Best South American thriller movies
A curated collection of popular thriller movies from South America.
4x4 (2019)
4x4 (2019)
Buenos Aires, Argentina. A luxurious van is parked on the sidewalk. A man enters with the purpose of stealing whatever he can find, but when he wants to leave, he cannot. The doors do not open, the control panel does not respond: the van has become an armored box and he is trapped like a mouse.
The Hijacking of Flight 375 (2023)
The Hijacking of Flight 375 (2023)
Brazil, 1988. An unemployed tractor driver hijacks VASP flight 375 and orders commander Murilo to crash the plane on the Planalto Palace to kill the president - whom he considers guilty for the country's devastating economic crisis.
Pacto de Fuga (2020)
Pacto de Fuga (2020)
During the last years of Pinochet's military regime, a group of militants from the "Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front" plan a prison break of political prisoners, through a tunnel that will take them 18 months to dig.
M8 - When Death Rescues Life (2019)
A Jaula (2022)
A Jaula (2022)
It's just another luxury car being stolen on a street in São Paulo... or not. A thief easily gets into the SUV parked on a quiet street, but when he tries to get out, he discovers he is trapped, without water or food.
The Silence of the Sky (2016)
The Silence of the Sky (2016)
After being a victim of rape within their own home, Diana chooses to keep the trauma secret. Mario, her husband, also has something to hide. The silence takes the couple's account over the day turns gradually into a peculiar form of violence.
Absent (2011)
Absent (2011)
Sebastiano teaches high school gym classes and coaches swimming. He’s got a job, a girlfriend, and a pretty normal life. But as young Martin starts to infiltrate Sebastiano’s life, his world will get turned upside down. Eerie from the first frame, this Hitchcockian thriller portrays sexual obsession with terrifying realism.
Animal (2018)
Animal (2018)
Antonio Decoud is a conservative family man who is forced by destiny to face an unexpected situation that shakes him to the core, scrambling up his life and his priorities, pushing him to forget his beliefs and his way of understanding life and follow the most basic instinct: the animal instinct.
Chronicle of an Escape (2006)
Chronicle of an Escape (2006)
The true story of four men who narrowly escaped death at the hands of Argentina's military death squads in 1977. Claudio Tamburrini is a goalie for a minor-league football team when he is abducted by members of the Argentine military police and taken to an unofficial detention center on the false suspicion that he is a terrorist. As he is tortured by intelligence agents looking for information he doesn't have, Tamburrini fully expects to be killed. After many sessions of brutal torture, Tamburrini and his fellow captives Guillermo and Tano are being readied for execution when, in a final desperate act, Tamburrini dives out a window during a rainstorm.
A Happy Family (2024)
A Happy Family (2024)
In a happy family perfectly protected in a gated community, a mother is harshly accused of hurting her twin daughters and newborn baby. However, the truth behind the high walls may reveal unexpected cruelty.
Solo (2013)
Solo (2013)
A sexy, romantic and uncomfortably chilling tale of love and deception from first time director Marcelo Briem Stamm. Handsome middle class Manuel, hurt by his previous relationship and bored being alone, meets Julio, a rugged, lonely, unemployed young man in a chat room. The two eventually meet up in person and the sexual spark is quickly ignited. And while sex is satisfying and frequent, it is their collective problems with intimacy, trust and the fear of being hurt that make them hesitant to commit fully. As their relationship develops, both reveal secrets from their past but these revelations might be real, imagined or outright lies. Who is being truthful, who is real, and who truly loves the other? All is revealed in this romantic, passionate drama/thriller that offers a shocking, strangely satisfying conclusion.
Journey to the End of the Night (2006)
Journey to the End of the Night (2006)
In a dark and decadent area of São Paulo, the exiled Americans Rosso and his son Paul own a brothel. Paul is a compulsive gambler addicted in cocaine and his father is married with the former prostitute Angie, and they have a little son. When a client is killed by his wife in their establishment, they find a suitcase with drugs.
Paulina (2015)
Paulina (2015)
Paulina is a young lawyer with a promising career in Buenos Aires, who chooses to go back to her home town. Her father, Fernando, is a well known judge. Against his will, Paulina decides to teach in a suburban high school as part of an inclusion program. One night, after the second week working there, she's brutally assaulted by a gang. With the disapproval of the people around her, she decides to go back to work, in the neighborhood where she was attacked, without realizing that her attackers may be even closer than she thought.
Everybody Has a Plan (2012)
Everybody Has a Plan (2012)
Pedro, a humble beekeeper who lives in the mysterious Argentinian region of the Delta del Tigre, travels to Buenos Aires to visit his twin brother Agustín, a successful but troubled pediatrician with marital issues, to give him bad news and ask him for a favor hard to fulfill, a unexpected arrival which will change Agustín's life forever.
A Monster with a Thousand Heads (2016)
A Monster with a Thousand Heads (2016)
When Sonia receives the news that her husband’s cancer has progressed to a critical stage, she races to secure the insurance company’s approval for the care that can help him.
Nina (2004)
Nina (2004)
After losing her job, an unstable woman sinks further and further into a violent fantasy world.
The Rescue: The Weight of the World (2023)
The Rescue: The Weight of the World (2023)
Julio returns with his family to Argentina after the downfall of the brutal dictatorship that overpowered long-standing democracy. Things soon take an ugly turn as his brother is kidnapped and Julio becomes the lead negotiator with the criminals.
The City of No Limits (2002)
The City of No Limits (2002)
Victor is a man who gets to Paris to join his family around their seriously ill father, Max. Victor is desperately asked for help by Max. What seems in the beginning mere delusions of an old man losing his mind, begin to show traces of some sort of real 'secret' that is troubling Max's last days. Victor decide to help his father to find that he is searching for.
Targeted (2022)
Targeted (2022)
Axel is an employee of a call center who is used to complaints from his clients and an unbearable boss. Axel has a natural talent for dealing with people and their problems. But one day everything changes, when he receives a call from Figueroa Mont, a frustrated client who wants to unsubscribe. Fed up with the bureaucracy of the companies, Figueroa warns Axel that he is watching him through a telescopic sight attached to a high-precision rifle and that if he does not solve the problem, he will blow his head off.
The Quietude (2018)
The Intruder (2021)
The Intruder (2021)
Inés works as a dubbing actress and sings in a choir in Buenos Aires. While on an idyllic trip she suffers a traumatic episode that she can’t recover from. She has trouble sleeping and experiences very vivid nightmares as strange sounds begin to emerge from inside her. Awake, Inés feels suddenly surrounded by people that seem to come from her dreams.
Cola de mono (2018)
Cola de mono (2018)
It's Christmas Eve, 1986, and Borja is a precocious teenager with a passion for film. As his family comes together to celebrate the holiday, the combined forces of the suffocating Chilean heat, free-flowing drinks, and repressed desire contribute to the eruption of long-held secrets. Both an enticing family melodrama and an explicit erotic thriller, this is a story about the ways that passion and desire control our lives—from pop-culture tastes to sexual fantasies.
The Last Hour (2017)
The Last Hour (2017)
Lima, Peru, 1991. After years of fruitless efforts, a group of police officers finally find a lead on the whereabouts of Abimael Guzmán, the bloodthirsty leader of the communist terrorist gang Shining Path.
The Bottom of the Sea (2003)
The Bottom of the Sea (2003)
An architecture student is obsessed by his girlfriend. When she is invited to go alone to a party sponsored by her company, he becomes paranoid. He arrives at their place unexpectedly and finds a man hidden under their bed. He follows the man trying to find his name and occupation, along a night full of incidents and misunderstandings.
The Initiated: Written from the Shadows (2024)
The Initiated: Written from the Shadows (2024)
The formerly revered journalist Frank Molina finds himself in hiding, with his career shattered. However, he continues to write anonymously hidden in the shadows. Frank’s sense of calm is abruptly interrupted when a pair of severed eyes and a blood-soaked note appear at his door. As the number of victims increases, Frank will need to unblock his traumatic past if he seeks to find the killer.
Jackal of Nahueltoro (1970)
Jackal of Nahueltoro (1970)
Based on an actual murder case that ignited a furious debate over the death penalty in Chile in 1960, this experimental social drama portrays the life and death of an illiterate peasant who, while drunk, murdered the woman with whom he had a relationship and her five children.
The Zero Hour (2010)
The Zero Hour (2010)
The Zero Hour tells the story of the La Parca (Zapata 666), a fearsome assassin who is forced to kidnap a private clinic to save the love of his life, Ladydi (Amanda Key). They soonreached the police and a media circus with them, who make our character into a national hero.La Parca finds that saving the life of Ladydi be difficult, but escaped with his followers will be an almost impossible task. Time starts to run out, and what seemed like a perfect plan will end in a frantic ending where La Parca is forced to confront past mistakes, and discover that their worst enemies are closer than he imagined.