’s suspected of murder, she must prove her innocence to a community that’s always viewed her with suspicion. Where the Crawdads Sing expertly adapts the novel, presenting a satisfying blend of passion, death, and self-determination.
4) Fight Club
Sorry, Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, we’re talking about Fight Club. Another adaptation, this time with visionary filmmaker David Fincher bringing Chuck Palahniuk’s iconic novel to life, Fight Club follows an insomniac narrator (Ed Norton) as he’s introduced and seduced into an underground world of violence by the magnetic and dangerous Tyler Durden. Yet when both men desire the beguiling Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), the narrator and Tyler become locked in a swiftly accelerating spiral out of control. The uber-violent, chicly gritty thriller earned its place among the best of all time thanks to its genius twist and brilliant performances from Norton, Pitt, and Carter.
3) Parasite
In Parasite, the destitute Kim family progressively enmeshes itself in the lives of the wealthy Park clan to disastrous effects. Although the film is more grounded fare from Korean auteur Bong Joon Ho, the filmmaker uses the two families’ symbiotic relationship to make a breathtaking statement about privilege and class, while also engendering empathy for them at times throughout the story. There’s a reason Parasite was the first foreign language film ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards; it’s a masterfully constructed ticking time bomb of tension.
2) Inception
Christopher Nolan earned legendary status when he combined sci-fi, action, and heist drama to create Inception, which manages to be as trippy as it is cerebral. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as specialized thief Cobb, who steals corporate secrets by infiltrating the dreams of the power players that hold them. When he’s hired to plant an idea in the mind of a C.E.O., he assembles an all-star team of accomplices, yet his tragic past risks not only Cobb botching the job but also threatens the team’s ability to perceive the difference between dreams and reality. Nolan is at his best in Inception with mind-blowing, wildly imaginative action sequences that keep the heady nature of the film’s world-building from weighing it down.
1) The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs may be the best psychological thriller of all time. Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, an ambitious F.B.I. trainee with something to prove who is tasked with questioning the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Sir Anthony Hopkins), a psychiatrist-turned-serial-killer who cannibalized his clients. Clarice is forced to engage in a mind game of the highest order with Lecter to discern if he can provide any helpful information regarding another serial killer, “Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine), whose number of victims is on the rise. The Silence of the Lambs is a gripping, truly chilling examination of the dark potential of the human mind and morality, featuring career-best performances from Hopkins and Foster.
Did we miss any great thrillers on HBO MAX? Let us know in the comments!
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