Picture Credit: Vertical
Welcome to your look at the best new movies hitting Netflix in the United States in August 2026. Summer might be winding down, but Netflix is finishing the season strong with an absolute mountain of blockbuster originals, hilarious comedies, and critically acclaimed library additions.
Whether you’re looking to escape the August heat with a terrifying psychological horror, laugh along with a breezy new comedy, or catch up on award-winning coming-of-age dramas, this month’s movie roster truly has something for everyone. From Greta Lee and Wagner Moura in the epic sci-fi survival thriller The Last House to the streaming debuts of buzzy theatrical hits like Immaculate, we’ve sifted through the complete release schedule to bring you our top 11 movie picks for the month.
As always, we’re going to split up our article into two sections: First up, we’ll cover all the big new Netflix Originals we’re most excited for and then dive deeper into some of the licensed titles on the way.
For the complete list of everything new on Netflix for August, keep it locked here on What’s on Netflix.
Best New Netflix Original Movies
The Whisper Man
Director: James Ashcroft
Cast: Robert De Niro, Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Keaton
Genre: Crime Thriller | Runtime: 1hr 53m
The Russo Brothers’ AGBO production banner is back on Netflix to close out the summer with this highly anticipated adaptation of Alex North’s spine-chilling bestselling novel, which has been in the works for multiple years. Adam Scott stars as Tom Kennedy, a widowed crime writer whose life turns into a living nightmare when his young son goes missing. Desperate, he turns to his estranged father, a retired police detective (played by the legendary Robert De Niro), only to realize the abduction shares terrifying similarities with a decades-old serial killer case.
With a powerhouse cast that also includes Michael Keaton and Michelle Monaghan, this dark mystery promises to be the kind of movie that could pull in big numbers and hopefully be worth the wait.
The Last House
Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura
Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller | Runtime: 1hr 50m
Formerly developed under the working title 11817, this genre-bending sci-fi horror blockbuster is poised to be one of Netflix’s biggest late-summer cinematic events that could be a big hit or a big miss and probably nowhere in between. Directed by action veteran Louis Leterrier (Fast X, Lupin), it teams up Greta Lee and Wagner Moura for a high-stakes survival thriller. The central plot will feel instantly familiar if you watched Netflix’s movie from Germany last year, Brick, with the synopsis reading, “A family of four are suddenly sealed inside their home with no way out, and must work together to survive against both their dwindling resources and the mysterious, looming threat that is keeping them trapped.”
Don't Say Good Luck
Director: Julia Hart
Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Max Greenfield, Stephanie Beatriz, Sunny Sandler
Genre: Comedy | Runtime: 93 Minutes
Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026.
This year, Netflix has gotten a double serving of Adam Sandler’s daughter’s movie vehicles, and in August, it’s Sunny’s turn to front a new musical comedy. This breezy comedy boasts an absolutely stacked ensemble cast to cap off the summer. Featuring comedic heavyweights like Melanie Lynskey, Max Greenfield, and Stephanie Beatriz alongside Sunny, the coming-of-age dramedy sees Sophie hoping to bask in the spotlight in her high school musical when drama from home puts that all at risk.
August 28th
The Secret Woman
Director: Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg
Cast: Natalie Madueño, Claes Bang, Pål Sverre Hagen, Stina Ekblad
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Finally, a spotlight on one of the new international titles. If you were absolutely obsessed with the twisty smash-hit Danish thriller Loving Adults, you’ll want to move this brand-new mystery straight to the top of your queue. The Secret Woman follows Louise (Natalie Madueño), who is living a quiet, idyllic life running a café on a Norwegian island with her partner. Her peaceful existence is completely shattered when a stranger approaches her and insists she is actually Helene Söderberg—a woman who mysteriously vanished from Denmark three years ago, leaving behind a husband and a young son. Based on the novel by Anna Ekberg, this Scandinavian mystery thriller promises plenty of shocking revelations as Louise leaves her current life behind to uncover the truth about her past.
Best New Licensed Movies
Nightcrawler (2014)
Director: Dan Gilroy
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Crime | Runtime: 117 Minutes
One of Jake Gyllenhaal’s most mesmerizing and unsettling performances ever committed to screen returns to Netflix on the first of the month. Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a driven but deeply sociopathic drifter who discovers the incredibly lucrative world of freelance crime journalism (known as “nightcrawling”) in Los Angeles but soon finds himself becoming the center of the stories he wants to cover. Every performance in the Oscar-nominated flick is grounded and superb, offering a new perspective on the people who perform these roles and on the delicate balance between being objective and wanting to make it big.
Eighth Grade (2018)
Director: Bo Burnham
Cast: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Coming-of-Age | Runtime: 93 Minutes
Before he was keeping us all inside with Inside, Bo Burnham wrote and directed this poignant, cringe-inducing, and wonderfully heartfelt coming-of-age comedy-drama. It follows an introverted thirteen-year-old girl (brilliantly played by Elsie Fisher) struggling with crippling social anxiety as she tries to survive the emotionally fraught final week of middle school. It’s essential viewing for anyone who remembers the sheer awkwardness of being a teenager.
Lazareth (2024)
Director: Alec Tibaldi
Cast: Ashley Judd, Sarah Pidgeon, Katie Douglas, Asher Angel
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Thriller | Runtime: 86 Minutes
If you missed this one from a couple of years ago, August provides the perfect chance to catch up, but be warned: this is a controversial pick on my part given that I seem to be in the minority of enjoying this far more than maybe others think I should.
Following a deadly global pandemic, a fiercely protective aunt (Ashley Judd) raises her two orphaned nieces in complete isolation in a remote woodland cabin. Their peaceful, off-the-grid existence is thrown into absolute chaos a decade later when they take in a wounded teenage boy, unraveling their carefully constructed reality.
The Kid Detective (2020)
Director: Evan Morgan
Cast: Adam Brody, Sophie Nélisse, Tzi Ma, Wendy Crewson
Genre: Dark Comedy, Mystery | Runtime: 100 Minutes
If you’re a fan of neo-noir mysteries with a healthy dose of pitch-black comedy, you absolutely need to add this criminally underrated hidden gem to your watchlist. Adam Brody, who Netflix fans will know from Nobody Wants This, delivers a career-best performance as Abe Applebaum, a once-famous childhood sleuth who is now a washed-up, heavy-drinking adult still charging pennies to solve trivial neighborhood mysteries. His depressing routine takes a sudden, sobering turn when a naive young woman (Sophie Nélisse) hires him for his very first “adult” case: investigating the brutal murder of her boyfriend.
Immaculate (2024)
Director: Michael Mohan
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Simona Tabasco
Genre: Psychological Horror | Runtime: 89 Minutes
Sydney Sweeney, who will soon appear in Netflix’s Gundam movie, proved she was a true horror scream queen with this gnarly theatrical release, and now it’s making its highly anticipated streaming debut on Netflix. Sweeney stars as an American nun who embarks on a new journey at a remote convent in the picturesque Italian countryside, only to discover she is inexplicably pregnant. The “miracle” soon turns into a blood-soaked living nightmare. Trust us, you are not ready for that final act.
Woman at War (2018)
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Cast: Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Jóhann Sigurðarson, Juan Camillo Roman Estrada, Jörundur Ragnarsson
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller | Runtime: 101 Minutes
If you’re on the hunt for a brilliant, under-the-radar international gem, look no further than this critically acclaimed Icelandic eco-thriller. The film follows Halla, a warm and seemingly ordinary fifty-year-old choir director who secretly leads a double life as a fierce environmental activist known as “The Woman of the Mountain.” Just as she’s planning her boldest sabotage operation yet against the local aluminum industry, her life is turned completely upside down when a long-forgotten application to adopt a child from Ukraine is unexpectedly approved. Quirky, visually stunning, and wonderfully heartfelt, it’s an eccentric crowd-pleaser that you absolutely shouldn’t miss.
Armageddon Time (2022)
Director: James Gray
Cast: Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins
Genre: Drama, Coming-of-Age | Runtime: 114 Minutes
Based on director James Gray’s own childhood, this personal drama is set in 1980s Queens, New York. It chronicles the complex expectations placed upon a young Jewish-American boy who forms a close bond with a rebellious Black classmate. Bolstered by an incredible supporting cast including Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Anthony Hopkins as the boy’s moral compass of a grandfather, it’s a moving exploration of prejudice, privilege, and family dynamics.
Those are our picks of the best new movies hitting Netflix in August – how did we do? Let us know in the comments below. (And if there are any titles here you’d swap out, tell us what you’d replace them with!)
