For the past several months, I’ve really gotten into watching thriller films. My requirements are that they either have a comedic theme and/or a suspension of beliefs element to them, like M3GAN and Abigail, or are cerebral, macabre, or gory, such as The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster and Speak No Evil. So after watching the trailer for A24’s Opus, I knew it would be the perfect movie to stream this upcoming stormy weekend in the Bronx.

The Mark Anthony Green-written-and-directed flick Opus stars Ayo Edebiri as Ariel Ecton, a young journalist who is invited to the remote compound of Alfred Moretti, a pop icon who mysteriously disappeared from the limelight 30 years ago and is played by John Malkovich. While attempting to learn why Moretti vanished and why she specifically received his invitation, she finds herself amidst “the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists” and caught in the middle of his twisted web.

I’ll admit that plot sounds rather familiar if you keep abreast of new trailer releases or have watched Blink Twice or The Hunt, but the entertainment in this thriller sub-genre–person gets kidnapped or nefariously invited to a far off land and is made to do things against their will–is in discovering the clandestine reason for the scheme. 

Another reason I’m eager to stream Opus this weekend is the illustrious Juliette Lewis, who plays talk show host Clara Armstrong. If you’ve seen Natural Born Killers, another thriller, then you know.

Now, if you’re looking for me while it’s grey, windy, and nasty this Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be cuddled up on my dark teal sofa, watching Opus … during the daytime, of course, because the movie hits a little too close to home with Ariel and I both being writers who have traveled to get a story or few.

If you want to have a thriller film festival this weekend, then check out the below gallery of the trailers for the movies I mentioned above for inspiration.

Thriller Flick Recommendations