15 Best Thrillers On HBO Max

HBO Max has a terrific selection of both classic and contemporary thrillers, so if you're looking for something that will keep you on the edge of your seat, look no further. We're keeping an eye on everything on the service, bringing you the best in psychological suspense, conspiracies, and battles of will. If it's got tension, overwhelming odds, or ordinary people in extraordinarily dangerous situations, we know it'll make for a great movie night. And there should be something here for everyone. So pop some popcorn, pull the shades, and get ready for some dark and heart-pounding entertainment.

Updated on July 5, 2022: HBO Max is always updating its streaming library, and we'll make sure that this article stays current with the best the service has to offer. We refresh this selection every month, adding new must-sees and sometimes rotating in other classics by major thriller directors like Alfred Hitchcock. (Because, let's face it, basically every Hitchcock movie could earn a spot on this list.)

This classic neo-noir thriller starts with private eye Jake Gittes taking what seems like an ordinary job tailing a cheating husband. His client is lying to him though, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Jake's true case involves an elaborate scam involving not only the future of Los Angeles but also more depravity than he could initially even imagine. Cynical, perfectly cast — in addition to Nicholson and Dunaway, John Huston turns in a fantastic, comfortably villainous performance that feels effortlessly iconic — and full of indelible lines, "Chinatown" will wind up seared in your memory.

• Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman

• Director: Roman Polanski

• Year: 1974

• Runtime: 131 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

Johnny Smith loses his girlfriend and five years of his life when a car accident leaves him in a coma. What he gains is an extreme and unwanted psychic ability — one that makes the "hunches" he sometimes had before the crash look trivial in comparison. Now, touching people gives him visions of their past, present, and future. It can make him useful, but it can also make him a pariah, someone who's accused of causing the events he predicts. And when he shakes the hand of bright, charismatic, up-and-coming politician Greg Stillson, he sees Stillson becoming president ... and starting a nuclear war. The high stakes of Johnny's dilemma and the nuanced humanity of Christopher Walken's performance make this unforgettable.

• Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt

• Director: David Cronenberg

• Year: 1983

• Runtime: 103 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

French thriller "Diabolique" starts off with an unusual murder plot. Michel, headmaster of a boys' boarding school, is sadistic and petty, and his wife, Christina, and mistress, Nicole, bear the brunt (and bruises) of it all. Against all odds, the two are friends, and fragile, tenderhearted Christina and bold, icy Nicole console each other. They also plan Michel's murder. But after they've killed him, the tension doesn't go away — it just gets more nightmarish. His body disappears, and people report having talked with him. And Christina is starting to crack under the pressure.

"Diabolique" has a plot that even Hitchcock might have envied, and it also features one of the most iconic reveals in cinema history. There's definitely at least one scene here that you'll never forget.

• Starring: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse

• Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

• Year: 1955

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: TV-MA

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"Gone Baby Gone" deals unflinchingly with dark subjects and difficult moral dilemmas; it's easy to get absorbed in this thriller but hard to know what you would do in the characters' positions. Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are private detectives hired to look into a little girl's abduction — and it soon seems possible that her neglectful and frequently high mother, Helene, may have had something to do with it. Patrick and Angie go down a rabbit hole of pitch-black criminality, but every possible answer they're given keeps falling apart. But all of them would have been easier to deal with than the truth.

• Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman

• Director: Ben Affleck

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 113 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Tightly-plotted noir brilliance combines with innovative storytelling in the groundbreaking "Memento," one of Christopher Nolan's earliest films. One-time insurance investigator Leonard has suffered a devastating head injury that has robbed him of the ability to form new memories: Everything that happens to him fades away after a few minutes. As he embarks on a quest to track down the man who murdered his wife, he has to resort to cluing his future self in with notes, Polaroid snapshots, and tattoos. While he follows his own trail, we follow him from the end of his twist-filled story to its shocking beginning.

• Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano

• Director: Christopher Nolan

• Year: 2000

• Runtime: 113 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

After a jewelry store robbery gone wrong, the surviving criminals take refuge in a dilapidated warehouse. (To hide their identities, most of them are known only by code names: Orange, White, Pink, and Blonde.) Mr. Orange has been shot, and without medical attention, he'll bleed to death. Mr. White is anxious to get him to a doctor, but the others overrule him. They're more focused on one question: How did the police seemingly know they were coming? Is one of them an undercover cop? The volatile Mr. Blonde offers up one way to find out — torture the information out of an officer he's kidnapped. With accusations flying and tensions rising while they wait for their boss' arrival, something is bound to explode.

Darkly comedic and punctuated by shocking acts of violence — you'll never hear "Stuck in the Middle with You" the same way again — "Reservoir Dogs" is a perfect dose of Tarantino's distinctive style.

• Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen

• Director: Quentin Tarantino

• Year: 1992

• Runtime: 99 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Odd, disaffected Amanda doesn't feel things the way other people do. So, when her friend Lily is having problems with her domineering stepfather, Amanda suggests killing him. Lily eventually decides to take her up on this offer, and the two decide to enlist local screw-up and drug dealer Tim to do the deed ... if they can trust him to go through with it. A thoughtful exploration of sociopathy and selfishness adds depth and intrigue to this one-of-a-kind movie. Despite its glossy surface and sly humor, "Thoroughbreds" is a genuinely dark bit of film noir that gives its two teen leads plenty of complex characterization.

• Starring: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin

• Director: Cory Finley

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%