50 Underrated Movies You Probably Haven't Seen (But Should)
Everyone knows The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, and Citizen Kane. But cinema is full of hidden gems — films that flopped at the box office, were dismissed by critics, or simply got lost in the shuffle of a crowded release calendar. These 50 underrated movies span five decades and every genre. Some are cult classics that found their audience late. Others are still waiting to be discovered. Here are the underrated movies you probably have not seen but absolutely should.
2010s — The Decade That Moved Too Fast
The 2010s released so much content that great films fell through the cracks. These underrated gems deserve your attention.
| # | Film | Year | Director | IMDb | Why It Was Ignored | Why Watch Now | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Nice Guys | 2016 | Shane Black | 7.4 | Released between Civil War and Finding Dory. Deadpool was still dominating. Audiences missed this gem. | The funniest buddy comedy of the decade. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling have unmatched chemistry. A perfect hangout movie. | Prime Video, HBO Max |
| 2 | Under the Silver Lake | 2018 | David Robert Mitchell | 6.5 | Confusing marketing. Polarizing reviews. A24 released it with minimal fanfare. | A paranoid LA conspiracy thriller that gets better with age. It is the anti-La La Land and a brilliant critique of pop culture. | Prime Video, Kanopy |
| 3 | Brigsby Bear | 2017 | Dave McCary | 7.0 | Weird premise scared off mainstream audiences. Too quirky for its own box office good. | One of the most original and heartwarming films of the decade. Kyle Mooney is a revelation. It is about found family and the art we love. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 4 | The Killing of a Sacred Deer | 2017 | Yorgos Lanthimos | 7.0 | Too disturbing and strange for mainstream audiences. A24 release with limited commercial appeal. | Lanthimos's most unsettling film. A Greek tragedy in modern clothes. Barry Keoghan is terrifying and unforgettable. | Prime Video, Hulu |
| 5 | The Rider | 2017 | Chloé Zhao | 7.4 | Non-professional cast. Slow-paced indie. No stars. | Chloé Zhao's breakthrough before Nomadland. A tender, devastating portrait of masculinity and loss on the Pine Ridge reservation. | Prime Video, Hulu |
| 6 | The Death of Stalin | 2017 | Armando Iannucci | 7.3 | Political satire in a crowded awards season. British comedy does not always travel. | The sharpest political satire since Dr. Strangelove. Iannucci turns Soviet history into farce that cuts deep. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 7 | The Invitation | 2015 | Karyn Kusama | 6.6 | Limited release. Slow-burn pacing turned off some viewers. | A masterclass in tension. The dinner party from hell that builds to one of the decade's most shocking finales. | Netflix, Prime Video |
| 8 | The VVitch | 2015 | Robert Eggers | 7.0 | Slow pacing. Authentic 17th-century dialogue confused some. Misleading marketing. | The best period horror film of the decade. It feels like a cursed artifact. Anya Taylor-Joy's breakout. | HBO Max, Prime Video |
| 9 | The End of the Tour | 2015 | James Ponsoldt | 7.2 | Limited release. Two-hander conversation piece with no action. | Jason Segel's brilliant performance as David Foster Wallace. A profound conversation about art, fame, and depression. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 10 | Paterson | 2016 | Jim Jarmusch | 7.3 | Slow, minimalist, no plot. Adam Driver plays a bus driver who writes poetry. | The most gentle and beautiful film of the decade. A meditation on art and everyday life that gets better with age. | Prime Video, HBO Max |
2000s — The Overlooked Classics
The 2000s were dominated by franchises and blockbusters. These smaller films got lost in the shuffle.
| # | Film | Year | Director | IMDb | Why It Was Ignored | Why Watch Now | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | 2007 | Andrew Dominik | 7.5 | Too long (160 min). Too slow. Too arty. Released opposite The Bourne Ultimatum. | The most beautiful western of the 2000s. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck are extraordinary. Roger Deakins photography is unmatched. | Prime Video, HBO Max |
| 12 | Synecdoche, New York | 2008 | Charlie Kaufman | 7.5 | Too weird. Too sad. Too ambitious. Audiences did not know what to make of it. | Kaufman's directorial debut is a masterpiece about life, art, and death. It rewards multiple viewings. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 13 | A Scanner Darkly | 2006 | Richard Linklater | 7.0 | Rotoscoped animation is off-putting. Philip K. Dick adaptation that is dense and strange. | The most faithful Philip K. Dick adaptation. Keanu Reeves, RDJ, and Winona Ryder in a paranoid masterpiece. | Prime Video, Tubi |
| 14 | The Fall | 2006 | Tarsem Singh | 7.8 | Limited release. No major stars. Distributor collapsed. | The most visually stunning film you have never seen. Shot in 18 countries. A fairy tale for adults. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 15 | The House of the Devil | 2009 | Ti West | 6.3 | Slow-burn 80s homage. No major scares until the third act. Limited release. | The best satanic panic horror of the 2000s. Patient, atmospheric, and rewarded with a wild finale. | Prime Video, Peacock |
| 16 | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | 2005 | Shane Black | 7.5 | Poor marketing. Dark comedy noir is hard to sell. RDJ was pre-iron Man comeback. | The film that saved Robert Downey Jr.'s career. The funniest neo-noir of the decade. Shane Black at his peak. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 17 | Man on the Moon | 1999 | Milos Forman | 7.4 | Jim Carrey's dramatic turn was too strange for audiences. Mixed reviews. | Carrey's best performance. A biopic that is as weird and wonderful as its subject, Andy Kaufman. | Peacock, Prime Video |
| 18 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | 2004 | Wes Anderson | 7.3 | Polarizing when released. Critics called it style over substance. | Now recognized as a Wes Anderson gem. Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and the best soundtrack of any Anderson film. | Disney+, Prime Video |
| 19 | Caché | 2005 | Michael Haneke | 7.3 | Art-house release. French-language. Slow and ambiguous ending frustrates some. | The most prescient film about surveillance. Haneke's masterpiece is as relevant today as ever. | Prime Video, Criterion Channel |
| 20 | The New World | 2005 | Terrence Malick | 6.7 | Malick's meditative style is not for everyone. Multiple cuts confused audiences. | The most beautiful American film of the 2000s. Malick's poetry in motion. Q'orianka Kilcher is a revelation. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
1990s — The Sleepers of a Golden Decade
Even the greatest decade for independent cinema had films that slipped through the cracks.
| # | Film | Year | Director | IMDb | Why It Was Ignored | Why Watch Now | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Dark City | 1998 | Alex Proyas | 7.6 | Released between The Truman Show and The Matrix. Completely overshadowed. | The best sci-fi film of 1998 nobody saw. A stunning noir thriller that predicted The Matrix's visual language. | Peacock, Prime Video |
| 22 | The Game | 1997 | David Fincher | 7.7 | Audiences were confused by the marketing. Fincher was not yet a brand name. | Fincher's most underrated film. A paranoid thriller that keeps twisting until the final frame. | Prime Video, Paramount+ |
| 23 | The Spanish Prisoner | 1997 | David Mamet | 7.2 | Limited release. No stars. Mamet's dialogue style is an acquired taste. | The best con-artist thriller of the 90s. Tighter than a drum and endlessly clever. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 24 | Safe | 1995 | Todd Haynes | 7.1 | Too slow. Too weird. Julianne Moore plays a housewife allergic to the modern world. | The most prescient film of the 90s. A horror film about environmental illness that predicted our current anxieties. | Prime Video, Criterion Channel |
| 25 | Strange Days | 1995 | Kathryn Bigelow | 7.2 | Too violent. Too ahead of its time. Bombed at the box office. | Bigelow's best film. A cyberpunk noir about race, technology, and memory that is more relevant now than ever. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 26 | Living in Oblivion | 1995 | Tom DiCillo | 7.3 | Tiny indie release. No-name cast. Overshadowed by bigger indie hits. | The best movie about making movies. Steve Buscemi is hilarious as a director having the worst shoot of his life. | Prime Video, Tubi |
| 27 | The Rapture | 1991 | Michael Tolkin | 7.0 | Too strange. Too religious. Too dark. Studio did not know how to market it. | Mimi Rogers gives one of the decade's best performances. A film about faith, apocalypse, and ultimate choice. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 28 | One False Move | 1992 | Carl Franklin | 7.1 | No stars. Limited release. Overshadowed by Reservoir Dogs. | Bill Paxton is terrifying. A lean, mean neo-noir thriller that deserves to be mentioned with the decade's best. | Prime Video, Tubi |
| 29 | Heavenly Creatures | 1994 | Peter Jackson | 7.3 | Released before Jackson was a household name. New Zealand film with no stars. | Peter Jackson before Lord of the Rings. A disturbing true-crime story that shows his visual genius. Kate Winslet's debut. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 30 | The Trigger Effect | 1996 | David Koepp | 6.0 | Mixed reviews. No major marketing. Quickly disappeared from theaters. | A prescient thriller about societal collapse. Elisabeth Shue and Kyle MacLachlan in a suburban nightmare. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
1980s — The Cult Classics
The 80s produced so many iconic films that some genuine treasures were left behind. These cult classics are finally getting their due.
| # | Film | Year | Director | IMDb | Why It Was Ignored | Why Watch Now | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | The Thing | 1982 | John Carpenter | 8.2 | Critically panned on release. Released the same weekend as E.T. Dark and nihilistic. | Now recognized as a horror masterpiece. The greatest practical effects film ever made. Carpenter's best. | Peacock, Prime Video |
| 32 | Miracle Mile | 1988 | Steve De Jarnatt | 7.0 | Limited release. Bizarre marketing. Tone shifts from rom-com to apocalypse. | The most tense 80s thriller you have never seen. A love story set during nuclear Armageddon. Anthony Edwards is great. | Prime Video, Tubi |
| 33 | The Hidden | 1987 | Jack Sholder | 7.0 | B-movie premise. No stars. Overshadowed by bigger genre films. | The best alien-invasion thriller of the 80s. Kyle MacLachlan is perfectly cast. A hidden gem of sci-fi horror. | Prime Video, Tubi |
| 34 | After Hours | 1985 | Martin Scorsese | 7.7 | Scorsese's "small" film. No De Niro. A comedy from the king of crime. | Scorsese's most underrated film. A Kafkaesque dark comedy about a man's worst night in NYC. Griffin Dunne is perfect. | Prime Video, HBO Max |
| 35 | The Burbs | 1989 | Joe Dante | 7.0 | Mixed reviews. Tom Hanks in a dark comedy was unexpected. Audiences did not know what to make of it. | A perfect suburban satire. Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, and Corey Feldman in a film that gets funnier every year. | Prime Video, Peacock |
| 36 | To Live and Die in L.A. | 1985 | William Friedkin | 7.3 | Too dark. Too violent. Overshadowed by Friedkin's earlier classics. | The best neo-noir of the 80s. A car chase that rivals The French Connection. Willem Dafoe is terrifying. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 37 | Near Dark | 1987 | Kathryn Bigelow | 6.9 | Limited release. No major stars. Vampire western was hard to market. | The best vampire film of the 80s. Bigelow's breakthrough is a genre masterpiece. Bill Paxton steals every scene. | Prime Video, Tubi |
| 38 | Withnail & I | 1987 | Bruce Robinson | 7.6 | British cult film. Limited international release. No major stars. | The funniest British comedy of the 80s. Richard E. Grant is iconic. "We want the finest wines available to humanity." | Prime Video, Kanopy |
| 39 | Running Scared | 1986 | Peter Hyams | 6.7 | Buddy-cop comedy lost in a sea of buddy-cop comedies. Modest box office. | The most underrated buddy-cop movie. Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal have incredible chemistry. Set in Chicago. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 40 | The Hitcher | 1986 | Robert Harmon | 7.2 | Too violent. Limited release. No stars (before Rutger Hauer became a cult icon). | The most terrifying thriller of the 80s. Rutger Hauer's hitchhiker is pure evil. C. Thomas Howell is perfect as the victim. | Prime Video, Tubi |
1970s — The Overlooked Revolution
The 1970s are considered Hollywood's last golden age. But even in this decade of riches, some films did not get their due.
| # | Film | Year | Director | IMDb | Why It Was Ignored | Why Watch Now | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | Sorcerer | 1977 | William Friedkin | 7.7 | Released the same week as Star Wars. Box-office disaster. Overshadowed by Friedkin's earlier films. | The most tense thriller of the 70s. A remake of The Wages of Fear that surpasses the original. Friedkin's best film. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 42 | The Taking of Pelham One Two Three | 1974 | Joseph Sargent | 7.7 | No major stars (before the cast became famous). Limited genre respect. | The greatest New York movie ever made. A heist thriller with perfect pacing, dialogue, and Walter Matthau. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 43 | The Friends of Eddie Coyle | 1973 | Peter Yates | 7.4 | No major stars. Low budget. Quiet release. | The most authentic crime film of the 70s. Robert Mitchum gives his best performance. No glamour, just grim reality. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 44 | The Parallax View | 1974 | Alan J. Pakula | 7.2 | Dark conspiracy thriller with a bleak ending. No box office success. | The best of Pakula's paranoia trilogy. A conspiracy film that predicted the cynicism of the modern era. Warren Beatty is great. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 45 | Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia | 1974 | Sam Peckinpah | 7.4 | Too violent. Too bleak. Too strange. Peckinpah's career was in decline. | Peckinpah's masterpiece. A existential western about a man hunting a severed head. Warren Oates is unforgettable. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 46 | The Day of the Jackal | 1973 | Fred Zinnemann | 7.8 | Too slow for some. Procedural thriller with no action set pieces. | The greatest assassination thriller ever made. Meticulous, tense, and brilliantly constructed. Edward Fox is perfect. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 47 | The Long Goodbye | 1973 | Robert Altman | 7.5 | Altman's revisionist take on Marlowe was too radical for audiences. | The coolest noir of the 70s. Elliott Gould's Marlowe is a man out of time. A masterpiece of LA atmosphere. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
| 48 | The Crying Game | 1992 | Neil Jordan | 7.2 | The twist overshadowed the film. Seen as a one-trick pony. | A brilliant IRA thriller, a tender romance, and a meditation on identity. Forest Whitaker is extraordinary. | Prime Video, HBO Max |
| 49 | Amores Perros | 2000 | Iñárritu | 8.1 | Foreign language. Three intersecting stories. Brutal violence off-putting to some. | Iñárritu's debut is his best film. A triptych of love, loss, and dogfighting in Mexico City. The car crash is unforgettable. | Prime Video, Hulu |
| 50 | Point Blank | 1967 | John Boorman | 7.3 | Too avant-garde for 1967 audiences. Lee Marvin was past his peak. | The coolest crime film of the 60s/70s. A proto-noir that influenced every stylish crime film since. Lee Marvin is unstoppable. | Prime Video, Apple TV |
Hidden Gems on Streaming
Not sure where to start? Here are the most accessible underrated films currently available on the major streaming platforms.
- Hidden Gems on Netflix: The Invitation (2015), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Paterson (2016)
- Underrated on Prime Video: The Nice Guys (2016), Dark City (1998), After Hours (1985), Sorcerer (1977), The Death of Stalin (2017)
- Tubi Treasures (Free with Ads): The Hidden (1987), Near Dark (1987), The Hitcher (1986), One False Move (1992)
- HBO Max Deep Cuts: The Assassination of Jesse James (2007), A Scanner Darkly (2006), The Witch (2015)
- Criterion Channel Gems: Safe (1995), Caché (2005), The Long Goodbye (1973)
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most underrated movie of all time?
Sorcerer (1977) is our pick. William Friedkin's masterpiece was crushed by Star Wars at the box office and is only now being recognized as one of the greatest thrillers ever made. Dark City (1998) is a close second — a visionary sci-fi film that was unfairly forgotten between The Truman Show and The Matrix.
What are the best underrated movies on Netflix right now?
As of June 2026, Netflix has The Invitation (tense dinner-party thriller), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (disturbing psychological drama), Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson's early masterpiece), and Paterson (gentle Jim Jarmusch gem). Check our best hidden gems on Netflix guide for more.
Why do good movies get ignored?
There are many reasons: bad release timing (Sorcerer vs. Star Wars), poor marketing (The Nice Guys), genre prejudice (The Thing was too dark for 1982), limited distribution (The Fall), or simply being too strange for mainstream audiences (Synecdoche, New York). Streaming has helped many of these films find their audience years later.
What is the most underrated horror movie?
The Thing (1982) is the classic answer — critically panned on release, now recognized as a masterpiece. For something more obscure, Near Dark (1987) is the best vampire film of the 80s. The Hitcher (1986) is the most terrifying thriller that nobody talks about. And The House of the Devil (2009) is a slow-burn gem of modern horror.
What underrated movies can I watch for free?
Tubi has an incredible selection of free (ad-supported) underrated films: The Hidden (1987), Near Dark (1987), The Hitcher (1986), One False Move (1992), and Miracle Mile (1988). Pluto TV and Kanopy also have strong selections. Check our free streaming guide for the full list.
Want more essential viewing?
Our guide to the 50 movies everyone should see at least once covers the true cinematic canon — the films that define the art form.