The 5 best thrillers to watch on Netflix this March

This month’s installment in our regular roundup of the best thrillers to watch on Netflix features even more tailored recommendations from the depths of the service’s wide and ever-changing library. Bypass the algorithm and let us tell you what to watch this week.

What makes for a great March thriller? We are approaching the second half of winter, which means days are getting gloomier with infrequent rain, hail and the occasional blizzard coupled with bitter wind chill. At this point in the season, the only option is to bundle up and grin and endure the frigid temperatures until spring finally shows up. As such, this month’s thrillers roundup highlights some of the best comedy thrillers Netflix has to offer, as well as an assortment of other more straightforward picks for you to enjoy.

Here are some exciting suggestions for your March viewing pleasure.

dealer

Year: 1998
Duration: 1h 34m
Director: Mike Hodges
Form: Clive Owen, Nick Reding, Nicholas Ball

No one before or since Clive Owen has been able to match the signature blend of cool masculinity and petty, catty smack that he brings to so many of his films. It’s especially sharp in 1998’s criminally underrated heist thriller dealer, which is leaving Netflix on March 25. In Mike Hodges’ film, Owen is cast as an aspiring novelist who is out of ideas and money, so he takes a job at a small casino. He then watches and judges everyone around him, using them as fodder for his work, until he is drawn into a heist plot that forces him to decide whether he is a player in this world, or just a voyeur. It’s a classy, ​​intense character piece that never really cuts into the action, but finds every possible taste in Owen as the performer and casinos as the setting. — Tasha Robinson

I no longer feel at home in this world

Image: Netflix

Year: 2017
Duration: 1h 33m
Director: Macon Blair
Form: Melanie Lynskey, Elijah Wood, David Yow

In this grungy potboiler, nurse Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) and her gun-toting neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood) become amateur detectives to find a burglar who stole her laptop, antique silverware, and perhaps the most precious thing for someone who thinks “everyone damn sucks,” her anxiety meds. Directed by Macon Blair (star of Green Room And Blue ruin), I no longer feel at home in this world is Cormac McCarthy’s frozen slush cocktail of violent twists with Seth Rogen-esque punchlines, where there’s room for swearing eighties, ninja starfights, top-deckers, friendly raccoons, exploding body parts, and a cast of characters that span the full spectrum of human idiocy. But for all the hijinks, Blair still spins a taut thriller with points to make about our place in the world, and while the light at the end of the tunnel may be dim, it’s there. —Matte Patches

Play Misty for me

Image: Universal Pictures

Year: 1971
Duration: 1h 42m
Director: Clint Eastwood
Form: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills

For Million Dollar Baby, mystical riverAnd do not forgive, Clint Eastwood made his directorial debut in this nerve-wracking thriller about fan obsession. Eastwood stars as Dave, a disc jockey who picks up a woman at a bar only to discover their meet-cute isn’t a coincidence: Evelyn (Arrested development‘s Jessica Walter) is his number one fan. While not among the great stalker thrillers that build on his legacy, the combination of Play Misty for meThe glowing 1970s sheen and lusty danger make this one to watch. Walter may be known for her belated comedic twists, but here she’s violent and baroque, stopping at nothing to pierce Dave’s heart and become not only his biggest fan, but his only one. —Member of Parliament

Sparkle more

Image: Netflix

Year: 2017
Duration: 1h 26m
Director: Ears Uziel
Form: Benjamin Walker, Rainn Wilson, Stephanie Sigman

Sparkle more is a comedy-of-errors thriller in the vein of the Coen brothers Fargo with Christopher Nolan’s non-linear editing style Keepsake. The movie stars Rainn Wilson (The office) as Andy, a hapless district attorney involved in a bank robbery and subsequent murder of the bank’s owner – a notable local judge – and Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter) as Zeke, Andy’s brother and the town’s sheriff charged with investigating and apprehending the culprits responsible.

It’s only made crazier by the fact that the situation unfolds in reverse chronological order, starting in the days following the robbery and working backwards to unravel the motives and actions of those both knowingly and unknowingly complicit in the crime. Honestly, Sparkle more is a fairly standard neo-noir pulp thriller that doesn’t have to be as complicated as the editing style suggests, but the experience of watching – and the revelations afforded by the editing – make it worth a look. —Toussaint Egan

The call

Image: Netflix

Year: 2020
Duration: 1h 52m
Director: Lee Chung Hyeon
Form: Park Shin-hye, Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Sung-ryung

In his 1610 play The storm, William Shakespeare wrote, “What is past is prologue.” Had Shakespeare lived into the 21st century, he could easily have described Lee Chung-hyun’s supernatural horror thriller starring Park Shin-hye (Miracle in cell 7) and Jeon Jong-seo (Money Robbery: Korea – Common Economic Area).

The call revolves around Kim Seo-yeon (Park), a 28-year-old convenience store cashier who travels to her childhood home in the rural suburbs to visit her ailing, estranged mother. After her phone is stolen while traveling, Seo-yeon picks up the cordless phone in her mother’s house believing it is the thieves demanding ransom, but realizes she is speaking to Oh Young-sook (Jeon) , a troubled young woman who is being held captive. by her controlling mother. It doesn’t take them long to realize that the call isn’t just coming from within, but (thin thin thin) with an interval of 20 years.

As Seo-yeon and Young-sook agree to help each other and transfer information between past and present to improve their respective situations, their motivations and emotions become intertwined in a deadly game that affects the lives of everyone around them. threatens. In other words, The call is like that of 2006 The house on the lake meet those of 2021 The black phone. It’s a brilliant, if at times ponderous, time-consuming thriller, and one that certainly deserves the status of one of Netflix’s hidden gems. -AT