As Wake Up Dead Man, The Housemaid, and the ongoing Scream and Zootopia franchises prove, there is still a hefty market for the mystery film. Some of them make money or find some level of success but nonetheless aren’t particularly impressive, e.g. Don’t Worry Darling, The Girl on the Train, Deep Water. Others are great but fly under the radar entirely. But, for the most part, when a mystery film is really solid, it remains popular throughout the decades. For instance, the aughts had Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, Memento, Identity, and Sherlock Holmes and they’re all still talked about. You can even see clips of them on your Instagram feed from time to time.
The same goes for the 2010s films Prisoners, Gone Girl, The Hateful Eight, and, of course, Knives Out. But the following mystery films? Even if they were popular at the time of release, they seem to have been mostly forgotten to time. It would be great for that to change.
7) A Haunting in Venice
The third and most recent of Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptations, A Haunting in Venice, didn’t get quite enough credit for adding a nice creepy horror coating to the mystery film proceedings. It’s also extremely well shot, taking on creative angles at every turn which help to make its setting genuinely feel haunted. It’s like how Branagh played with camera angles in the first Thor, but in a way that’s not overtly noticeable and annoying.
Branagh’s Poirot movies are essentially the more serious of the Knives Out movies and, while not as infectiously fun, they are admirable adaptations of well-worn source material. Who knows if we’ll get more of these things after Venice but, if we do, fingers crossed that Branagh continues to toy with the mystery movie formula.
Stream A Haunting in Venice on Prime Video.
6) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
A perfect addition to David Fincher’s visually and tonally dark filmography, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo unfortunately did not make quite enough to kick of the intended trilogy. We got the soft reboot/sequel The Girl in the Spider’s Web, but that’s no more than a bland cut-rate emulation of Fincher’s style without a strong script.
The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, kicked off by their cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” grabs you and yanks you into this grim, snow-covered world and never lets go. It’s an intense movie, though one that was a questionable holiday season release. But, in short, it’s right there with The Game as the most underappreciated work of Fincher’s filmography.
Stream The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) on Peacock.
5) Doubt
It may be slow for some, but Doubt is powerful. And, considering it’s led by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Meryl Streep, “powerful” is the word to describe the acting on display as well. Not to mention, Viola Davis steals the whole thing with just one scene.
However, if you’re looking for a mystery movie that has the central question answered in act three, this isn’t the one for you. This movie leaves its mystery hanging in the air and in the minds of those who have just finished watching it.
Stream Doubt on Hulu.
4) Crimson Peak
A visually stunning romantic horror movie with a compelling mystery at its core, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak checks quite a few boxes. It does end up feeling like it’s more style than substance, but when its style is so illustrious it’s hard to complain.
And, of course, there is a narrative here that keeps you hooked. The finale may be somewhat easy to predict compared to other entries on this list, but it’s still very much a ride worth taking because of its devotion to replicating the haunting gothic tales of yesteryear. Not to mention, while Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska have believable chemistry, this is one of the movies out there that proves Jessica Chastain is a powerhouse.
3) Side Effects
The second film on our list to feature Rooney Mara, Side Effects is one of the five movies Steven Soderbergh helmed between the years of 2011 and 2013 and it is almost certainly the most underrated. The only one that gives it a run for its money in that regard is Haywire.
In short, Side Effects is pretty compelling from the jump. It’s as much an analysis of medical malpractice as it is a murder mystery. And because of the wringer it puts Jude Law’s character through, it never stops being tense.
Stream Side Effects on Prime Video.
2) Blow Out
In the grand echelon of Brian De Palma’s filmography, Blow Out isn’t entirely unheard of, but undoubtedly his next film, Scarface, is far more talked about today. And that’s a shame because, no offense to Tony Montana, but Blow Out is the best movie De Palma has ever made.
De Palma was always great for a mystery, showing his comfort in the genre throughout the ’80s by referencing Hitchcock movies. First was Dressed to Kill, which wears its Psycho influence on its sleeve, Blow Out was essentially his take on Rear Window, and Body Double is his erotic version of Vertigo and Dial M for Murder (there are splashes of Rear Window in that one too). But Blow Out is his magnum opus, a version of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation that ups the tension to an even greater extent.
Stream Blow Out for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
1) Brick
He may have made a detour to a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but Rian Johnson is first and foremost a master of the mystery genre. And before his three (thus far) Knives Out movies and before his creation of Poker Face, he got his start with a little mystery movie called Brick.
It’s Raymond Chandler if his The Long Goodbye was set in a high school, with dialogue that is just the right mixture of classic noir prose and the flippant tone of modern youth. It’s one part drug dealer gang war movie, one part grim 10 Things I Hate About You (also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and one part quest to identify who killed an ex-girlfriend. It works and is about as close to a crime epic one can make for $450,000.