A good thriller can keep an audience utterly entranced throughout the entire runtime, building tension, suspense, and mystery all the while in a gripping manner. Compared to other movie genres, thrillers are actually somewhat loosely defined. Some double as horror movies, punctuating their suspense with blood, gore, and scares galore, whereas others are crossbred with very different genres, resulting in fusions like dark thriller romances or political thrillers.
The one thing all thrillers have in common is their commitment to building tension, which, when done well, can easily hypnotize a viewer into being totally engrossed for the entire runtime. These films usually pay off their slow unfolding of a complicated, layered mystery with incredible payoffs of totally unexpected twists, rewarding audiences for their efforts. It’s not an easy thing to keep someone hooked for the entire length of a film, but the best thrillers are able to do so brilliantly.
10
Prisoners
A gripping abduction thriller
Abductions and missing persons cases are the solid foundation for many a brilliant thriller, offering a clear mystery to be solved from the very beginning. Prisoners is one of the best examples of such an idea, coming from the filmography of visionary director Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve’s first Hollywood English-language film stars Hugh Jackman as a father whose young daughter, along with her friend, suddenly goes missing. Leading the investigation is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Detective Loki, who prompts Jackman’s character to take justice into his own hands.
Unsurprisingly, Jackman and Gyllenhaal are phenomenal dual leads as they go about their investigations in very different ways.
The film keeps the suspense high throughout by stringing along particularly stressful moments, such as Jackman’s Keller brutally interrogating a lead suspect. Unsurprisingly, Jackman and Gyllenhaal are phenomenal dual leads as they go about their investigations in very different ways. Of course, the actual answers to the mystery are quite shocking when they are finally revealed, ensuring that the build-up of stress is ultimately worth it.
9
Oldboy
Thrives in cruelty
Proving that Asian cinema is just as adept, if not more so, at handling weighty thrillers as Hollywood, Oldboy douses its intrigue in a slick oily coating of brutal action. The plot centers on a man who has been imprisoned for years by some unseen captor, kept captive in total isolation in a small room. When he’s finally released, he goes on a violent rampage hoping to procure revenge on his captor, revealed to be even crueler than thought possible by the blinding twists and turns of the narrative.
Oldboy has some of the most intense action of any thriller ever made, emphasizing the rabid quest for revenge from behind the perspective of a man with nothing else left. Clawhammers and other improvised weapons go splintering across the screen as a breadcrumb trail of answers is slowly doled out, keeping the adrenaline up all the while. In the end, the shocking final revelation of Oldboy is the nasty-tasting cherry on top of a bleak, but captivating thrill ride.
8
The Game
A masterwork by one of the best thriller auteurs ever
The works of David Fincher make up some of the most vile, disturbing, yet impossible to look away from thrillers. The Game is no exception, maintaining some of the most consistently enrapturing story despite being undervalued compared to Fincher’s other work. Michael Douglas stars as a wealthy investment banker who is granted access to the тιтular mysterious game by his brother as a gift, which soon proves to be a curse as the dangerous organization running the game soon begins threatening his life and livelihood.
Douglas excels in the role of a self-aggrandizing financial savant who questions how important his life may be to warrant such meddling.
The eerie actions of the game turn the narrative into a slowly-boiling miasma of nightmarish consequence that feels impossible to look away from. With an oppressive atmosphere and a keen sense of mystery, The Game traps audiences into playing whether they like it or not.
7
Shutter Island
A haunting glimpse into psychosis
Despite being better known for crime epics and scathing character studies, Martin Scorsese is quite adept with the art of the thriller. No film proves this better than Shutter Island, a noir thinkpiece that descends into the furthest caverns of human madness. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a detective who travels to an Alcatraz-like insane asylum located on the eponymous island to investigate the whereabouts of a missing patient. However, the real truth he ends up circling is far more shocking.
Shutter Islands has one of the best twist endings of any film following the turn of the century, and does a phenomenal job getting there. The eerie atmosphere of the island and its residents seep into every pore of the visuals, providing a striking backdrop for DiCaprio’s Marshal Teddy Daniels to descend into madness. Even for those adept at guessing where movies are going, Shutter Island is able to totally isolate and misdirect right up until the last minute.
6
Memento
Weaponizes time against the viewer
The movies of Christopher Nolan are famous for their often broken chronology, as the visionary director is fond of hopping back and forth through time to weave an elaborate story. Memento was his first, and arguably best, use of this technique, directly incorporating a shattered order of events into the narrative. The film centers on Guy Pearce’s Leonard Shelby, a former insurance adjuster whose life is complicated by retrograde amnesia in an accident, leaving him unable to form new memories.
All Shelby knows is that someone murdered his wife and deserves his revenge, though piecing together the idenтιтy of the culprit is no easy task without a linear sense of time. Telling the story in reverse order, Memento manages to keep audiences guessing as it works its way backwards to the chronological beginning of the narrative. The patchwork of thoughtful, somber performances and unbelievable plot developments combine into a satisfying whole.
5
The Prestige
Misdirects audiences from the very beginning
Yet another top-notch thriller from the mind of Christopher Nolan, The Prestige also presents the order of events in its story in a broken fashion, but doesn’t rely on the trick to conceal its shocking twists as much. The film stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as stage magicians in 1900s London, starting out as friends and colleagues but becoming bitter enemies after the death of Jackman’s character’s wife following a botched trick. In an obsessive journey to outdo one another, the two make some alarming discoveries about each other’s acts.
The most clever thing about The Prestige is how it waives its shocking final reveal in front of the viewer the entire time, being obvious enough on repeat viewings to make viewers feel ridiculous for not figuring it out. But even beyond its flashy tricks, the grounding performances of the all-star cast and fascinating use of Nolan’s trademark timeline-hopping provide enough substance so as not to feel gimmicky. Few films can boast a better slight-of-hand than the thrills of The Prestige.
4
Parasite
Goes from jovial comedy to shocking thriller
Parasite is one of the most interesting cases of a film that switches genres abruptly halfway through. The story centers on a desperately poor South Korean family struggling to make ends meet by any means possible. They seem to strike it big when they manage to worm their way into the lives of a wealthy family, becoming their tutors, chauffeurs, and housekeepers. However, a shocking revelation about the family’s old help soon twists things into a gruesome thriller.
The first Best Picture Oscar winner from a foreign film for good reason, Parasite is engrossing all the way through.
Parasite starts out quite steeped in comedy, with the protagonist family being fun, scrappy underdogs to root for as they rob the unᴀssuming wealthy family for all they’re worth. But the horrors of capitalism soon rear their heads, and Parasite descends into bloody madness examining just how wide the gulf between the haves and have-nots can be. The first Best Picture Oscar winner from a foreign film for good reason, Parasite is engrossing all the way through.
3
Se7en
A bleak horror film from a police perspective
Blurring the lines between horror, thriller, and police procedural, Se7en is an infamously captivating but ghastly tale. The film describes a slasher horror serial killer from the perspective of two police detectives, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, who examine the gruesome murder scenes he leaves behind while trying to piece together his idenтιтy. Crafting his killings based on the seven ᴅᴇᴀᴅly sins of Christianity, the killer soon takes an alarmingly personal interest in the detectives themselves.
Se7en just might be the magnum opus of David Fincher, carrying a brutality to it that’s impossible to look away from in the same way a tragic disaster is. Kevin Spacey is disturbingly proficient as the insidious killer, who taunts his would-be pursuers right up until the infamously appalling downer ending. The definition of a film best watched through covered eyes, Se7en is an unforgettable thriller that irrevocably marks its viewers with dour disgust.
2
The Silence Of The Lambs
A masterpiece in slow-burn horror
As great as Se7en is, it owes much of its success to The Silence of the Lambs from a few years earlier. Likewise, The Silence of the Lambs centers on an investigation of a serial killer. FBI rookie Clarice Starling is tasked with finding the kidnapped daughter of a Senator, believed to be held hostage by the deranged murderer nicknamed Buffalo Bill. To help her investigation, Starling seeks the aid of the infamous psychiatrist turned gourmand cannibal serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who ᴀssists in dissecting Buffalo Bill’s psychological profile.
Anthony Hopkins gives one of the most brilliant performances ever captured on film as Hannibal Lecter, who soon eclipses Buffalo Bill in threat as he jumps at the chance to use Starling’s investigation to escape. Jodie Foster is also phenomenal as the inexperienced, but fearless Agent Starling, who is easy to sympathize with and relate to as she navigates the brutality of a serial killer. Thrilling and disgusting all the way through, The Silence of the Lambs is considered a classic for a good reason.
1
The Departed
A nerve-wracking tale of double-crossing spies
Another feather in Scorsese’s cap as a trustworthy thriller pilot, The Departed is still one of the most prestigious works in an impressive filmography. The South Boston-set caper centers on a police effort to infiltrate the Irish Mafia by way of an informant mole living among them deep undercover. Unfortunately for the law, however, the criminals have a similar idea, and send their own double agent to infiltrate the mechanisms of the police themselves.
Few films are able to maintain tension as well as The Departed, weaponizing dramatic irony as both agents seem inches away from having their covers blown at multiple points. It becomes impossible for the viewer to pick a side as Scorsese throws the two warring factions against one another in the ultimate clash of law vs. order. Laden with brilliant performances from a stacked cast of A-listers and slick action sequences, The Departed is one thriller that’s impossible to look away from once it begins.
