Not all movies that make it to the big screen and get applauded by the masses fulfill everyone’s criteria for a good movie. They often get the attention they don’t deserve due to the heavy marketing tactics.
Underneath the pile of these blockbusters are some cinematic gems that delight those who seek authentic entertainment in cinematography, color grading, screenplay, etc.
In this article, we offer you 25 underrated movies on Hulu that are yet to be discovered by the general audience. If you’re worried about the unavailability of Hulu in your geographical region, don’t be so.
We’ve got a solution for that, too. Simply download a high-quality VPN to bypass all the geo-restrictions imposed by the platform, and you’re good to go! Let’s get started with these gems, including some of the best of the indie genre.
Bad Hair
- Starring: Zaria Kelley, Corinne Massiah, Elle Lorraine
- Director: Justin Simien
- Year: 2020
- IMDb: 5.6/10
Set in 1989 America, a young black woman is awed by the wonders of the world of music and wants to be a part of it. But her hair is not the way the world wants it to be. So she gets a new set of hair. But soon, she realizes that her new hair may not be typical. This is a unique blend of comedy with horror and is more of a sarcastic commentary on the lack of freedom women have with their hair.
Read More: 15 Best Game Shows on Hulu That’ll Keep You Entertained
The Art of Self-Defence
- Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Nivola, Imogen Poots
- Director: Riley Stearns
- Year: 2019
- IMDb: 6.6/10
Jesse Eisenberg plays the role of a simple city guy in this one. And then, one day, he gets attacked on the street. This gets him angry, and he joins a local dojo to prevent himself from such threats in the future. But the dojo, led by a peculiar yet charming sensei, harbors a brotherhood based on violence and masculinity, which doesn’t sit right with Eisenberg’s character.
Iron Mask
- Starring: Jason Flemyng, Xingtong Yao, Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Director: Oleg Stepchenko
- Year: 2019
- IMDb: 4.7/10
This movie is a comedic trip by two highly acclaimed actors who portray excellent on-screen chemistry, Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The latter plays the role of a cartographer sent to China for his work. He faces witches, a Dragon King, talismans, and an esteemed Kung Fu master. Iron Mask is a must-watch if you love Chan’s work.
Filth
- Starring: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan
- Director: Jon S. Baird
- Year: 2013
- IMDb: 7.0/10
It’s gruesome and disgusting, yet a masterpiece of the world of underrated movies to watch on Hulu. James McAvoy delivers a laudable performance that will drive you to laugh like a madman and hurl simultaneously. He plays a drug-addicted misanthrope who is trying to investigate the murder of a Japanese student. But his severe hallucinations are not helping him.
Rye Lane
- Starring: David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah, Poppy Allen-Quarmby
- Director: Raine Allen-Miller
- Year: 2023
- IMDb: 7.3/10
Two young people can meet in South London and hit it off then and there. Through their unguarded conversations, they bond over the wounds of their recent breakups. Throughout the movie, they help each other recover from their pain.
Mother
- Starring: Hye-ja Kim, Won Bin, Jin Goo
- Director: Bong Joon Ho
- Year: 2023
- IMDb: 7.3/10
A widow residing in a small Korean town with her mentally challenged young son is put through the biggest test of her life when a young girl’s dead body is discovered ruthlessly murdered, and her son is declared the prime suspect behind it. Unjustly treated by the legal system, she decides to take her son’s justice into her own hands. A gem brought to life by Bong Joon Ho. This, for sure, is an underrated gem of a movie on Hulu.
Diane
- Starring: Mary Kay Place, Jake Lacy, Estelle Parsons
- Director: Kent Jones
- Year: 2018
- IMDb: 6.7/10
Diane incessantly works to help others, ensuring she’s always there if someone needs to be aided. Whether the local soup kitchen needs volunteers or sick friends who must be checked upon, she’s always there for everyone except herself. But hiding beneath her philanthropic self is a dark secret threatening to resurface from the darkness within her.
The Sound of Silence
- Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, Rashida Jones, Tony Revolori
- Director: Michael Tyburski
- Year: 2019
- IMDb: 5.7/10
Peter Lucian is a ‘house tuner’ who intends to record every sound that makes up the silence within the four walls of our homes. The ticking of clocks. The hum of curtains. His skills are challenged when he takes on the complex case of a woman with chronic exhaustion and finds that the human soul and its requirements may be more complex than he imagined. This movie calls upon you to listen closely.
Read More: How To Fix Hulu Playback Failure With Our Smooth Guide
Border
- Starring: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Jörgen Thorsson
- Director: Ali Abbasi
- Year: 2018
- IMDb: 7.0/10
Tina is a customs officer known for her almost inhuman sense of smell, which aids her in finding the targets assigned to her as she can smell the guilt on them. She then meets Vore, who is a suspiciously peculiar-looking guy. But as she develops feelings for him, she comes closer to finding the truth about herself. This, we must warn you, is not your usual dose of thriller.
Hounds of Love
- Starring: Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings, Stephen Curry
- Director: Ben Young
- Year: 2016
- IMDb: 6.5/10
Vicky Maloney is a teenager who one night decides to sneak out of her house for a party. As she does so, she is unaware of a greater danger roaming the streets of her suburb. A murderous couple is on the loose in the hunt for their next target, and they come across Vicky. Now, she must find a way to escape from her diabolical captors.
Little Joe
- Starring: Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox
- Director: Jessica Hausner
- Year: 2019
- IMDb: 5.8/10
This is one of the best psychological thrillers of this age. Alice is a single mother working at a corporation interested in breeding new species using genetic technology. One such plant she decides to take home for her son but soon realizes that it was a big mistake to do so as she begins noticing weird changes in her son.
Shoplifters
- Starring: Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Kirin Kiki
- Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu
- Year: 2018
- IMDb: 7.9/10
On the perimeters of the metropolis of Tokyo is a family trying to survive their poverty by using theft to get by. It is almost a sort of devotion to theft that they abide by. Upon the youngest son getting arrested one ominous day, things go out of kilter for the family, and dark secrets begin surfacing.
Read More: 9 Reliable Fixes to Resolve Hulu App Issues
Little Monsters
- Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Alexander England, Josh Gad
- Director: Abe Forsythe
- Year: 2019
- IMDb: 6.3/10
Lupita Nyong’o and zombies? Tell me more, please! A wiped-out musician teams up with his nephew’s teacher to combat an oncoming onslaught of zombies and protect the younglings from them. While at the same time trying to woo the teacher too.
The Boy Downstairs
- Starring: Zosia Mamet, Matthew Shear, Deirdre O’Connell
- Director: Sophie Brooks
- Year: 2017
- IMDb: 5.7/10
Diana has lived a good life abroad and is ready to move back to home sweet home in New York. To her utter surprise, her very first boyfriend lives directly beneath the perfect apartment she’s found for herself. One chance encounter leads to other meetings, and soon, old wounds are opening up, and emotions are emerging again.
The Day Shall Come
- Starring: Andrel McPherson, Miles Robbins, Marchánt Davis
- Director: Christopher Morris
- Year: 2019
- IMDb: 5.9/10
Here’s a quirky one. But has a touch of truth to it. A poverty-stricken preacher in Miami is given the chance to save his family from eviction by being offered cash. Little does he know that the sponsor behind this great help is an FBI agent who, later, plans on framing him as a criminal by, for the present, fuelling his revolutionary fever.
Colossal
- Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell
- Director: Nacho Vigalondo
- Year: 2016
- IMDb: 6.2/10
Anne Hathaway plays a crazy, reckless idiot whose life is defined by partying hard non-stop. This consequently leads to her boyfriend kicking her out of their shared apartment. And now she has to return to her hometown. Then news erupts of a giant monstrosity destroying Seoul. She begins to believe that she is somehow connected to this creature and that the city’s fate is in her hands. It’s too bizarre to be true, this one.
Lemon
- Starring: Inger Tudor, Brett Gelman, Judy Greer
- Director: Janicza Bravo
- Year: 2016
- IMDb: 6.2/10
This could be defined as a reflection of the loneliness that haunts us all occasionally. Isaac’s girlfriend of 10 years has walked out on her. He barely knows how to proceed, but one’s gotta live. He takes up directing a staging of Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ and attempts to woo a new potential lover. Anything to ward off the loneliness.
The Oath
- Starring: Ike Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, Nora Dunn
- Director: Ike Barinholtz
- Year: 2018
- IMDb: 5.6/10
America is in a political chaos. Chris and his wife are in disbelief after learning about the new oath signing required by every citizen, which promises their loyalty to the president. The last day for this sign is Thanksgiving Day. The couple delays signing the oath and then is visited by two government agents on Thanksgiving, and things don’t go well from that point onwards.
Oh Lucy!
- Starring: Shinobu Terajima, Soseki Yamatoya, Miyu Yagyu
- Director: Atsuko Hirayanagi
- Year: 2017
- IMDb: 6.8/10
Setsuko is a lonely chain smoker in Tokyo, living as an unmarried corporate enslaved person. Soon, she takes English classes in the States and follows her niece there. During the classes, she takes up the name of Lucy and is enamored by her teacher, John. But be prepared for the movie’s darkly dramatic turn at the end.
The Valet
- Starring: Eugenio Derbez, Samara Weaving, Max Greenfield
- Director: Richard Wong
- Year: 2022
- IMDb: 6.7/10
If you’re up for one, this is another ‘fake relationship’ trope, but not the cliche type they show in young-adult rom-com. A Hollywood actress hires a random parking valet working for a Beverly Hills restaurant to conceal the truth about her relationship with a married man. But it’s not easy indoctrinating the simpleton into the ways of Hollywood.
John Dies at the End
- Starring: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti
- Director: Don Coscarelli
- Year: 2012
- IMDb: 6.3/10
There’s a new drug out in the streets. It enables the user to travel through time and different dimensions. But here’s the catch: some return typically, while others can’t return entirely human. Two students take it upon themselves to save humanity from this impending invasion of alien beings. One of Hulu’s underrated movies.
The Sisters Brothers
- Starring: John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal
- Director: Jacques Audiard
- Year: 2018
- IMDb: 6.9/10
In the 1850s, two brothers, Charlie and Eli, are raised in a world of ferocious and violent men. They are perfect assassins. They embark on a journey through the Northwest in search of gold. But this journey threatens to unveil secrets about the family, which put their family ties to the test.
Read More: 15 Best Family Movies on Hulu for a Quality Family Time
Before We Vanish
- Starring: Masami Nagasawa, Ryûhei Matsuda, Hiroki Hasegawa
- Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Year: 2017
- IMDb: 6.2/10
Three extraterrestrial beings have traveled to planet Earth and have inhabited the bodies of three humans. Further on, they manipulate the bodies of their hosts so that they have no memories of their being left. And upon waking up, they find a psychological havoc wreaked in their lives. This movie is some food for thought for you.
Fast Color
- Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lorraine Toussaint, Saniyya Sidney
- Director: Julia Hart
- Year: 2018
- IMDb: 6.1/10
The lead in this movie is equipped with superhuman abilities. Now, mysterious forces are after her, and to escape, she has nowhere to go but the home and family she had abandoned years ago in the countryside. There, with the help of her mother, she begins to discover within herself the power she had always needed.
The Assistant
- Starring: Julia Garner, Owen Holland, Jon Orsini
- Director: Kitty Green
- Year: 2019
- IMDb: 6.4/10
The glam and glitz of the entertainment industry hold dark secrets behind the curtains. Jane is a fresh graduate who has landed her first decent job as an executive assistant to one of the big shots in the industry. But soon enough, she faces the threats, degrading attitude, and mockery surrounding her job.
That’s a Wrap!
In our opinion, this list of 25 underrated movies on Hulu was pretty unique. A blend of all the major genres ensures everyone can find something that fits their likes. Not to mention that some are exquisitely bizarre and can pique your interest in them.
To enjoy the best of your time on Hulu, download the trusted ExpressVPN to get past all the geo-restrictions placed on the streaming platform.
We now hope you have a good time watching these hidden gems and the rush of adrenaline they have to offer!