thrillers

“It” girl actress Sydney Sweeney plays a drug addict and probable killer whose mom, played by Julianne Moore, will do anything to save her, according to a trailer Apple TV+ dropped recently for the new Echo Valley movie. It’s now streaming, as of Friday, and you can watch the trailer below.

Ridley Scott produces the thriller, which also stars Kyle MacLachlan and Domhall Gleeson.

Update: Echo Valley, now available to watch on Apple TV+, garners mixed reviews so far. Empire calls it a “superbly acted rural thriller.” Financial Times said it’s “delightedly twisty” with “dark dashes of Hitchcock.” But IGN calls it “hollow” and “dull,” and a New York Times review says: “A stellar cast led by Julianne Moore is unable to breathe life into this unsuccessful blend of maternal drama and crime caper.”

As someone who lived just over 150 miles from Paradise, California, when the Camp Fire utterly destroyed the town — and ended up ranking as the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire ever — the new trailer for upcoming rescue drama The Lost Bus got to me more than most teaser trailers do. Where I lived, I may have only suffered from harshly smoky conditions and relentless media coverage, but the trailer brought back the second-hand trauma with surprising emotional force.

In a story based on real events, Matthew McConaughey stars as a school bus driver and America Ferrera plays a school teacher determined to save 23 school kids in the fire’s path. The film gets a limited theatrical release before lighting up Apple TV+ in fall 2025. And as the western United States and Canada seem to suffer worsening fire seasons every year, and TV shows like Fire Country become hits, it seems like this film could further fuel the “wildfire thriller” genre.

The adventure film Fountain of Youth just hit Apple TV+. It stars John Krasinski and Natalie Portman in a dangerous hunt for the legendary spring with the power to restore the lost youth of anyone who drinks from it. The adventure borrows from classics such as Indiana Jones and National Treasure.

It’s one of summer 2025’s most-anticipated films. Watch the two trailers to get a taste of the excitement, or dive in and watch now!

Murderbot is not a horror series. It’s sci-fi action comedy, no matter what the name implies — a new trailer for the upcoming Apple TV+ series makes that clear. And the trailer also shows that the plot sticks close to Martha Wells’ award-winning novels.

Watch the trailer for Murderbot season 1 that debuts in May to see for yourself:

The Apple TV+ original film The Gorge neatly mixes romance and action, with a pair of highly trained agents falling in love while protecting the world from horrible monsters that lie hidden in the depths of the eponymous gorge.

It’s a fun popcorn movie, with stars Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Sigourney Weaver giving it their all. There’s plenty to enjoy for those who like action and for those who like romance. Put it on the calendar for your next date night.

That said, it benefits from the lower expectations for a straight-to-streaming film like this one. It’s fun, exciting, sweet … but not perfect.

No Apple TV+ movie ever had a bigger opening weekend than The Gorge, according to the streaming service. It seems viewers were drawn to the romantic action thriller starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller. The overwhelming response has cemented The Gorge film as one of the platform’s most talked-about releases. For those who enjoy premium sound quality, the debate between AirPods Beats continues, as showcased in this Spike Jonze short film.

With its record-breaking success, the film is already being discussed among the best Apple TV movies worth watching.

And this wasn’t the only thing Apple TV+ had to crow about — it revealed on Wednesday that Severance had just become its most popular series ever.

After a three-year wait that felt longer than a day working at Lumon Industries, Severance is finally back! The season two premiere, entitled “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” picks up right where we left our favorite corporate drones. In our Severance season 2 episode 1 recap, we look at the fascinating twists and turns that prove the show hasn’t lost its edge. As the season goes on, let’s see if it keeps it.

Anya Taylor-Joy, perhaps best known for starring in The Queen’s Gambit, is coming to Apple TV+. She’ll star in an adaptation of the bestselling crime thriller Lucky by Marissa Stapley.

In hit Apple TV+ sci-fi series Silo, Rebecca Ferguson’s engineer character, Juliette, spent her whole life toiling in the bowels of a giant tube sunk into the soil, protected along with the last 10,000 people on Earth from a supposedly deadly outside world. But she’s willing to risk venturing outside to find the truth in the season 2 trailer of dystopian drama. Apple TV+ dropped it Monday.

Update: Silo‘s eagerly awaited 10-episode second season emerged on Apple TV+ Friday, November 15, with the first episode. Tagline: “Juliette finds sanctuary in a silo long ago destroyed by war, thinking she’s alone.” Want a quick taste? Watch the first 5 minutes here.

Prime Target, a new conspiracy thriller series involving a math genius, an NSA agent and probably a whole lot of paranoia, begins streaming January 25, Apple TV+ said Thursday. The eight-episode series starring SAG Award winner Leo Woodall, Quintessa Swindell and Stephen Rea, among others. It comes to us from writer Steve Thompson (Sherlock, Vienna Blood).

Popular young movie stars Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy star alongside Sigourney Weaver in the upcoming thriller film The Gorge on Apple TV+, the streamer revealed Thursday. It noted the film, which has no firm release date yet, will get promoted along with season 2 of hit series Severance at pop culture festival CCXP24 in early December.

“They’re not keeping you out. They’re keeping them in,” reads the tagline for the Apple Original Film. And in bigger news for fans of the mind-bending workplace drama series, Apple noted Severance returns with its second season January 17 (for those who don’t already know).

The mystery that unfolded in the Apple TV+ series Sugar will continue with season two. The streaming service approved more episodes of the dark, gritty tale Wednesday. Highlights of the first season include a brilliant performance by Colin Farrell, as well as what was called “one of the greatest plot twists in recent TV history.”

“It has been incredibly exciting to see audiences around the world embrace Sugar, and we are thrilled to return for a second season,” said executive producers Audrey Chon and Simon Kinberg in a press release.

In a major milestone for Apple TV+, star-studded thriller Wolfs emerged as the most-viewed movie in the streaming platform’s history, according to new report. The achievement highlights the film industry’s ongoing debate over theatrical releases versus straight-to-streaming. With George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s star vehicle, Apple pulled back from a broad theatrical release to a limited one before streaming.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt reunite in darkly madcap comedy-thriller Wolfs, an Apple Original Film that started streaming on Apple TV+ Friday. For those who love to see modern takes on classic Hollywood vehicles where stars pretty much play themselves — and for anyone who just wants a good popcorn flick with lots of gunplay and humor — there’s no shortage of reasons to watch Wolfs. But those same traits may deter others, of course.

Just as we thought when Apple put out a Severance teaser Tuesday in Morse code saying nothing but “tomorrow,” word of a season 2 air date arrived Wednesday, along with a spooky teaser trailer. But our wishful thinking that the air date would come in fall 2024 was just that. It’s actually slated for January 17, 2025. And in the meantime, the short trailer below is worth a watch. It brings eerie Severance vibes.

Apple TV+ dropped an odd Severance Morse code teaser video Tuesday that simply spells out “tomorrow,” suggesting news about the workplace thriller’s second season will arrive Wednesday. We expect an air date announcement for fall 2024, and perhaps more.

Apple offered a scant first look at the upcoming season of the hit show during the WWDC24 keynote in June. But other than that, fans of the funny and disturbing workplace thriller have had little to go on — until now (or until tomorrow, that is).

Apple TV+ gave a series order on Tuesday to The Dispatcher, a crime thriller starring Patrick Brammall.

The upcoming series will follow an Australian police detective hunting for his missing daughter.

Blake Crouch, who wrote the bestselling novel Dark Matter that was adapted into a hit Apple TV+ series, said this week he’s open to the idea of making season 2.

The sci-fi thriller’s season one finale premiered Wednesday.

The action-comedy romance film Argylle stayed near the top of streaming popularity charts for a third week. The Apple TV+ spy-vs-spy thriller is chock full of celebrities.

Plus, the dark, gritty series Sugar continues to pull in big audiences on Apple’s streaming service for another week, too. It features Colin Farrell as a private investigator solving a mystery.

Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are teaming up again for The Instigators. It’s a buddy action comedy with the two playing thieves stealing from a corrupt politician.

The Apple TV+ film premieres in August.

Sunny, a mystery thriller with a darkly comic bent, will premiere on Apple TV+ this summer. The series will star Rashida Jones and a robot.

The two will work together in an attempt to locate the woman’s missing family.

Fans of darkly comedic spy thriller series Slow Horses rejoice! Another of Mick Herron’s acerbic novels, Down Cemetery Road, is coming to Apple TV+. The show will star Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, the streaming service said Tuesday.

“‘Down Cemetery Road’ has all the hallmarks of Mick Herron’s funny and acerbic writing, and I’m delighted we will be bringing it to life for Apple TV+ with such a stellar cast,” said Jay Hunt, creative director, Europe, Apple TV+. “Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson will make it an unmissable companion piece for ‘Slow Horses’ on our service.”

The hit series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is officially getting a season two. In addition, Apple TV+ struck a deal with Legendary Entertainment that will result in multiple spinoff series based on the franchise.

“We couldn’t be more excited for viewers to not only have the chance to experience even more thrills in season two, but to embark on epic, new journeys in the franchise as we expand Legendary’s Monsterverse,” said Morgan Wandell, head of international development for Apple TV+.

Dark Matter, one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade, is about to become an Apple TV+ series. It’s a thriller about a man lost in the multiverse trying to find his original universe, and stars Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly.

The trailer released Thursday asks the question “What if the person who abducted me is me?”

Apple TV+ pumped up its reputation as a hub for thought-provoking and visually stunning science fiction with Constellation, a series that’s part sci-fi, part horror and part family drama. The intricately plotted space thriller’s season finale airs Wednesday. And, as the season concludes, the show must clear a high bar to make the ending ring true.

After all, hit TV mysteries like Lost disappointed lots fans with their finales. And those same sci-fi fans (and their kids) are sick of being disappointed.

UPDATE: The show’s season finale is satisfying but does not “solve” the mysteries of space travelers’ fractured realities as much as it deepens them while inviting viewers, along with characters, to accept them. In some ways the show seems like a metaphor for mental illness as an unavoidable part of the human condition. The victim and their loved ones must accept what they cannot change so they can move on. And my Lysenko theory, below, turned out to be correct.