The Best Mystery Movies Of 2021
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317 votes
99 voters
Voting Rules
Vote up the best mystery movies released after January 1, 2021.
UPDATE: Check out the top mystery movies of 2022!
The best 2021 mystery movies will have you scratching your head (in a good way) right up until the end credits begin to roll. Keep an eye out for Denzel Washington as he stars in The Little Things alongside Rami Malek and Jared Leto. You'll also find hybrid genres such as a sci-fi and dramatic mysteries on the list this year. With so many good mystery movies coming out this year it's hard to pick the best one. But we can solve the mystery of the best 2021 whodunit with the help of your votes.
Vote up your favorite mystery films of 2021 to help decide which one should top the list. Maybe it will be a murder mystery or an intense investigative thriller. It's really up to you and other movie fans. Be sure to check back as new and upcoming 2021 mysteries as they are released in theaters on a streaming service.
Most divisive: The Woman in the Window
Over 90 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Best Mystery Movies Of 2021
1Valene Kane, Shazad Latif, Christine AdamsAn undercover British journalist risks her life by infiltrating militant extremist groups online.
2Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya MooreSix people unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive -- and discovering they've all played the game before.- #123 of 167 onThe 160+ Scariest Psychological Thrillers
- #31 of 34 onThe 30+ Best Date Movies Out Now
- #19 of 33 onNew Movies You Should See In Theaters
3Flashback
Dylan O'Brien, Maika Monroe, Hannah GrossFredrick Fitzell starts having horrific visions of a girl who vanished in high school. He reaches out to old friends with whom he used to take a mysterious drug but soon realizes the only solution lies deep within his own memories.More Flashback
- #129 of 167 onThe 160+ Scariest Psychological Thrillers
- #95 of 112 onThe 100+ Best Mystery Thrillers, Ranked
- #106 of 129 onThe Best Mystery Movies Of All Time
4Jon Huertas, Isabella Gomez, Lindsay LaVanchyDuring a university's pledge week, the carefree partying turns deadly serious when a star athlete is found impaled in his dorm. The murder ignites a spree of sinister social media messages, sweeping the students and police into a race against time to uncover the truth behind the school's dark secret.
5The Little Things
Jared Leto, Denzel Washington, Rami MalekThe Little Things is a 2021 American crime thriller film directed by John Lee Hancock. Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) is sent to Los Angeles for what is supposed to be a quick evidence-gathering assignment, but instead he becomes embroiled in the search for a serial killer who is terrorizing the city.More The Little Things- #13 of 17 onThe Best Rami Malek Movies And TV Shows That Prove He Has The Range
- #208 of 216 onThe 200 Best Crime Movies Ever
- #84 of 112 onThe 100+ Best Mystery Thrillers, Ranked
6Eric Bana, Genevieve O'Reilly, Keir O'DonnellThe Dry is a 2020 Australian mystery drama thriller film directed by Robert Connolly, based on the 2016 book by Jane Harper.. Federal Agent Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) returns to his home town Kiewarra after an absence of over twenty years to attend the funeral of his childhood friend, Luke (Martin Dingle Wall), who allegedly killed his wife Karen and child Billy before taking his own life.More The Dry- #36 of 61 onThe Greatest Australian Drama Films, Ranked
- #25 of 102 onThe 90+ Best Recent Thriller Movies, Ranked
- #46 of 120 onThe 100+ Best New & Recent Drama Films, Ranked
7Megan Fox, Bruce Willis, Emile HirschTwo FBI agents cross paths with Crawford, a Florida cop who's investigating a string of murders that appear to be related. When an undercover sting goes horribly wrong, Crawford soon finds himself in a twisted game of cat and mouse with the killer.
8Till Death
Megan Fox, Eoin Macken, Callan MulveyEmma is stuck in a stale marriage to Mark and is surprised when he whisks her away to their secluded lakehouse for a romantic evening on their 10th anniversary. But everything changes the next morning when she finds herself handcuffed to Mark's dead body. Trapped and isolated in the dead of winter, Emma learns this is only the beginning of Mark's twisted plan, and to survive, she must fight the hired killers coming to finish her off.
9Frank Grillo, Naomi Watts, Mel GibsonA retired military operative finds himself in a never-ending time loop on the day of his death.
10Deon Lotz, Erica Wessels, Masasa MbangeniA relentless detective finds common ground with a killer systematically targeting the perpetrators running a powerful child-trafficking ring.More I Am All Girls- #34 of 102 onThe 90+ Best Recent Thriller Movies, Ranked
- #74 of 112 onThe 100+ Best Mystery Thrillers, Ranked
- #122 of 129 onThe Best Mystery Movies Of All Time
11Dean Imperial, Madeline Wise, Babe HowardLapsis is a 2021 American science fiction mystery film directed by Noah Hutton. Struggling to support himself and his ailing younger brother, a delivery man takes a strange job in a strange new realm of the gig economy.
12Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-JarrettCandyman, the 2021 spiritual sequel to the 1992 horror classic, directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele, delves back into the urban legend of a supernatural killer haunting Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing projects. The film follows visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), as he becomes obsessed with the Candyman mythos, unwittingly unleashing a wave of violence. The film also features Anthony's girlfriend, Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), an art gallery director. The film explores themes of gentrification and racial injustice. Candyman creates a chilling narrative that questions the role of art in society - and the cyclical nature of trauma.More Candyman- #79 of 117 onThe Best Horror Movie Sequels
- #13 of 15 onThings We Kind Of Like In The Garbage Trend Of ‘Requels’
- #18 of 34 onThe 30+ Best Date Movies Out Now
13Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe NewtonNick Bannister, a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed as he uncovers a violent conspiracy while trying to solve the mystery behind a client who disappeared.More Reminiscence- #10 of 34 onThe 30+ Best Date Movies Out Now
- #27 of 33 onNew Movies You Should See In Theaters
- #48 of 102 onThe 90+ Best Recent Thriller Movies, Ranked
14Endangered Species
Rebecca Romijn, Philip Winchester, Jerry O'ConnellStranded in a wilderness park in Kenya, a man, his family and a friend find themselves in a desperate fight for survival when they encounter a vicious leopard and a pack of hyenas.More Endangered Species- #33 of 56 onThe Best Vacation Horror Movies, Ranked By Fans
- #47 of 82 onThe 70+ Best New & Recent Action Movies, Ranked
- #40 of 102 onThe 90+ Best Recent Thriller Movies, Ranked
15False Positive
Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, Pierce BrosnanIn the psychological thriller False Positive, Lucy (Ilana Glazer) and Adrian (Justin Theroux) are a couple desperate to conceive. They put their trust in the charismatic and renowned fertility specialist Dr. Hindle (Pierce Brosnan). As Lucy successfully becomes pregnant with a seemingly healthy baby, she begins to notice unsettling and suspicious behavior around her. Her concerns grow as she uncovers a sinister truth about Dr. Hindle and his practices. The film delivers a chilling take on the horrors of gaslighting, the manipulation of modern medicine, and the dark side of the quest for the perfect pregnancy, tapping into deeper fears surrounding bodily autonomy and trust in healthcare professionals.More False Positive- #128 of 167 onThe 160+ Scariest Psychological Thrillers
- #23 of 42 onThe Best Horror Movies About Evil Doctors And Surgeons
- #18 of 22 onThe Best A24 Horror Movies
16Bloodthirsty
Lauren Beatty, Greg Bryk, Katharine King SoBloodthirsty is a 2020 Canadian mystery horror film directed by Amelia Moses. Grey is an indie singer who is having visions that she is a wolf. When she gets an invitation to work with notorious music producer Vaughn Daniels at his remote studio in the woods she begins to find out who she really is.
17Marc Menchaca, Cristina Rodlo, Victoria AlcockDesperate and without documentation, a woman from Mexico moves into a rundown Cleveland boardinghouse. Then the unsettling cries and eerie visions begin.
18The Vault
Freddie Highmore, Astrid Berges-Firsbey, Sam RileyWhen an engineer learns of a mysterious, impenetrable fortress hidden under the Bank of Spain, he joins a crew of master thieves who plan to steal the legendary lost treasure while the whole country watches the World Cup. With thousands of soccer fans cheering in the streets, and security forces closing in, the crew has just minutes to pull off the score of a lifetime.
19Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David HarbourIn 1954 Detroit, small-time criminals are hired to steal a document. When their heist goes horribly wrong, their search for who hired them -- and for what purpose - sends them wending through all echelons of the race-torn, rapidly changing city.More No Sudden Move- #34 of 57 onThe 50+ Best Movies About Con Artists
- #5 of 18 onThe Best HBO Max Original Movies
- #198 of 216 onThe 200 Best Crime Movies Ever
20Nicole Schalmo, Jack Campbell, Dominic StoneDisaster unfolds when a meteor strikes a small town, turning the environment uninhabitable and killing everything in the surrounding area. Exobiologist Lauren Stone is called to find answers to the unearthly event. As she begins to uncover the truth, imminent danger awakens and it becomes a race against time to save mankind.
21Chad Michael Murray, Holland Roden, Greer GrammerDetective Kathleen McChesney and rookie FBI profiler Robert Ressler search for a vicious serial killer in the 1970s.
22Infinitum: Subject Unknown
Tori Butler-Hart, Ian McKellen, Conleth HillJane is trapped in an unknown world with endless possibilities. She must discover a way to access them and alter her reality before she is destined to repeat the same test over and over again.
23Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony MackieAgoraphobic Dr. Anna Fox witnesses something she shouldn't while keeping tabs on the Russell family, the seemingly picture perfect clan that lives across the way.- #70 of 81 onThe 75+ Best Whodunit Murder Mystery Movies
- #27 of 102 onThe 90+ Best Recent Thriller Movies, Ranked
- #43 of 120 onThe 100+ Best New & Recent Drama Films, Ranked
24Joel McHale, Natalie Zea, Natalie MoralesHappily is a 2021 American comedy thriller film directed by BenDavid Grabinski. Tom (Joel McHale) and Janet (Kerry Bishé) have a great and lustful relationship but they begin to question the loyalty of their so-called friends after a visit from a mysterious stranger leads to a dead body.
25Clayne Crawford, Sepideh Moafi, Chris CoyA man desperately tries to keep his family of six together during a separation from his wife. They both agree to see other people, but he struggles to come to terms with her new relationship.
26Frank Grillo, Jack Kilmer, Michael Kenneth WilliamsBody Brokers is a 2021 American crime thriller film directed by John Swab. A recovering junkie learns the rehab center he's attending is not about helping people, but a cover for a multi-billion-dollar fraud operation that enlists addicts to recruit other addicts.
27Dilan Gwyn, Linus Wahlgren, Henrik NorlénNew to her stepmother role, Shirin moves into a duplex with her partner, Fredrik, and his son. The home feels like the right place to start becoming a family. However, when Fredrik leaves, strange things are heard from the other, uninhabited side.
28Kate Siegel, Jason O'Mara, Dulé HillHypnotic is a 2021 psychological thriller that delves into the dark side of mind control. The film follows Jenn (Kate Siegel), as she seeks to improve her life through hypnotherapy. Jenn's reality starts to unravel, as the sessions with the charming and mysterious therapist Dr. Meade (Jason O'Mara) become more intense. Jenn must revisit her harrowing sessions to uncover a trail of victims left behind by Dr. Meade's dangerous treatments. She must also piece together her fragmented memories before becoming entrapped in his manipulative game. With her sanity at stake, Hypnotic investigates themes of trust and the perils of seeking help from the wrong places.
29Every Breath You Take
Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Sam ClaflinA psychiatrist's life gets turned upside down when a patient takes her own life and he introduces her brother to his own family.
30Gingle Wang, Meng-Po Fu, Jing-hua TsengIn 1962 Taiwan, a group of students join an underground book club hosted by their counselor. One day, the counselor vanishes into thin air, and the student's search for him takes them to a realm dominated by ghosts and spirits.
