The 5 best thrillers to watch on Netflix and Hulu this September

09.09.2023 - 13:51 / polygon.com / Jamie Foxx / Steven Spielberg / Javier Bardem / Tom Cruise / September / Best

Happy September, Polygon readers!

Summer is nearly behind us, which means the fall slate of movie and television releases is nearly upon us. The spooky season is on the horizon, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until October to enjoy the best thrillers currently streaming on Netflix and Hulu.

We’ve dived into the libraries of two of the most popular streaming platforms to bring you the best thrillers to watch as you wave goodbye to summer. From Michael Mann’s chilling neo-noir thriller Collateral and Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws to Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer and more, here are the best thrillers to watch this month on Netflix and Hulu.

Year: 2004
Run time: 2h
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Tom Cruise. Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith

It’s Tom Cruise’s most terrifying role — what’s not to love?

Collateral follows Max (Jamie Foxx), a Los Angeles taxi driver who finds himself living the worst night of his life after he picks up Vincent (Cruise), a well-dressed passenger who offers him $600 to be his personal chauffeur for the night. When Vincent’s true identity as an assassin is brought to light, Max must find a way to seek help without incurring the wrath of his cold-blooded abductor.

With stunning nighttime cinematography, bracing action, and a brilliant cast of performers (including a brief performance by Javier Bardem prior to his breakout role in 2007’s No Country for Old Men), Collateral is a standout entry in the career of a consistently great filmmaker.

Year: 1975
Run time: 2h 4m
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

Summer may be over, but fear of man-eating sharks is evergreen.

Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster sent shockwaves through American audiences back in 1975 by asking them one simple question: What if the greatest serial killer was nature itself? Set in the fictional New England resort town of Amity Island, Jaws centers on a police chief (Roy Scheider), a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw), who band together to take on a malicious great white shark terrorizing beachgoers over the Fourth of July weekend. Adapted from Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name, Spielberg’s film eschews the first two-thirds of the source material in favor of an original story about institutional corruption in the face of impending danger (a resonant theme with the then-recent Watergate scandal), building to the film’s climactic third act, which more strictly hews to Benchley’s book.

Arguably the quintessential summer horror blockbuster of American cinema, Jaws cemented Spielberg’s breakthrough as one of the preeminent directors of his generation, a fact that would be later proven by a string of similar era-defining