25 Thriller Shows Like Cruel Summer To Watch

Shows like Cruel Summer that drama thriller fans need to watch

Freeform, The Story of Cruel Summer, has enchanted fans with its imaginative cast, exceptional talent, and actual mystery. This series is shot in a small town in a tiny city and focuses on two teenage women living in very separate towns.

The timeline covers three summer seasons, 1993, 1994, and 1995. While these three timelines are distinct each time, episodes move through the three seasons at varying intervals.

25. Clickbait

Writer: Tony Ayres & Christian White
Director: Brad Anderson, Emma Freeman
Cast: Zoe Kazan, Betty Gabriel, Phoenix Raei
IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 56%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

Netflix. The abduction drama had viewers snorting on Netflix. Clickbait presents a fascinating look at crime within social media and a riveting investigation of family dynamics. It focuses on loveable brother Nick Adrian Grenier’ who is kidnapped.

The only evidence to suggest he remains alive is the videos on YouTube, where he pictured Nick holding signs with the words “I’d be angry with women.” The Nicks family is sparked by their sister Pia (Zoe Kazan) and wife Sophie (Betty Gabor). This unique structure, with its rapid pace, makes clicking addictive.

24. Clique

Writer: Jess Brittain
Director: Robert McKillop, Andrea Harkin, Andrew Cumming
Cast: Rachel Hurd-Wood, Synnove Karlsen, Sophia Brown
IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Streaming Platform: Hulu

The British television show “Clique” provides an exciting insight into young adults at Edinburgh universities. His childhood friends Holly (Synnve Karlsen) and Georgia (Aisling Franciosi) start the first semester and go for a celebration.

Still hazy from a night earlier, the girls enter an economics course with feminist professor Jude (Louise Bromley). Jude’s positive attitude makes her a trendy person at the university primarily because she symbolizes the overwhelmingly popular girls’ clique.

23. Sharp objects

Writer: Marti Noxon
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Cast: Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina
IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Streaming Platform: Disney Hotstar

HBO Few writers have a similar career success to Gillian Flynn, whose books all appeared in film series. Sharp Objects adapted to Flynn’s new novel. She returns to Wind Gap in Missouri to investigate several unsolved murders involving missing girls.

The HBO series centers on a reporter (Adams) who was recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital and returns to her hometown to investigate the murder of two girls. The more she looks into what happened to these girls, the more connections she makes between their traumatizing childhood experiences and her current challenges.

She and her mother had a tense relationship when she was a teenager. Both series investigate the present by searching the past for dark revelations, even though Sharp Objects is slightly darker and geared toward an adult audience. But just like Cruel Summer, fans of psychological thrillers and suspense literature will adore this series.

22. Screams

Writer: James Vanderbilt; Guy Busick
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Cast: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette
IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Inspired by the slasher movies with the same alias in the ’90s, the horror film Scream was brought back to MTV for a second season after its first season. The fourth season moved into a completely new network and is an entirely different storyline.

The series focuses on a tiny community ravaged by tragic tragedies. It is not a missing teenager but a recurring crime that brings back memories of decades of earlier incidents. The television series is about teenage girls and boys targeted with the aid of masked killers and combines friendships and first love with horror.

21. Elite

Writer: Carlos Montero; Darío Madrona
Director: Dani de la Orden
Cast: Itzan Escamilla, Omar Ayuso, Miguel Bernardeau
IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

Netflix, The scintillating Spanish teen drama thriller “Elite” offers both clever social commentary and an intriguing murder mystery. The show starts with three working-class students with scholarships to Las Encinas, the most prominent Spanish school.

The show will also feature: When the couple arrives, they are quickly caught in drama as they face difficulties integrating with the wealthiest and most privileged youth. They are also investigating a murder and a murder investigation involving almost everyone at school suspected.

20. Big Little Lies

Writer: David E. Kelley
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée; Andrea Arnold
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley
IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Streaming Platform: HBO MAX

Big Little Lies sometimes joke with pretty little lies as they share similar titles almost perfectly. The Big Little Lies is a much larger adult series that has become popular among HBO fans. This HBO series has murder mysteries, cold blood, dark secrets, and exploited suffering.

Hopefully, this second recommendation combines sisterly ties similar to those seen in Pretty Little Liars. Once more, the ensemble cast from the upcoming movie starring Zo Kravitz and Nicole Kidman will star.

Moving from California with her son Ziggy (Ian Armitage) and mother Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) was a challenging experience. They are shocked by the tumultuous lives of the small-town school moms. But after a murder, everything seems to be different since now everyone in the network is a suspect.

19. The Sinner

Writer: Derek Simonds
Director: Antonio Campos
Cast: Bill Pullman, Jessica Hecht, Dohn Norwood
IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

Unlike Pretty Little Liars and Cruel Summer, the Sinner is an investigative drama based on true stories. During this time, audiences will be guessing. Anthologies Series Each season focuses on a different mystery, but detectives remain identical in each case.

The audience will also have to determine how authentic Kate and Jeanette’s experience of Cruel Summer happened in each season.

Several episodes of The Detectives show the complex investigations of Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman). It’ll focus on Corat Tannetti (Bilel), a woman murdered by a man on the beach. The story of the girl’s previous life is revealed in detail, and viewers are led to a wild reveal that saves the final twist.

18. Cloak And Dagger

Writer: Joe Pokaski
Director: Ami Canaan Mann
Cast: Olivia Holt, Aubrey Joseph, Gloria Reuben
IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Streaming Platform: Disney Hotstar

If Olivia Holt’s Kate attracts the most viewers, then Marvel Cloak & Dagger would be exciting. The series has been around only two seasons and features Holly in a role where their entire world is turned upside down by secrets revealed.

Ty and Tandy (Holt) develop superpowers through accidents when they are young. They never meet once they are teenagers and decide to share the gift of helping to save New Orleans. Kidnappings are also important stories that will continue throughout the season.

17. Gossip Girl

Writer: Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz
Director: Mark Piznarski, Norman Buckley, Patrick R. Norris, J. Miller Tobin
Cast: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley
IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Streaming Platform: Hulu

C.W., based on a novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar, “Gossip Girl” had an apparent effect on the web. The first episode, “Gossip Girls,” showed obscene teenage wealth, flaunting laws, and hosting extravagant events most people could never imagine.

Throughout six episodes, the show explores the most affluent private students living on the Upper East Side of New York City. Blake Lively plays Serena van der Woodson, who returns to Upper East side high school after missing for a mysterious reason.

16. The Society

Writer: Christopher Keyser
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Kathryn Newton, Gideon Adlon, Sean Berdy
IMDb Rating: 7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

Netflix It is straightforward to think about the life of a child with no parents. Is it a lot less work and fun? But the character of “The Society” is a real-life fantasy, although the situation has less appeal than they would think.

When students in West Ham, Connecticut, return home from field trips, they discover all the others have been gone. In addition, the West Ham area is a vast forest. This means they must create rules and social structures to survive.

15. Pretty Little Liars

Writer: I. Marlene King
Director: Norman Buckley
Cast: Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale
IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Streaming Platform: Hulu

Cruel Summer is billed as a miniseries, and the film is equally twisty as Pretty Little Liars. It’s pretty simple to make this the show to watch when you enjoy surprises. The mystery series has multiple seasons to solve, but Pretty Little Liars offers no easy binge experience.

There are still many social dynamics similar to Cruel Summer, but the characters are growing apart and must unravel the possibility that their friends were abducted or abused by them.

If you have watched and loved the cruel summer trio, trust the word, you will love all seven seasons of Pretty Little Liar from the beginning.

14. The Wilds

Writer: Sarah Streicher
Director: Ed Wild; Rob Marsh; Peter Field; Matt Toll
Cast: Rachel Griffiths, Sophia Ali, Shannon Berry
IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Amazon, The Wilds, is an American teenage group of teens that flies in a fantastic private plane for the dawn of Eve. It promises to offer an extended week full of female empowerment, and that’s far scarier.

After a nightmare flight, two girls are trapped on an uncharted island without contact with anyone else and have only the choice of surviving. What makes “The Wild” so interesting is that if these girls stayed, there was no mystery.

13. Big Sky

Writer: David E. Kelley
Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Cast: Katheryn Winnick, Kylie Bunbury, Dedee Pfeiffer
IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
Streaming Platform: Disney Hotstar

Cruel Summer focuses most of the story on teen girls whose story centers on them. For Big Sky, however, detectives are in the spotlight when teenagers are found.

Big Sky is the newer show that covers every aspect of a human trafficking case in its first episode and also opens up new mysteries within this little village of Montana. It gives me a fascinating view of how massive crimes are hidden in small cities.

12. Panic

Writer: Lauren Oliver (based on the novel by)
Director: Megan Griffiths
Cast: Olivia Scott Welch, Mike Faist, Jessica Sula
IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 65%
Streaming Platform: Prime Video

Having to live alone for a while can be very frustrating. It is unbearable. All kids grow up in Carp, Texas, where escape is impossible. Each spring, the sweltering city offers students a chance to compete in several dramatic challenges that form the Panic competition.

Panic Another heart-pounding teen series, Panic, is based on Lauren Oliver’s book of the same name. It features several recent high school graduates competing for a large cash prize in their little town’s yearly (and terrifyingly horrifying) games. It has all the makings of being one of Amazon’s most talked-about T.V. programs this summer.

11. Dare me

Writer: Megan Abbott (based on the book by), Gina Fattore
Director: Jamie Travis
Cast: Willa Fitzgerald, Herizen F. Guardiola, Marlo Kelly
IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

This newest thriller series, “Dare Me,” has also been set to delve into teenage girls. But the teens cheer themselves on in a rural town. The audience has to stay informed about the lies they propagate and the tumultuous relationships they form among the teens.

When friends’ dynamics in Cruel Summer change, it can be an exciting addition to the upcoming binge-watch. “Dare Me” illustrates the extremities that even some young women are ready to go to succeed. It is a coming-of-age narrative, a small-town tragedy, and a crime story.

10. Riverdale

Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Director: Gabriel Correa, Rob Seidenglanz, Steven A. Adelson, Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Cast: Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse
IMDb Rating: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

The C.W. comics Archie have been known for many reasons, but their sexual content has no place. A recent T.V. reboot, Riverdale, has fixed it. The series is significantly darker than the comics on which the show is founded, though sometimes the show goes a bit far for its protagonists.

The potent teen angst and mystery thrillers in Riverdale make a great fit. KJ Apa is Archie Andrews, who joins his narrator and Betty Cooper.

9. Teen Wolf

Writer: Jeff Davis
Director: Russell Mulcahy, Tim Andrew, Jennifer Lynch, Toby Wilkins, Christian Taylor
Cast: Tyler Posey, Holland Roden, Dylan O’Brien
IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

High school has already become tough; however, high school at Wolf has its challenges. Unfortunately, Scott McCall got bitten in his sophomore year by werewolves.

But being a werewolf gives Scott a massive set of physical abilities far beyond the typical human’s. As Scott attempts to hide his powers, he soon realizes the town of Beacon Hills is a dangerous place for supernatural events.

8. The Haunting Of Hill House

Writer: Mike Flanagan
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas
IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

Cruel Summer has an engaging nonlinear narrative and its potential for untrue narrators. Three different periods of life alternate with the main characters, making it an exciting story of a contrasting era. The Haunting of Hill House will make for an intriguing story.

The story’s focus is somewhat narrower than Cruel Summer’s, and the narrative layers are even more profound.

7. Little fires everywhere

Writer: Liz Tigelaar (developed for television by)
Director: Lynn Shelton
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Rosemarie DeWitt
IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Streaming Platform: Hulu

Watching the Hulu series after Cruel Summer gives you a feeling of deja vu. As Warrens and Richardson merge in conflict, the social-economic clashes are escalating among the young women. Mia and Elena have opposite sides, as do Jeanette (Kate’s mother) and Kate Wallis. Mia is known for her nomad lifestyle and is widely perceived as a liberal mom, while Elena follows the rules and social responsibilities.

Like Little Fires Everywhere, their strong relationship is ruined when she learns about her mother’s secret and questions her about it. Everything will make apparent after you see the comparison.

6. Veronica Mars

Writer: Rob Thomas
Director: John T. Kretchmer
Cast: Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni
IMDb Rating: 8.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Streaming Platform: Hulu

The entire series follows Veronica Mars’life, a private investigator once popular among friends. But her relationship with others becomes more isolated after several devastating incidents. When her father leaves county sheriff duty, she takes on the task of solving the mysteries of the sinister city.

With each latest series of Veronica Mars, you’ll learn more about the horrific truth beneath the idyllic suburban façade.

Although it was prematurely canceled after three seasons in the early 2000s, the series had such devoted fans that it had become one of very few first major Kickstarter successes, gave rise to the 2014 follow-up movie, and even received a long-overdue reboot.

5. The A list

Writer: Dan Berlinka,Nina Metivier
Director: Dan Berlinka, Patrick Harkins
Cast: Lisa Ambalavanar, Ellie Duckles, Rosie Dwyer
IMDb Rating: 5.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: N.A.
Streaming Platform: Netflix

A British summer camp becomes the setting for The A-List as a new member challenges one young girl’s it-girl reputation, and camp mysteries threaten to ruin their summer. Cruel Summer sounds remarkable, like a dream vacation turned upside down by the friendship of two teenage girls. It is a total adolescent drama.

Everything is perfect in Mia’s world since she rules her summer camp on Peregrine Island like a queen bee and has other campers at her beck and call. That is until newcomer Amber enters the building and sets her sights on removing Mia from her gleaming pedestal. A summer camp for teenagers that seemed lovely rapidly devolves into a bloodbath.

4. Vampire Diaries

Writer: Kevin Williamson
Director: Chris Grismer
Cast: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder
IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Streaming Platform: Prime Video, Netflix

Elena meets Stefan on her first day of junior high and clicks with him immediately. She is unaware that Stefan and his brother Damon are vampires, though.

The Vampire Diaries is based on a book series with a similar name and focuses on Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), a teen whose parents have lost them in a car accident. In these stories, Elena often falls in love with vampire Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). After Stefan’s brothers Damon and Iain Somerhalder arrive, things become more complex.

3. Dead of Summer

Writer: Edward Kitsis; Adam Horowitz; Ian Goldberg
Director: Mick Garris
Cast: Elizabeth Mitchell, Elizabeth Lail, Alberto Frezza
IMDb Rating: 6.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 63%
Streaming Platform: Hulu

Dead Of Summer appeared on ABC Family before its original name was changed to a limited series on Freeform. Initially planned as a series anthology to occur in ten years each, this was only one year before being canceled, but the entire season has much to fear.

A group of adolescents working as camp counselors has found themselves at risk as people begin to get murdered. The series has many elements of a slasher movie, but the mystery can be unraveled quickly, and it features unexpected twists difficult for anyone.

2. Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (2012) — Source: Letterboxd

Writer: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray
Director: Gary Ross
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Streaming Platform: Hulu

In a competition that only lasts until one person is left, Katniss offers to play in place of her sister. She has little to fall back on when competing against athletes who have spent their entire lives training for this.

Teens need these life skills to establish enduring relationships with peers who will stand by them when times are rough. While many elderly viewers may have been enthralled by the aesthetics, action, and drama of the Hunger Games flicks, few had the plot connect with them as profoundly as teen viewers.

1. Control Z

Writer: Miguel García Moreno, Adriana Pelusi, Carlos Quintanilla
Director: Bernardo De la Rosa Villarreal, Alejandro Lozano
Cast: Ana Valeria Becerril, Alondra Lara, Patricia Maqueo
IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
Streaming Platform: Netflix

There are some positive parts to the Mexican adolescent drama Control Z. We believe Becceril did an excellent job of portraying Sofia’s complicated previous history and the fact that, despite being an outsider, she has nothing negative to say about her situation.

She would prefer to take it easy while seeing how predictable her peers are. Javier played a great Watson to Sofia’s Sherlock, even if he ought to be able to claim automatic monarch of the hill privilege given his relation to Sofia.

FAQs

What Do I Watch After Cruel Summer?

Shows like “Cruel Summer” that Drama Thriller fans should see Clickbait, Panics, sharp Objects, Elites, Cliques, Pretty little liars, Veronica Mars, Scream, The Sinner, etc.

Is There A Season 2 Cruel Summer?

Now, prepare for the return to an evocative world filled with nostalgia. The series aired in the summer of 2021, but it is only a matter of pride that it quickly proved popular on the network.

What Kind Of show Is Cruel Summer?

Teen drama thrillers novel series Cruel Summer is an American teen drama novel series created by Bert V. Royal and has varying stories each season. It first appeared on Free Form in April 2021.