The Thriller Movies Paramount+ Subscribers Can Stream This October

Spooky season has shaped the October lineup on Paramount+. The service added a long list of horror and horror related titles on October 1, with further arrivals such as ‘Wildling’ and ‘V for Vengeance’ following later in the month. Tucked in among them are several thrillers for viewers who prefer tension to jump scares.

The new thriller movies on Paramount+ range from an Oscar winning social satire to a snowbound crime story, plus genre pieces built around hitmen and hostages. Tom’s Guide has spent recent weekends highlighting thriller additions worth streaming, and the selections below draw on that coverage and on the month’s official arrivals.

‘Parasite’

Directed by Bong Joon-ho, the 2019 South Korean film shifts between dark comedy, suspense and social satire. It became the first film not in English to win Best Picture, at the 2020 Oscars, and it earned more than $263 million worldwide. It arrived on the service on October 1.

The story follows the Kim family, who live in a cramped semi basement apartment and struggle to make ends meet. Their fortunes begin to change when son Ki-woo is offered a job tutoring the daughter of the wealthy Park family. Each relative then takes on a different identity to get hired inside the Park home.

Writer Dave Meikleham of Tom’s Guide describes the film as both a sharp satire of class inequality and a genuinely creepy thrill ride. He also singles out Song Kang-ho as the family patriarch, who delivers laughs before an unsettling finale takes over.

The film holds a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes. That kind of critical standing makes it an easy entry point for anyone sampling the month’s thrillers.

‘A Simple Plan’

Sam Raimi directed this crime thriller, which is adapted from Scott B. Smith’s bestselling novel. It takes a much quieter approach than the director’s usual work, letting tension build through its characters rather than flashy camera work. TheWrap lists it among the films arriving on October 1.

Set in rural Minnesota, it follows Hank Mitchell, played by Bill Paxton, his brother Jacob, played by Billy Bob Thornton, and their friend Lou, played by Brent Briscoe. The three discover a crashed plane buried in the snow, with a dead pilot and more than $4 million in cash inside.

Hank is the most reluctant to keep the money, believing the American Dream should be earned. The others have less of a moral compass, and the men agree that if no one claims the cash by spring, they will split it. Backstabbing and betrayal follow as Hank wrestles with his conscience and the greed of those closest to him.

The film holds a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It is a slow burning story about ordinary people making increasingly bad decisions, with paranoia and greed at its center.

‘Killer Joe’

This 2012 film is described as a slept on entry from the McConaissance era, and it is one of the late William Friedkin’s final films. It sparks to life when an unhinged family tries to have their estranged matriarch killed for insurance money.

The Smiths are desperate for cash after son Chris, played by Emile Hirsch, finds himself owing a small fortune to drug dealers. They turn to Joe Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, a corrupt cop who works as a hitman in his off hours.

The performance arrived a couple of years before McConaughey’s turn as Rust Cohle in ‘True Detective’, where he again played a charismatic and often chilling cop. Meikleham also credits the core cast overall and says the film is a reminder of how strong Juno Temple can be.

He recommends it for viewers who want dark chills mixed with twisted humor.

‘The Equalizer 2’

This 2018 sequel finds former black ops operative Robert McCall, played by Denzel Washington, working as a Lyft driver. In the first film he was working in a hardware store. The film is described as a violent but winning sequel that returns Washington to action star mode.

McCall is quickly pulled into a conspiracy after his friend Susan, played by Melissa Leo, runs into trouble on an assignment in Brussels. The perpetrators are led by his former associate Dave York, played by Pedro Pascal.

Fueled by vengeance again, McCall goes after the people responsible, donning disguises and at one point taking out the bad guys with a teapot. Meikleham likens the approach to a Hitman style assassin and sees a nod to Jason Bourne.

He adds that it is always a pleasure to watch Washington play a straight up action star.

‘Hostage’

This 2005 thriller is described as often forgotten and well worth seeking out on Paramount+. Bruce Willis stars as Jeff Talley, a former hostage negotiator who has taken a supposedly relaxing job as police chief of a sleepy suburban town.

That calm ends when three teenagers kidnap a family after a robbery goes sideways. Talley is forced to rely on his old negotiating tricks.

The twist is that the high tech family home hides a secret vault holding a disc with sensitive financial information belonging to the mob. A shady syndicate then kidnaps Talley’s wife and daughter to force him to retrieve it.

Meikleham describes the film as part ‘The Negotiator’ and part ‘Panic Room’. Viewers who have already seen it may want to say whether Talley’s impossible choice between the hostages and his own family still holds up, and whether the vault twist is the part of ‘Hostage’ they remember most.