Credit: Netflix

The powerhouse reputation that Netflix wears like a badge of honour was not exactly made overnight, and definitely not as recently as in 2026. Then why are subscribers so curious about a half-yearly recap?

Because life is honestly too short to wait a decade or two to test a title’s re-watchability, especially when the genre is thriller. Thrillers deserve immediate attention and the kind of breakneck speed they reserve for the action in the celluloid.

While Netflix has gripping, diverse thriller movies coming and going now and then, not every one of them deserves the mid-year shoutout as a select few.

So, in case you’re wondering whether your 2026 favourite made the cut, here are the five best Netflix mystery movies from the first half of the year.

The five best thriller movies from the year so far

Apex (Baltasar Kormákur, 2026)

The hullabaloo surrounding Baltasar Kormákur’s Apex was not without reason, which is why it easily makes it to the top five Netflix Original thrillers of 2026. The survival drama tells the story of Sasha, an experienced rock climber grieving the death of her fellow climber who died tragically in a climbing accident in Norway. Hoping to escape the devastating grief and find some peace, she travels to a remote national park in Australia.

On the way, Sasha runs into Ben, an outdoorsman, at a local store, who helps her with directions. But little does she know that the man she requested assistance from is actually a cannibalistic serial killer on a never-ending mission of preying on solo travellers. Apex follows Sasha on her treacherous journey through the wilderness, which goes from blissful and melancholic to ruthlessly dangerous in the blink of an eye.

Thrash (Tommy Wirkola, 2026)

Another Netflix Original survival thriller that made the rounds of viewers’ watchlists almost repeatedly is Tommy Wirkola’s Thrash. Set in a coastal town struck by a deadly Category 5 hurricane, the movie follows a couple of stranded residents as they navigate rising floodwaters and an unexpected development that feels like Jaws again. As local levees break and water engulfs the town, spilt meat from a ruptured truck invites a horde of aggressive bull sharks.

Thrash focuses on multiple residents, including Lisa, a heavily pregnant woman trapped in her car amidst rising flood water and circling sharks; Dakota, an agoraphobic teenager; and the Olsen siblings, who are forced to make sense of the impossible to make it out alive from the disaster zone. Although the situation might feel natural and inevitable, it is important to note that disasters are of two types.

Enola Holmes 3 (Phillip Barantini, 2026)

While Apex and Thrash bring the uncomfortable guidelines of survival, Enola Holmes 3 prepares a platter of mystery and thrills that’s perfect for cosy marathons. Serving as the long-awaited sequel to Enola Holmes 2, the detective mystery movie follows the titular Victorian-era sleuth as she travels to Malta to open a new chapter of her life and marry Lord Tewkesbury.

As Enola grapples with whether becoming a wife will compromise her hard-earned freedom and stand as an obstacle to her rebellious nature, Sherlock goes missing right before the nuptials, derailing the wedding and prompting Dr Watson to seek Enola’s assistance in tracking him down. Enola Holmes 3 centres around Dr Watson, Enola, and Tewkesbury’s rescue mission, which may have been triggered by one abduction, but doesn’t stay that way for long.

War Machine (Patrick Hughes, 2026)

Essentially, one of the most-talked-about military thrillers of the year, War Machine is also the most-watched Netflix movie from the first half of 2026. The sci-fi thriller revolves around grieving combat engineer Recruit 81, who joins the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program to honour his late brother, who tragically lost his life in a deadly Taliban ambush in Afghanistan following an unsuspecting convoy breakdown.

While the program is undeniably brutal and the team has been pushing past limits with fierce intensity, their final exercise turns out to be a nightmare. During their final 24-hour survival test in the Georgia wilderness, the unit stumbles upon a lethal, futuristic robot, who turns out to be a war machine on a mission of global invasion. Despite being armed only with basic training gear and explosives, War Machine follows the recruits as they are forced to battle the otherworldly threat.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (Tom Harper, 2026)

Finally, the historical crime thriller that every Netflix subscriber had their eyes on in 2026 is Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which sees Cillian Murphy reprise his iconic role as Birmingham gangster Thomas Shelby. Set during the Second World War, the period drama follows an isolated, reclusive Tommy, who has completely withdrawn from the world.

But his detachment doesn’t last too long as he’s pulled back from self-exile when a Nazi-backed plot to counterfeit British currency threatens to collapse the nation’s economy. It turns out that in his absence, his son, Duke, who took over control, has fallen in with a fascist Nazi counterfeiting scheme led by John Beckett and in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, Tommy must return to destroy the threat and save his family before facing his ultimate reckoning.