Brace yourself as you thrill to cult favorites from Jordan Peele, Christopher Nolan, and Emerald Fennell.

9 thrillers on Peacock to get your blood pumping

Brace yourself as you thrill to cult favorites from Jordan Peele, Christopher Nolan, and Emerald Fennell.

April 14, 2026 5:00 p.m. ET

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Saoirse Ronan in 'Hanna,' Daniel Kaluuya in 'Nope,' Guy Pearce in 'Memento'. Credit:

Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection; Universal Pictures; Newmarket Releasing/Courtesy Everett Collection

Life, as we all know, is filled with anxiety. But there’s *real *anxiety, and then there’s the anxious *thrill* of a good movie.

We’re talking about scenarios involving possible alien invasions, teenage assassins, and ghosts in terrifying rabbit suits foretelling the end of the world. All scary, sure, but entertaining as hell — as long as you can handle the tension.

Peacock has an impressive collection of thrillers in its library — from heady Oscar nominees to cult classics from some of our most lauded filmmakers.

Take a deep breath and hold on tight. Here are the best thrillers currently streaming on Peacock.

Bugonia (2025)

Jesse Plemons makes contact with Emma Stone in 'Bugonia'.

Teddy (Jesse Plemons) has kidnapped one of the world’s most powerful women, Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a ruthless CEO and public face of a pharmaceutical juggernaut. Teddy is convinced Michelle is part of an alien species attempting to enslave humanity. (Naturally, he shaved her head to make sure she can’t contact her ship — that’s just simple logic.)

As he holds her captive in his basement, a battle of wills develops between a seemingly conspiratorial loon and a corporate master of persuasion. Ultimately the plan goes… slightly awry, shall we say? Based on a South Korean cult fave, this is another strange and wholly enthralling experiment from Yorgos Lanthimos.

Where to watch *Bugonia*: Peacock

**Director:** Yorgos Lanthimos

**Cast:** Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone

Conclave (2024)

Ralph Fiennes stares at one of his shady fellow cardinals in 'Conclave'.

Courtesy of Focus Features

Whenever the time comes to select a new pope, it becomes a guessing game — and a waiting game. That makes it a perfect subject for a religious thriller. Who are the candidates? Who wants the job? Who wants it but is pretending not to? Who has skeletons in his closet? And what’s it going to take to sway voters?

Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) has to contend with these questions and more — including ideological ones, as contenders have very different ideas about the direction of the Church — in this papal potboiler. As EW writes, “Director Edward Berger keeps us guessing, ratcheting up the tension as each new twist snowballs on top of the last.”

Where to watch *Conclave*: Peacock

**EW grade:** A- (read the review)

**Director:** Edward Berger

**Cast:** Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Rossellini

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Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut (2004)

Jake Gyllenhaal looks at a wormhole (not pictured) in 'Donnie Darko'.

Mary Evans /Courtesy Everett Collection

If there’s a definitive cult film of the 2000s, it’s Richard Kelly’s *Donnie Darko*. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a troubled, sleepwalking teenager who has recurring visions of a man named Frank in a hideous-looking rabbit costume. One such vision saves Donnie from the jet engine that inexplicably crashes through his roof into his bedroom; then again, Frank insists the world is going to end in 28 days.

See? Doesn’t that just scream “cult film”? Well, three years after its initial 2001 release, Kelly delivered this upsized director’s cut, which is 21 minutes longer. It provides new answers and context while maintaining the original version’s sense of cosmic mystery.

Where to watch *Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut*: Peacock

**Director:** Richard Kelly

**Cast:** Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Beth Grant, Holmes Osbourne, Noah Wyle, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Freaks (2018)

Lexy Kolker and Emile Hirsch remain indoors in 'Freaks'.

Well Go USA/Courtesy Everett Collection

When is a superhero movie not a superhero movie? In *Freaks*, some individuals have superhuman abilities, but rather than being appreciated for their gifts, they’re viewed as — you guessed it — freaks. Or, more officially, “Abnormals.” Anyone spotted with the telltale blood drip from one of their eyes is shot on sight.

Seven-year-old Chloe (Lexy Kolker) has been raised in seclusion by her father (Emile Hirsch), but is getting old enough to figure out the real truth on her own — including the special abilities she might possess. This is a dark, fascinating spin on familiar material. Kolker is the real hero, delivering a remarkable, star-making performance.

Where to watch *Freaks*: Peacock

**Director:** Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky

**Cast:** Lexy Kolker, Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Grace Park, Amanda Crew, Ava Telek

Hanna (2011)

Saoirse Ronan takes aim in 'Hanna'.

Alex Bailey/Focus Features

Meet Hanna (Saoirse Ronan). She’s a 15-year-old girl, but she’s been raised since the age of 2 to be an assassin, trained by her father (Eric Bana) in advanced combat techniques, gunplay, and even spycraft.

Why? Well, no spoilers but she’s not exactly an ordinary kid, and Dad knows his former compatriots at the CIA — namely the ice-cold Marissa (Cate Blanchett) — will be coming after her someday. That day is getting closer.

It sounds like a typical assassin flick, but it’s more than that. In consciously crafting what amounts to a dark fairy tale, director Joe Wright takes cues from such unlikely sources as David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick.

Where to *watch Hanna*: Peacock

**Director:** Joe Wright

**Cast:** Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Jessica Barden, Olivia Williams, Tom Hollander, Jason Flemyng

The Invitation (2015)

Michiel Huisman and Tammy Blanchard totally have no sinister intent in 'The Invitation'.

Drafthouse Films

Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) are invited to attend a dinner party at the home of his ex-wife, Eden (Tammy Blanchard), and her new husband, David (Michiel Huisman). It’s been two years since their son’s death led Will and Eden to divorce, but while he still struggles with the loss, she seems to have found solace. How? Well, that brings us to why she’s gathered everyone together this evening.

She and David want to introduce their friends to a group — it’s not a cult, don’t call it a cult — that specializes in a possibly radical form of therapy. Will finds the whole thing suspicious. Is he being paranoid, or is there indeed something sinister afoot?

Where to watch *The Invitation*: Peacock

**Director:** Karyn Kusama

**Cast:** Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lindsay Burdge, John Carroll Lynch, Toby Huss

Memento (2000)

Guy Pearce remembers what his car looks like in in 'Memento'.

Danny Rothenberg/Newmarket

If you require a straightforward chronological structure, keep on moving. Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough film follows Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), who suffers from anterograde amnesia (no short-term memory) and relies on a combination of notes, photographs, and tattoos to make his way through life. His life, by the way, is little more than an elaborate revenge scheme designed to find (and kill) the man who murdered his wife.

The backwards structure keeps things within Leonard’s temporally narrow point of view. In doing so, Nolan can gradually reveal the full picture, which hinges specifically on the act of forgetting.

As EW’s review put it, “*Memento* has the uniquely disorienting quality of a puzzle that reveals its design the fewer pieces there are in place.”

Where to watch *Memento*: Peacock

**EW grade:** A (read the review)

**Director:** Christopher Nolan

**Cast:** Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Stephen Tobolowsky

Nope (2022)

Daniel Kaluuya, sitting on a horse, underneath a UFO, in 'Nope'. Universal

An odd cinematic amalgam that blends elements of Westerns, alien-invasion flicks, and *Twilight Zone*-type mysteries, *Nope *revolves around OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya), his sister Em (Keke Palmer) and their horse ranch. Business is, at the moment, bad — in part because an unseen presence in the sky seems to be stealing horses.

But this isn’t a movie about fighting off aliens from a UFO. The way OJ and Em see it, this is an opportunity to capture photographic proof of a UFO — which is clearly hovering above their ranch, but keeps out of sight — and change their fortunes. Things get more complicated and dangerous than that, but suffice it to say it’s a strange, gorgeous twist on flying-saucer archetypes.

Where to watch *Nope*: Peacock

**EW grade:** B+ (read the review)

**Director:** Jordan Peele

**Cast:** Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Keith David

Promising Young Woman (2020)

Nurse Carey Mulligan puts together her grand plan in 'Promising Young Woman'.

Cassie (Carey Mulligan) turns cold as ice whenever she thinks about her best friend Nina, who was raped by a medical school classmate and — after her complaint was dismissed — dropped out and committed suicide.

Years later, Cassie works at a coffee shop and moonlights as a party girl who wants to teach predatory young men a lesson. Things start looking up when she gets involved with a nice guy (Bo Burnham) from college.

The past, however, has a nasty habit of not leaving us alone, and this is not a romantic comedy. The dark directions Emerald Fennell’s film goes are, as EW writes, “destined to be debated long after the last outrageous frame.”

Where to watch *Promising Young Woman*: Peacock

**EW grade:** B+ (read the review)

**Director:** Emerald Fennell

**Cast:** Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox

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