Despite the massive hype behind big-budget franchise movies in 2024 (in March alone, you have the releases ofDune: Part Two,Kung Fu Panda 4,Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire), genre films are still very much alive and well in Hollywood, and one of the genres that is poised to have a big year is thecrime thriller genre.
With a strong basis in the noir films of the 1940s and ’50s, thecrimethrillers of today still possess underlying dark themes, but they have much more to offer than cryptic and expository voiceover narration from trench coat-wearing detectives wandering around in dark alleys. Whether you’re into high-octane action, psychological thrills, or ensemble-based drama, this year’s lineup has a little bit of something for everyone. Here are 10 upcoming crimethrillerfilms that we’re looking forward to in 2024.
10Love Lies Bleeding (March 8)
Love Lies Bleeding
Love Lies Bleedingstars Kristen Stewart as Lou, a gym manager from New Mexico who falls in love with Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a bodybuilder making her way to Las Vegas to compete in a high-stakes competition. Things eventually descend into violence and mayhem after the couple is forced to confront Lou’s criminal family, led by patriarch Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). Directed by Rose Glass, who made her debut with the 2019 psychological horror filmSaint Maud, the A24 filmpremiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20th, and is set for its U.S. theatrical release on March 8.
A Unique, A24 Thriller
Having already debuted to promising reviews back in January,Love Lies Bleedinglooks to be an action-packed thriller with a unique script and engaging performances from its leads. It also helps that the movie is under the A24 banner, as the indie production company has put out a number of critically acclaimed crime films over the years, includingGood TimeandUncut Gems.
WATCH THE TRAILER FORLOVE LIES BLEEDINGHERE
9Sleeping Dogs (March 22)
Sleeping Dogs
Based on the crime novelThe Book of Mirrorsby Romanian author E.O. Chirovici,Sleeping Dogsstars Russell Crowe as retired homicide detective Roy Freeman who, while undergoing experimental Alzheimer’s treatment, revisits the unsolved murder of a college professor (Marton Csokas). Co-written and directed by Adam Cooper, the film also stars Karan Gillan, Thomas M. Wright, and Tommy Flanagan.
A Much-Needed Jolt to Russell Crowe’s Career
Taking its cues from other memory-based movies likeMemento,Sleeping Dogstruly has the potential to be a solid addition to the crime thriller genre. On top of that, the movie could also inject a much-needed jolt of life into Russell Crowe’s career, because while the Academy Award winner’s certainly been keeping busy in recent years, his last few films haven’t been doing him too many favors in terms of critical success (he’s up for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his performance in the 2023 supernatural horror movieThe Pope’s Exorcist).
WATCH THE TRAILER FORSLEEPING DOGSHERE
8Monkey Man (April 5)
Monkey Man
Monkey Manmarks Dev Patel’s directorial debut, as the Oscar-nominated actor also stars in the highly-anticipated film about an underground fighter seeking violent retribution against the corrupt leaders who killed his mother and continue to victimize the poor people in his community. Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, the half-monkey, half-human Hindu deity who represents courage and strength,Monkey Manwas initially set for a Netflix release, but was later acquired for a theatrical release by Jordan Peele under his Monkeypaw Productions banner. Making its world premiere at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in March, the film will hit big screens everywhere on April 5.
Brilliant Fight Choreography
Described by one industry insider as “John Wickin Mumbai,“Monkey Manclearly has plenty of hype surrounding it, especially with its coveted Super Bowl trailer spot. The action sequences should definitely be up to snuff, as the film features fight choreography by Brahim Chab, who has worked with everyone from Jackie Chan to Jean-Claude Van Damme to Donnie Yen.
Still, the fact thatMonkey Manis clearly a passion project of Patel’s (he also co-wrote the script) and is based on Hindu mythology indicates that it will be more than just a mindless action flick and should be on everyone’s radar as a must-watch movie in the first half of 2024.
WATCH THE TRAILER FORMONKEY MANHERE
Related:Dev Patel’s Best Performances, Ranked
7Ballerina (June 7)
Speaking ofJohn Wick, Len Wiseman’sBallerinais the first spin-off film, and the fifth overall installment, in the critically-acclaimed franchise. Ana de Armas stars as Rooney (originally played by actual ballet dancer Unity Phelan inJohn Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum), a ballerina/assassin who seeks revenge against the people who murdered her family. Aside from de Armas, other newcomers to theJohn Wickseries include Norman Reedus and Gabriel Byrne, who will play the film’s main antagonist. Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, and Lance Reddick (who passed away back in March 2023) will reprise their roles from the previous films.
A John Wick Spin-Off
TheJohn Wickuniverse expanded for the first time with the release of the Peacock television seriesThe Continentalin September 2023, andBallerinawill look to build out the world even further. Itmay be up against stiff competition inMonkey Manand a number of other major action films in 2024, but considering the critical and commercial success of theJohn Wickmovies as well as the introduction of a new butt-kicking lead to the franchise,Ballerinawill no doubt be bringing in movie-goers in droves come opening weekend.
Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, the release date forBallerinawas recently changed to June 6th, 2025.
6The Bikeriders (June 21)
The Bikeriders
The Bikeridersis a fictional adaptation of Danny Lyon’s 1967 photo book of the same name, which follows the lives of the Chicago-based Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, the film features an all-star ensemble cast that includes Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, and Norman Reedus. Having premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2023,The Bikeriders' late-2023 release date was pushed back due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, and it is now set to theatrically debut on June 21 of this year.
Gritty and Stylistic
The Bikeriderscurrently boasts an 86% Rotten Tomatoes score out of 35 critics' reviews, and positive assessments have praised the film’s gritty and stylistic portrayal ofmotorcycle culturein the late ’60s. It may not really be breaking any new ground in the crime genre, but fans of films likeEasy RiderandGoodfellasshould enjoy Jeff Nichols’s latest project.
WATCH THE TRAILER FORTHE BIKERIDERSHERE
5Longlegs (July 12)
Longlegs is a horror thriller film by writer-director Osgood Perkins. When FBI agent Lee Harker is assigned to a serial killer cold case, their investigation leads them down a rabbit hole riddled with disturbing discoveries and the occult at the center of it all. When the trail of evidence reveals a personal connection, it becomes a race against time to prevent another murder.
Written and directed by Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter,Gretel & Hansel),Longlegsfollows Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), a rookie FBI agent assigned to the unsolved case of a serial killer (Nicolas Cage) who murdered a family of four. When Harker discovers evidence of an occult connection to the case, she must race to stop the killer before he strikes again. Set in the mid-1970s, the crime thriller clearly features strong horror elements and has been bolstered by aneffectively terrifying ad campaignthat includes an eerily minimalist trailer and four creepy posters.
Nic Cage Becomes His Most Unhinged
Thanks to the marketing team behindLonglegs, the Neon-distributed picture looks to be one of the year’s scariest films. While he hasn’t been featured too prominently in promotional material just yet, Nicolas Cage has also done a decent job of hyping up the film, providing more backstory for his insidious character, who he describes as a “possessed Geppetto,” in aFebruary interview.
“He makes these dolls, and the dolls infiltrate families and get the families to do terrible things. It’s a horror film. And [Oz Perkins] was, I think telling a story, in some ways, about his mother, and I played Longlegs as a very androgynous character, and I’m channeling my mom.”
Aside from Cage’s performance, which is sure to be the actor’s most twisted yet, it will also be interesting to see what Oz Perkins, the son of latePsychostar Anthony Perkins, will be able to accomplish with his sixth feature-length project.
WATCH THE TRAILER FORLONGLEGSHERE
4Blink Twice (August 23)
Zoë Kravitz will make her directorial debut withBlink Twice, a film she co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum. The movie tells the story of a tech billionaire (played by Channing Tatum, Kravitz’s fiancé) who invites a cocktail waitress (Naomi Ackie) he just met to party with him and his friends on his private island. What starts as the ultimate dream vacation eventually descends into chaos. Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat, Geena Davis, Haley Joel Osment, and Kyle MacLachlan also star.
A Script of Anger and Frustration
While a trailerhas yet to be released, Zoë Kravitz spoke withW Magazinein late January about the artistic motivations behindBlink Twice, which she started working on before things like #MeToo and the Epstein Island revelations came to the cultural forefront.
According to Kravitz, the film’s script “was born out of a lot of anger and frustration around the lack of conversation about the treatment of women, specifically in industries that have a lot of money in them, like Hollywood, the tech world, all of that.” Kravitz, like Dev Patel, is clearly showing avid interest in working behind the camera as well as in front, and it will be exciting to if she can see success with her first directorial outing.
3Wolfs (September 20)
InWolfs, Brad Pitt and George Clooney will reunite on-screen for the first time since the 2008 Coen brothers comedyBurn After Reading. Written and directed by Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming,Spider-Man: Far From Home,Spider-Man: No Way Home), the thriller follows two professional fixers (Pitt and Clooney) who end up getting hired for the same job. One of the many films to have filming effected by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike,Wolfsalso stars Austin Abrams, Amy Ryan, and Poorna Jagannathan.
Clooney and Pitt, Back Together Again
While not too much is known aboutWolfsplot-wise (yes, the movie is apparently spelledWolfsnotWolves),George Clooney teased itback in early January as “an R-ratedOcean’sfilm.” It’s a promising sign for the upcoming film, given the critical and commercial success of theOcean’strilogy, as well as the fact that the films did a fantastic job of showcasing the on-screen chemistry between Pitt and Clooney.
2Joker: Folie à Deux (October 4)
Joker: Folie a Deux
Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to Todd Phillips' critically acclaimed comic book thriller Joker. Reprising his Academy Award-winning performance as the failed comedian Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix revisits the iconic DC character alongside Lady Gaga, who makes her debut as Joker’s lover Harley Quinn in this standalone continuity of the DC Universe.
Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips’s sequel to his 2019 psychological thriller filmJoker, will focus on the relationship between Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) and Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), the psychiatrist initially assigned to treat Arthur who later develops a romantic obsession with him. Zazie Beetz returns as Sophie Dumond, Arthur’s former neighbor, while Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Steve Coogan, and Ken Leung also star.
An Anticipated Follow-Up
Folie à Deuxhas a lot to live up to as a sequel, asJokergrossed over $1 billion worldwide and earned two Academy Awards (Best Original Score and Best Actor for Phoenix). The fact that it’s being billed as a musical may help shield the film against the clear superhero fatigue among movie-goers; while director of photographyLawrence Sher claimedthatFolie à Deuxwon’t be a musical in the traditional sense, he admitted that music will play a major part in it (Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir will once again provide the score, and 13-time Grammy Award winner Lady Gaga’s co-leading role is clearly for good reason).
In any case, the secondJokerinstallment is likely to still rely on a dark and psychological tone, which helped make the first film such a success.
Related:Why Joker 2 Being a Musical Makes It Even More Unhinged
1Alto Knights (November 15)
In the Barry Levinson-directedAlto Knights, Robert De Niro will star in a dual role as competing 1950s mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Written by Nicholas Pileggi (whose 1985 non-fictionWiseguywas the basis for Martin Scorsese’s classic gangster flickGoodfellas), the film also features Kathrine Narducci as Genovese’s wife Anna and Debra Messing as Costello’s wife Bobbie.
A Dual Role for De Niro
Alto Knightsis a film that will either be made or broken by De Niro’s performance as the feuding mob bosses. Even at 80 years old, De Niro showed that he can still act with the best of them withhis Academy Award-nominated performanceinKillers of the Flower Moon. It remains to be seen whether he still has the star power to essentially carry an entire movie by himself, but Levinson’s directing pedigree and the film’s subject matter (people still like gangster movies after all these years),Alto Knightscould be a promising end-of-year flick.
