There aren’t many recently released mysteries on Netflix this month, but the streamer is sharing four classics in the genre. L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, The Conversation, and The Parallax View should be enough for almost any mystery movie lover. Strangely enough, three of those four films were released in 1974, but it’s not a conspiracy. The ’70s were just an underrated decade for movies.
Although there’s a thin line between mysteries and thrillers on Netflix, all of our selections this month will give armchair detectives a workout as they try to make sense of the clues and solve the cases before the on-screen heroes. That’s part of the fun of watching mysteries. Now, you can take your shot at the best mysteries on Netflix right now.
Need more Netflix in your life? Check out our roundups of the best movies on Netflix and the best shows on Netflix as well.
L.A. Confidential (1997) new
L.A. Confidential has endured for over 25 years because it seemingly presents three different mysteries before slowly revealing how they are all tied to the same case. In the meantime, the audience is left to play detective alongside the LAPD’s Edmund Exley (Pearce), Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), and Wendell “Bud” White (Crowe).
Each of the three cops feels like they have a personal stake in the outcome of their respective cases, but White and Exley have a particularly strong dislike for each other. What they don’t realize is that none of their cases can be solved until they stop punching each other and start sharing information. If these cops can’t trust each other, then they will all soon be dead.
Chinatown (1974) new
“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” The very last line in Roman Polanski’s Chinatown is famous, but you can’t fully appreciate what a kick in the teeth it is until you watch the entire movie. The Jake mentioned in the quote is private investigator J. J. “Jake” Gittes. As far as he knew, Jake was just investigating Hollis I. Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling) at the behest of Hollis’ wife to see if he was having an affair.
That’s why Jake is so surprised when Hollis ends up dead. And it turns out that his widow, Evelyn Cross Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), never met Jake before threatening to sue him over the pictures of Hollis that ruined his reputation. Someone has played Jake as a sucker, and he’s not going to just take that quietly. Yet, this is an investigation that goes far beyond the scope of Jake’s previous cases. And Jake won’t like where the facts take him.
The Conversation (1974) new
Francis Ford Coppola wasn’t just making Godfather movies in the 1970s, although The Conversation is now one of the lesser-known films in the director’s canon. This film is part mystery and part paranoid thriller as surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is hired to spy on a couple.
When putting together a complete recording of the couple’s conversation, Harry believes that he’s overheard their plans for a murder. But finding the potential victim and their would-be killer in time to stop the crime may be beyond Harry’s abilities.
The Parallax View (1974) new
Whenever anyone brings up the great paranoid thrillers of the ’70s, The Parallax View has to be considered one of the best of those movies. It also has a big mystery at the heart of the film. Three years prior to the story, TV journalist Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) witnessed the assassination of presidential candidate Senator Charles Carroll (William Joyce). Now, all of the witnesses are dying under suspicious circumstances, and Lee is convinced that she’s next.
Lee approaches her ex-boyfriend, journalist Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty), for help. But Joseph doesn’t take Lee’s claims seriously until she also ends up dead. Out of guilt and anger, Joseph takes up Lee’s cause and begins actively investigating who has been killing the witnesses. Unfortunately for Joseph, that just makes him another target on someone else’s hit list.
Reptile (2023)
Like many mysteries, Reptile opens with the discovery of a dead body. In this film, the victim is Summer Elswick (Matilda Lutz). And between Summer’s boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), her estranged husband, Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman), and Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt), there’s no shortage of suspects.
Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio del Toro) has had to solve plenty of murders before. But Tom finds this case particularly challenging because the clues lead him to people he knows and works with. The rot goes deep in this police department, and Tom’s life is about to be turned upside down.
Sea of Love (1989)
In Sea of Love, Detective Frank Keller (Al Pacino) has a new love connection with a woman named Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin). Under ordinary circumstances, this would be a cause for celebration, because Frank’s been a little lovelorn since his wife left him for another man. The problem is that Frank met Helen while hunting down a psycho serial killer who is targeting lonely men. As you may have guessed, Helen is a good candidate to be the prime suspect in Frank’s case.
Frank’s heart and his career are on the line as he attempts to definitively learn if his new girlfriend is a killer. And if Frank doesn’t watch his back, he may find himself as the killer’s next victim.
The Weekend Away (2022)
The Weekend Away starts with a girls weekend gone wrong, as Beth (Leighton Meester) awakens without clear memories of what happened to her the night before. More alarmingly, Beth’s friend, Kate (Christina Wolfe), is missing without a trace. Beth’s husband, Rob (Luke Norris), is surprisingly unmoved by her panic. So Beth turns to a local cab driver, Zain (Ziad Bakri), to help her piece together the previous night’s events.
But when Kate’s body finally turns up, Beth and Zain are both considered suspects by the police. And that’s not the only unpleasant surprise waiting for Beth as she attempts to discover who killed her friend.
Missing (2023)
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
Catherine “Kya” Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is drawn to two men in Where the Crawdads Sing. After being abandoned by her family to grow up alone in a swamp, Kya befriends a young man named Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith). And when Kya’s romance with Tate burns out, she soon finds love in the arms of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson), a popular jock in town.
However, when one of Kya’s lovers ends up dead, she finds herself on trial for murder. And the townspeople and the local police already believe that Kya is guilty. But if Kya didn’t kill her lover, then who did?
In for a Murder (2021)
If you don’t speak Polish, then you should be glad to hear that In For a Murder has an English dub. Anna Smolowik headlines the film as Magda Borowska, a mother and a true crime fan who gave up on her dreams a long time ago. But when a dead young woman is found in town, Magda is taken aback when she realizes that the girl was wearing the same necklace that her friend, Weronika Bielecka (Emma Giegzno), wore before she disappeared years ago.
Determined to know if the girl is somehow linked to Weronika, Magda embarks on her own investigation, much to the annoyance of her ex, Commissioner Jacek Sikora (Pawel Domagala). And while Magda’s family mocks her amateur detective routine, the danger she uncovers is all too real.
No One Gets Out Alive (2021)
No One Gets Out Alive blends mystery and horror as it puts the audience in the shoes of Ambar (Cristina Rodlo), an undocumented Mexican immigrant who has few options in the U.S.
After finding a place to stay courtesy of her landlord, Red (Marc Menchaca), Ambar is unnerved by Red’s unhinged brother, Becker (David Figlioli). More alarmingly, Ambar witnesses several ghostly women in the house and becomes convinced that it is haunted. But given her situation, Ambar has no choice but to stay until it becomes too late to run.
Inheritance (2020)
In the mystery-thriller Inheritance, Lauren Monroe (Lily Collins) learns a dark family secret about her late father, Archer Monroe (Patrick Warburton), that could bring down their entire family. And that secret is Archer’s former friend and business partner, Morgan Warner (Simon Pegg).
Morgan tells Lauren that Archer held him captive for 30 years to prevent him from exposing his role in the death of an innocent person. And Morgan seems to know where all of the bodies are buried, so to speak. This forces Lauren to contend with her father’s legacy, and what she should do with Morgan now that she knows the truth.
I See You (2019)
Police Detective Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) is coming apart at the seams in I See You. While investigating an abduction of a young boy that mirrors events from decades earlier, Greg is also dealing with his unfaithful wife, Jackie (Helen Hunt), and his increasingly resentful son, Connor (Judah Lewis). To top things off, Greg’s home is seemingly haunted, as unexplainable happenings occur.
But when Jackie’s former lover, Todd (Sam Trammell), ends up dead in the house, Greg and Jackie are forced to wonder if Connor killed him, or if something else did him in.
Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023)
Serving as a cinematic follow-up to the Luther series, Luther: The Fallen Sun follows the titular detective on an all-new adventure. After a stint behind bars, Luther is forced to plan a prison break when elusive serial killer David Robey (Andy Serkis) starts hunting people down. As the clock starts ticking and the bodies start piling up, Luther must make a series of harrowing decisions to track down and eliminate his foe before his evildoing becomes totally unstoppable.
For those dedicated viewers of the episodic run, The Fallen Sun plays like a silver screen extension of the series which precedes it. Gripping from start to finish, it’s not exactly changing the genre in any way, but The Fallen Sun certainly delivers an exceptional story with great characters.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
The Pale Blue Eye (2022)
Christian Bale and writer-director Scott Cooper unite once again for the latter’s latest feature, The Pale Blue Eye. Bale stars as Augustus Landor, an 1830s New York detective who is tasked with investigating a horrific murder at the United States Military Academy. Hoping to gain intel from a devoutly silent bunch of cadets, Landor takes on an assistant for the homicide case — a disillusioned recruit named Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).
Together, the hardened vet and aspiring poet follow a series of leads that seem to point toward an especially sinister kind of black magic as the culprit. While Bale may be the reason we arrive to the film, the performance that will bewilder most viewers is that of Harry Melling, who delivers a defiant take on the classic American writer.
Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
The Nice Guys (2016)
Murder Mystery (2019)
Spenser Confidential (2020)
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
Forgotten (2017)
In the Korean thriller, Forgotten, Kang Ha-neul stars as Jin-seok, a young man living with his family in 1997. After moving into a new home, Jin witnesses the abduction of his brother, Yoo-seok (Kim Mu-yeol). Nineteen days later, Yoo is seemingly returned unharmed. And yet Jin becomes convinced that not only is his brother an impersonator, but so are their parents. Jin’s attempt to go for help leads to another shocking twist that completely destroys his world. There’s been a crime committed, but who is responsible and how is Jin connected to it?
Your Son (2018)
Fractured (2019)
Shimmer Lake (2017)
The Legacy of the Bones (2019)
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
Enola Holmes (2020)
Earthquake Bird (2019)
Lost Girls (2020)
Editors' Recommendations
- The best shows on Disney+ right now (January 2024)
- The 50 best shows on Netflix in January 2024
- The best romantic comedies on Netflix right now
- The best hidden gems on Netflix right now
- The 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now
