Amazon Prime Video’s 10 finest hidden gems for if you want one thing new to you

Ah sure, the night ritual of scrolling via each streaming service on the lookout for one thing to observe solely to understand you’ve already wasted a complete 20 — no — 30 minutes! Overlook it. Tonight will simply should be one other Rick and Morty rewatch, or possibly a scroll via TikTok earlier than mattress. Tomorrow, you promise, you’ll decide a film upfront and finish this nightmare cycle.

We too endure from this syndrome, and we’re right here to provide you again that chunk of indecisive time. We’ve spent hours wading via each film class on Amazon Prime Video, previous rows of movies everybody’s already seen, to construct an inventory of the very best and most underseen films buried inside the depths of Amazon Originals and the handfuls of bad-action–thrillers-that-look-fake (please, cease making these!).

Right here you’ll discover a little bit one thing for each style. There’s a twisty romance thriller about catfishing, an action-packed Korean blockbuster, an indie horror gem, an undersung basic noir, a gripping climbing documentary, and rather more.

Listed here are the very best underrated films now streaming on Prime Video:

1.The Huge of Night time (2020)

Andrew Patterson’s The Huge of Night time is like an old-school sci-fi radio play come to life on display screen. In 1950s New Mexico, a younger switchboard operator (Sierra McCormick) picks up an odd frequency enjoying over the air. Then native calls begin to pour in reporting an odd sighting within the sky. Patterson’s mesmerizing debut echoes the thriller and awe of Shut Encounters of the Third Form and unravels a taut but imaginative narrative harking back to a Twilight Zone episode. Clocking in at a decent 89 minutes, The Huge of Night time delivers simply the correct amount of suspense and intrigue. If that’s not sufficient, there’s even a improbable 4-minute monitoring shot that’s certain to impress.

watch: The Huge of Night time is now streaming on Prime Video.

2. Honeymoon (2014)

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Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway), are newlyweds who can’t preserve their palms off one another. Good factor they only arrived at their distant honeymoon cabin. Too dangerous shit is about to get actually unusual actually shortly. Bea disappears in the course of the night time. She begins appearing unusual and talking humorous. Bizarre marks present up on her legs. A superb debut characteristic from Leigh Janiak (The Worry Avenue Trilogy), Honeymoon deserves way more acclaim than it’s gotten, as it is a horror movie that excels in evoking lots with a little bit. Janiak concocts an environment of creeping pressure and paranoia with an emphasis on slow-pacing, prickly sound design, and a mysterious narrative that teases greater than it reveals. Honeymoon accomplishes what most large studio horror movies would kill for.

watch: Honeymoon is now streaming on Prime Video.

3. Who You Assume I Am (2021)

Juliette Binoche is without doubt one of the — if not the — best actresses of our time. In Who You Assume I Am, a dramatic thriller filled with sneaky twists, she elevates an excellent movie with yet one more deeply human efficiency. After divorced professor Claire Millaud is ghosted by her sizzling youthful boyfriend, she decides to create a faux Fb profile to search out him. Beneath this faux persona, she befriends her ex-lover’s roommate, one other younger hottie (François Civil), and the 2 start an internet love affair. Sure, this film is about Juliette Binoche catfishing a youthful man, however I promise, it’s not as low cost and sensational as that sounds. The narrative snakes and turns in surprisingly profound methods as Binoche conveys layers of emotional and psychological depth.

watch: Who You Assume I Am is now streaming on Prime Video.

4. The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

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There’s no femme fatale, sprawling skyscrapers, or hard-bitten detectives on this noir. There are hardly any scenes set at night time. And but Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker, the primary movie noir directed by a girl, is as taut, partaking, and suspenseful as any basic crime drama. The plot is easy: A crazed killer is on the unfastened, hitchhiking from automobile to automobile throughout vacant dusty highways. And he’s simply gotten inside his subsequent victims’ car. The movie principally takes place contained in the automobile, with three males. Few different characters are launched, and dialogue is saved to a minimal, however Lupino’s digicam retains us on edge. Claustrophobic and with the promise of hazard looming round each nook, The Hitch-Hiker feels as if the killer’s pistol is geared toward our again the entire runtime.

watch: The Hitch-Hiker is now streaming on Prime Video.

5. Breathe (2015)

Whilst you might in all probability title each film you’ve seen Mélanie Laurent in, I doubt you knew she additionally hung out behind the digicam. The French actress’s second directorial effort, Breathe, is the movie that involves thoughts at any time when I take into consideration criminally underseen gems. It’s a easy drama about two teenage ladies who grow to be fast mates. However the place it thrives is the best way Laurent brilliantly and sensitively captures how relationships between younger ladies can fester into intoxicating obsession. Excellently directed by Laurent and anchored by a pair of charged performances from Joséphine Japy and Lou de Laâge, Breathe is an emotional gut-punch that extra folks ought to see.

watch: Breathe is now streaming on Prime Video via IMDb TV.

6. Watermelon Man (1970)

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Jeff Gerber is a racist white man who appears within the mirror one morning and discovers he’s now a Black man. That premise could not sound remotely groundbreaking in 2022, but it surely’s fairly unimaginable that this 1970 scorching satire about race from a Black filmmaker was produced by a significant studio. Melvin Van Peebles’s Watermelon Man — his solely studio film earlier than he went on to fund his personal initiatives — is the kind of audacious comedy that dares you not to chortle. Godfrey Cambridge’s efficiency as Jeff builds in absurdity to such outrageous levels that you just’re left together with your mouth agape.

watch: Watermelon Man is now streaming on Prime Video.

7. Meru (2015)

Credit score: Jimmy Chin / Little Monster / Kobal / Shutterstock

Everybody is aware of Free Solo, however Alex Honnold’s gravity-defying climb is simply the best-known documentary by directing-producing duo Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Meru got here first and charted three males’s a number of makes an attempt to summit the titular peak within the Himalayas. This isn’t simply one other thrilling (and terrifying) climbing doc, although. Meru examines the human psychological urge to beat mountains and the way even the intense chance of loss of life received’t cease these guys. Meru is as bonkers as it’s stunning.

watch: Meru is now streaming on Prime Video.

8. Assassination (2015)

Large, action-packed historic blockbusters really feel like a rarity today, however Assassination, a South Korean spy thriller from Choi Dong-hoon, will definitely scratch that itch. Set in 1933 in the course of the Japanese occupation of Korea, the movie follows a gaggle of Korean resistance fighters courted for a top-secret assassination. The person behind the mission, although, may simply be a Japanese spy. Jun Ji-hyun leads the insurgent crew as a kick-ass sniper alongside Squid Recreation star Lee Jung-jae, and Ha Jung-woo (The Handmaiden). Assassination is thick with plot and some too many characters to maintain monitor of, and it’s a whopping 2 hours and 20 minutes. However in the event you love getting misplaced in interval action-adventures bursting with beautiful manufacturing design, it’s effectively well worth the time dedication.

watch: Assassination is now streaming on Prime Video.

9. Come to Daddy (2020)

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Elijah Wooden has spent a lot of his post-Lord of the Rings profession main low-budget style movies, from Maniac to Grand Piano and Cooties, and that is one other enjoyable deal with. In Ant Timpson’s Come to Daddy, Wooden is a Beverly Hills hipster who reveals up at a cabin in some faraway woods after receiving a letter from his estranged father. That’s about as a lot plot as it’s best to know moving into. However I promise: Issues flip delightfully bizarre and abruptly gory. Come to Daddy is the proper decide in the event you’re on the lookout for a 98-minute darkish horror-comedy jaunt into the woods.

watch: Come to Daddy is now streaming on Prime Video.

10. The Unusual Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

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The Unusual Love of Martha Ivers is a melodrama dripping with blackmail, homicide, and jealousy — the very best variety! Even higher, it’s received a killer forged together with a deliciously menacing Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas in his debut position, and noir icon Lizabeth Scott. After a younger wealthy woman’s aunt is murdered, we soar ahead 17 years to when the woman’s childhood crush returns dwelling for the primary time for the reason that crime. A twisty sport of blackmail ensues as varied events work to hide the reality of the homicide and shield themselves, some for love, some for pure maniacal energy.

watch: The Unusual Love of Martha Ivers is now streaming on Prime Video.