Everybody’s still talking about horror movies. There seems to be no end to the quality and quantity this year, from B-movie schlockers like Dangerous Animals (currently in American and British theaters) to Ryan Coogler’s epic Sinners (on Prime Video on both sides of The Pond). But where does that leave thrillers, movies that challenge you to work out what’s going on while enjoying a pleasant, suspenseful tingle?
Aside from Black Bag, they’ve been in horror’s shadow for the first half of 2025. But Echo Valley, which has been added on Apple TV Plus today [Friday, June 11], is the thriller I’ve been waiting for.
It’s nine months since the death of her partner and Kate (Julianne Moore) is on automatic pilot, keeping herself going by looking after the horses on her isolated farm. Unable to cope with the riding lessons side of the business, her income is on a downward slide, but she’s overjoyed when addict daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) shows up — until she realises the reason for her visit is money. Her boyfriend needs to free himself from a huge drug debt, and Kate knows she should refuse.
Her devotion to her daughter, though, is such that she gives her the much-needed loan originally destined for her home. It doesn’t stop there. Claire returns with a body wrapped in plastic and an explanation that doesn’t quite stack up yet, without a second thought, Kate disposes of the corpse — and finds herself facing down the drug dealer who has both daughter and boyfriend in his thrall, the manipulative Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson).
It’s the third movie from British director, Michael Pearce, who first emerged at the helm of psychological thriller Beast (2017), a film which not only introduced us to him but also the acting talents of Jessie Buckley. As he showed in that film, and its follow-up Encounter (2021), he relishes taking a familiar set-up and turning it upside down, encouraging his audience to believe he’s taking them in one direction and then wrong-footing them with the sharpest of hairpin bends.
Here, the isolated ranch, once a source of solace and peace, has become a place haunted by grief and nightmares. And Kate’s routine of waking up every morning and trying to recover from yet another night of restless dreams with her deep breathing routine comes with a sense of there being no light at the end of the tunnel.
Pearce creates a magnetically uncertain atmosphere and has chosen a superb cast to create the grief and fear to amplify it. Moore’s performance is beautifully modulated, initially restrained but letting rip in the mother/daughter arguments, laying bare the volatility of their relationship. Sweeney is on more familiar territory, echoing her breakthrough performance in Euphoria as the substance addicted daughter, but somebody who is still aware that her life could have been so different.
Gleeson plays possibly the most calculating villain of the year
But the film’s star performance, in typical Pearce style, comes from an unexpected source. Usually the archetypal Mr Nice Guy, Gleeson leaves all that behind to play perhaps the nastiest, most calculating villain we’ll see on screen this year. Almost unrecognisable with his lank hair and cold eyes, his turn as the most cold-blooded of manipulators is the best thing he’s ever done. Prepare to be caught off-guard, to have the rug pulled from underneath your feet and for twists and turns a-plenty in this compelling thriller. Its combination of melancholy, surprises and genuine thrills grips you in double quick time and refuses to let go.
Echo Valley is everything you expect from a good, meaty thriller — and more.
Echo Valley is now on Apple TV Plus in the US and UK.