To find the best thrillers online, you can’t be limited to a single streaming service.
Otherwise, you run the risk of missing out on the films that didn’t get the attention they deserved when they were first released.
The Watch With Us team has chosen the three underrated thrillers that you should watch in August, and it’s a really good batch of films this month.
Our first selection flew under the radar earlier this year, while our second pick is a Netflix original that’s skipping theaters. The final selection for the month is a largely forgotten film with one of Hollywood’s greatest actors.
‘Opus’ (2025)
The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri takes the leading role in Opus as Ariel Ecton, a journalist who has just been handed the assignment of a lifetime. Reclusive music superstar Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) has come out of retirement, and he’s invited Ariel and five other guests to a private listening party.
Upon her arrival at Alfred’s compound, Ariel is the first to realize that he literally has his own cult of weirdos who revere and worship him. There’s nothing that the cult won’t do for Alfred, including murder. Ariel may sense the danger she’s in, but that doesn’t mean that she’ll be able to avoid it. And there aren’t many places that Ariel can run or hide in this flick.
Opus is streaming on HBO Max.
‘Night Always Comes’ (2025)
Vanessa Kirby is currently playing a superhero in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but she’s just an ordinary woman in Netflix’s upcoming thriller, Night Always Comes. Kirby plays Lynette, a woman drowning in debt while attempting to take care of herself and her mentally disabled older brother, Kenny (Zack Gottsagen). Just when Lynette comes close to figuring things out, her mother, Doreen (Jennifer Jason Leigh), blows the money she was promised to help her buy a home.
That sends Lynette on a perilous and desperate quest to raise $25,000 in just two days or else she’ll lose everything she fought and sacrificed for. Lynette also has a dark past, and she’ll have to face it when she dives into the criminal underworld.
Night Always Comes will stream on Netflix on August 15.
‘The Pledge’ (2001)
Jack Nicholson was in the twilight of his career when he starred in director Sean Penn‘s mystery thriller, The Pledge. Nicholson plays Jerry Black, a police detective who answers a homicide call on the night of his retirement party. A young girl, Ginny Larsen (Taryn Knowles), has been brutally murdered and her mother, Margaret Larsen (Patricia Clarkson), makes Jerry take a solemn vow to find her killer.
The police quickly identify Toby Jay Wadenah (Benicio Del Toro) as Ginny’s killer, but in his gut, Jerry knows they’ve got the wrong man. Rather than retreat into retirement, he’s going to keep following the leads to Ginny’s murderer even after his fellow cops decide the case is closed.
The Pledge is streaming on Hulu.
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