Best Thriller Movies Of 2026, Ranked (Including Obsession and Backrooms)
Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more.
Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor.
He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre.
To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net.
There have been some great thriller movies released in 2026, with strong releases in horror, action, and even sci-fi thrillers. While the thriller genre is one that can fit into several other genres, these movies all have one thing in common. They all feature stories that keep the audience on the edge of their seats while delivering thrills that increase until the last possible second. These films are the ultimate thrill ride.
The year also has three more months of releases, and as 2025 showed, December can offer up some great thrillers as well, since that is when The Housemaid was released last year before it blew up at the box office. The rest of 2026 includes thriller movies like Verity, based on Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel, the horror thriller Other Mommy, and the action thriller How to Rob a Bank.
However, those thrillers have a long way to go to match up to what was already released in 2026. There were two thriller movies released earlier this year that dominated the box office to the extent that they were partially responsible for mainstream blockbusters like The Mandalorian and Grogu and Masters of the Universe not even being able to compete with them.
7 Onslaught
Onslaught is Adam Wingard's new 2026 thriller, as the director of Godzilla vs. Kong returns to the world of his 2014 movie The Guest. In Onslaught, the same company that helped create David Collins (Dan Stevens) in The Guest is back in Onslaught. However, this time around, it is three unstoppable super soldiers who escape from the facility and start slaughtering people in a small town.
Unlike The Guest, where it is up to two kids to try to stop David, Onslaught is a higher-paced action thriller with Adria Arjona starring as Celeste, a former army sniper who goes to war with the three super soldiers to protect her daughter. While the movie ended up as a box office failure, it was a solid action thriller and was a welcome return to the genre for Wingard after years of big-budget blockbusters.
6 Crime 101
Crime 101 was a great crime thriller released early in 2026, but because of its high budget, it ended up as a box office disappointment. The movie stars Chris Hemsworth as Mike, a jewel thief who carefully plans out his robberies to avoid all violence and DNA evidence, and he uses U.S. Route 101 to escape. An LAPD detective named Lou, played by Mark Ruffalo, believes he has an idea of who is pulling off the robberies, but no one believes him.
The cast is star-studded, with Halle Berry as an insurance broker who partners with Mike, while Barry Keoghan is another thief who has no problem with violence in his robberies. The movie is a twisting and turning story with Lou closing in on Mike, with the thief not knowing Lou's true identity. Despite the low box office, the movie has an 88% Rotten Tomatoes score and should remain a streaming hit for years to come.
5 Backrooms
Backrooms might be the most surprising movie of 2026. A psychological thriller, the movie is based on a YouTube series that was based on a creepypasta series of liminal space images. Even more impressive, YouTuber Kane Parsons, who made the original videos, was allowed to direct the feature-length movie, starring two Oscar-worthy actors, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.
Despite Parsons' young age and lack of experience, he ended up directing a movie that was a runaway hit in theaters in 2026. It ended up breaking $400 million worldwide and is the highest-grossing A24 movie to date. The movie follows a man who has discovered a doorway to an extradimensional labyrinth of rooms, only to find he and his therapist are now in grave danger.
4 Is God Is
Easily the most underrated and underwatched thriller of 2026 is the Southern Gothic revenge thriller Is God Is, which was released in theaters in May. The movie was a box office failure, but a lot of that had to do with confusing marketing and possible misunderstanding of the movie's themes based on its title. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson star as twins Racine and Anaia, two young women who want revenge against their father for disfiguring them as children.
Aleshea Harris directs the movie adaptation of her 2018 play and delivers a darkly funny revenge thriller that critics praised for its story and pacing. The film has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score, and some critics compared it favorably to Quentin Tarantino movies. It should be noted that its failure at the box office also came partially because it was released at the same time as Obsession.
3 The Bride!
The Bride! is one of the most misunderstood thrillers released in 2026. This gothic romantic thriller is a retelling of the Bride of Frankenstein story, although it is told through a modern-thematic lens, as writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal used it as a strong metaphor for abuse and the disrespect of women in general. Jessie Buckley delivers a powerful performance as the Bride, while Christian Bale is perfect in his supporting role as Frankenstein's Monster.
The movie was a box office bomb and received polarizing reviews, and it seemed that many critics failed to understand what the movie was trying to do and took everything happening a little too literally. The Bride! is a subversive art-house movie that delivers great acting performances, a fantastic story, and inspired visuals that make it a movie that deserves a reappraisal.
2 Send Help
Sam Raimi returned to horror in style with his 2026 survival thriller Send Help. Rachel McAdams stars as an awkward corporate strategist named Linda Liddle, who is bullied and mocked by her boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien). When she tries to stand up for herself, he invites her on a business trip to Bangkok, but then he humiliates her on the flight. Things go wrong when the plane crashes.
Linda, a survivalist who once tried out for Survivor, knows what to do to keep her and Bradley alive when they are the only two survivors to wash ashore on a seemingly deserted island. The rest of the movie shows Linda getting revenge against Bradley for the years of abuse, while Bradley does what he can to stay alive and avoid Linda getting the last laugh. It was a box office success and is a return to form for Raimi in the horror genre.
1 Obsession
Obsession was one of the most surprising hits of 2026. The movie is a supernatural horror thriller about a young man named Bear (Michael Johnston) who uses a One Wish Willow novelty toy to wish that his crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), would love him more than anyone in the world. The wish works, with horrifying results when she becomes overly obsessed with him and will do anything to keep him by her side.
Like Kane Parsons (Backrooms), Curry Barker is another YouTuber who made it big in Hollywood this year, and his movie was even more successful than Backrooms. Obsession ended up breaking $500 million at the worldwide box office and is the fifth highest-grossing horror movie of all time, not including inflation.
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