The Absolute Best Mystery Movies Of 2022

With the amount of misinformation swirling around us on a daily basis, it sometimes feels like we have to be detectives ourselves just to figure out which way is up — maybe this is why mystery films have become a tremendous comfort in recent years. After all, they offer clear solutions. By the end of most mystery movies, viewers know who to blame for the crimes. Even better, they usually see those guilty parties punished or, at least, the wronged receive some level of comfort.

In 2022, big screens and streaming services offered all manner of mystery films. Some were classic whodunnits where great detectives assembled the clues until it all made sense, letting the characters and the audience know who did what and why. Others masqueraded as slasher films or superhero adventures while remaining, at their heart, mystery fare.

Viewers were treated to mysteries with modern trappings like language dripping in social media terminology or investigations motivated by the desire to make a hit podcast. Some films featured protagonists dragged back into the game long after their prime, while others were kids just on the edge of adolescence. A couple were even about cartoon animals discovering the thrill of stopping a crime.

What all the films featured on this list share are clever, complex mysteries, strong performances, and compelling storytelling that holds the audience's attention. So, please, enjoy this list of the best mystery films of 2022.

Detective Jang Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) works in Busan. A married man, he nonetheless spends six days a week away from his wife, Jung-an (Lee Jung-hyun), who lives in a seaside village a few hours away. Isolated and exhausted, Jang begins to develop an obsession with the suspected murderer Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei), a Chinese immigrant whose older husband was discovered dead after either jumping or being pushed off a mountain.

In time, Jang determines that Song's husband committed suicide after discovering evidence linking him to corruption. With the case cleared, Jang begins seeing Song despite his marriage. As he falls for her, however, he begins to discover inconsistencies in her alibi, wrecking his faith in her, the case, and himself. When she re-enters his life a year later with another husband who soon dies under suspicious circumstances, can Jang overcome his passion for her to find the truth? Or will the case lead him further down the path of self-destruction?

"Decision to Leave" won Park Chan-wook the Palme d'Or for best director at 2022's Cannes Film Festival, and the film boasts his typical commitment to atmosphere and sumptuous images. Playing out like a classic film noir, the feature draws you into Jang's obsession and leaves you hoping he triumphs even as you can feel every step toward Song takes him farther off the path. Admittedly, it isn't Park's absolute best project, but even just very good Park is head and shoulders above most movies.

Julia (Maika Monroe) and Francis (Karl Glusman) have moved together to Bucharest. While Francis has a job and familiarity with the language that helps him fit in, Julia feels isolated and alone. Only her neighbor Irina (Mădălina Anea) provides an opportunity for possible friendship. To make matters worse, Julia catches a man (Burn Gorman) watching her from an apartment building and becomes convinced he's stalking her. When news of a serial killer who decapitates his victims begins to spread, and Irina seemingly disappears, Julia feels more confident that the voyeur, the Watcher, is a threat and likely the local serial killer.

Chloe Okuno, solo directing her first full-length feature, has a gift for capturing the sense of isolation and dread that can come with being on your own in a foreign country where you don't understand the language. She also has a great sense of how to use geography to ratchet up the tension and confuse a viewer's eye.

She's found an excellent collaborator in Monroe who is quickly establishing herself as a kind of scream queen for the new era with her role here and in other films like "The Guest" and "It Follows." She sells Julia's fear but creates just enough doubt with her performance that the audience wants to cheer for her but isn't quite sure if she's actually correct. Beyond that, "Watcher" boasts one of the tensest and most satisfying climaxes of any film on this list.

Ben Manalowitz (B.J. Novak) is a writer living his best life in New York City. Late one night, he receives a phone call from Ty (Boyd Holbrook), who identifies himself as Ben's girlfriend Abby's (Lio Tipton) brother. While Ben tries to object to this characterization, Ty reveals that Abby has died. Against his better judgment, Ben accepts an invitation to Abby's funeral in Texas.

Upon his arrival, Ben learns that Ty believes Abby didn't die of an accidental overdose but was potentially murdered. Intrigued, Ben thinks he can spin the investigation of Abby's death and Ty's insistence she was killed into a hit podcast. His producer back in New York, Eloise (Issa Rae), is initially skeptical but soon she too is swept up by the characters of Texas and some signs that Ty might be very right.

Initially something of an inversion of a comedy of manners, "Vengeance" slowly evolves into a full-blown mystery as Abby's death is revealed to be more complicated than even Ty seems to have guessed. Like "Glass Onion" and "Catch the Fair One," "Vengeance" has a lot more on its mind than just delivering an engrossing mystery. Meanwhile Novak, doing triple duty as a writer-director and as the star, impresses with his most mature role to date. Even more impressive is Ashton Kutcher's turn as Quinten Sellers, a small-town music producer with a gift for silver-tongued philosophizing. If Novak's performance surprises, Kutcher's absolutely stuns.

The fifth installment of the "Scream" franchise that resurrects the slasher films from the '90s and 2000s may not seem like an obvious choice for one of the best mystery films of 2022. However, if there's anything "Scream" has taught us, it is not to underestimate Ghostface.

Nearly 25 years after the original Woodsboro killings, someone has donned the mask of Ghostface yet again. This time, their targets are the legacy kids, the next generation of teens related to the 1997 victims, survivors, and even perpetrators of the original murders. As is usually the case, the central mystery is the identity of Ghostface, and it is well told. The script employs a couple of clever twists that lay down red herrings without completely eliminating the possibility that audiences might figure it out alongside the characters.

"Scream," has updated its themes for the next era. By bringing back Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) and pairing them with Billy Loomis' secret daughter Sam (Melissa Barrera), the film is able to explore questions of the dangers of nostalgia, fans' "ownership" of the films they love, and what people interpreting stories owe the creators that came before them. Yet, despite such heavy themes, the story still tells a limber slasher story thanks to the team behind "Ready or Not," directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, as well as writer Guy Busick with screenwriter James Vanderbilt.

Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher (Jon Hamm), a former investigative reporter of some renown, has recently returned to American shores. To help his girlfriend Andy (Lorenza Izzo), he's left her in Italy to try and track down stolen paintings that may well be the only thing stopping criminals from executing her abducted father. Unfortunately for Fletch, there's a corpse waiting for him at his rental, forcing him to also investigate the woman's murder to keep himself out of jail. That's the outcome Detective Griz (Ayden Mayeri) and Sergeant Monroe (Roy Wood Jr.) are pulling for, convinced the charismatic but frustrating journalist is every bit as guilty as he seems.

"Confess, Fletch" is as appealingly laconic as its titular lead, not so much racing from setpiece to setpiece but leisurely strolling while enjoying some self-satisfied wordplay. Hamm seems delighted to play Fletch, giving him a lead film role that finally feels like a good fit for his brand of charm. He captures both the character's cleverness and his tendency towards himboism with equal success. Beyond that, the supporting cast, which also includes Kyle MacLachlan as a germaphobe art dealer and Marcia Gay Harden as Andy's stepmother the Countess, give Hamm invaluable support. 

"Enola Holmes 2" sees the titular character (Millie Bobby Brown) hanging out in her own office in search of clients. Business is quiet until Mae (Abbie Hern) stumbles in, seeking help finding her missing sister Sarah (Hannah Dodd). As Enola works the case, she finds herself accused of murder by Grail (David Thewlis) and signs that Sarah's disappearance may connect to her older brother Sherlock's (Henry Cavill) greatest enemy.

While quicker and more antic than its predecessor, "Enola Holmes 2" seems a bit more surefooted. This is, in large part, due to Brown feeling more at ease in the lead role. While by no means bad in the franchise's initial offering, her performance has a greater lived-in quality. In "Enola Holmes," you could feel her playing the part. Now, she wears it comfortably.

Jack Thorne's screenplay linking the film's mystery to the real-life 1888 Match Girls Strike is a risky proposition, but it generally works. It takes Enola's commitment to her personal freedom and autonomy and grounds it in a historical context. The move also fits with her growing up. As Enola matures, she begins to see that there's more to be done than just ensuring that she's free to do as she wishes. There are plenty of other women who lack her talents and privileges that Enola could help improve their lot in life. It could be a bit much for a streaming crowd-pleaser, but "Enola Holmes 2" nails the dismount.

"Summering" is perhaps best described as "Stand By Me," but with a group of girl friends set in a vaguely current time. Those friends — Daisy (Lia Barnett), Dina (Madalen Mills), Mari (Eden Grace Redfield), and Lola (Sanai Victoria) — are 11 and staring down some significant changes. Days away from the end of summer, different school assignments that will separate girls loom large. The specter of adolescence isn't far behind either, another challenge that may separate the girls as they mature at different rates and begin to develop new and disparate interests.

Going to their shared hidden sacred space in the woods, where they display trinkets of their friendship as though they're religious relics, they come upon a dead body. Despite their individual fears, the girls decide to investigate who the man was and what happened to him. In doing so, the quartet seems to stir up ghosts — metaphorical and possibly otherwise — not the least of which is the fate of Daisy's missing father.

Shot through with a nonspecific melancholy for time slipping away that kids and adults can both feel acutely under the right circumstances, "Summering" is surprisingly dark. It commits to the investigation in a way that goes beyond what you might expect for 11-year-olds. The glimpses of the supernatural have an appealing unnerving air of threat to them. It's the rare film that both glamorizes childhood and taps into the risks we tend to gloss over as we age.