The 12 best thrillers of all time

The thriller genre is a broad category in the movie world, and you’ll find that our list of “12 best” films spans 80 years and includes elements from many other genres such as horror, espionage, and more. We’ve tried very hard here to present you with a large sample of suspenseful films, spanning several decades, evoking different moods, and featuring many directors (although there are some iterations). So here are the best thrillers of all time, ranging from dark grinning ghosts to stories of serial killers to private detectives and spies.

12. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate

director: John Frankenheimer

First, it’s worth saying that the remake by Jonathan Demme is from the movie The Manchurian Candidate The 2004 movie starring Denzel Washington is also very good. It may be a different movie from this in many ways, but it’s still a good one. But nothing beats the original in this case. The original 1962 John Frankenheimer film combines drama, suspense, science fiction, and political satire in such an effective way that it’s hard to fit into any one category. Starring Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, the film follows the story of a returning heroic soldier who is suspected of being a brainwashed killer.

11. Memento (2000)

Memento

director: Christopher Nolan

Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano and Carrie-Anne Moss star in this innovative thriller from writer-director Christopher Nolan, which tells the story of a vengeful man who suffers from short-term memory loss. Memento unfolds in ten-minute scenes, shown in reverse chronological order, creating an experience that put Nolan on everyone’s bucket list, and turned Memento into one of the few iconic films that has become a lexicon. Not only is it a great thriller but also one of the best mystery movies ever.

10. The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)

The Talented Mr. Ripley

director: Anthony Minghella

Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of the first of five novels by Patricia Highsmith about Tom Ripley is a wonderfully twisted and tense thriller. It tells the story of a young sociopath (Matt Damon) who dreams of high society and becomes dangerously obsessed with a wealthy college dropout (Jude Law) living in Italy. It is considered The Talented Mr. Ripley A stunning thriller that takes us inside the mind of a monster hiding in plain sight, killing with kindness, and willing to do anything to cover his tracks.

9. The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Sixth Sense

director: Mother. Night Shyamalan

Although everyone knows the big surprise reveal in a movie The Sixth Sense By now, however, the movie M. The shocking 1999’s Night Shyalaman starring Bruce Willis and Toni Collette is still a solid and fascinating film even without the element of shock and awe that accompanies its final moments. Recounting Haley Gul Osment’s journey as the tortured, desperate boy Cole to find out why the dead appear to him in a masterful way, it contains a meaningful message about embracing what scares you to discover the truth behind it.

8. The Conversation (1974)

Conversation

director: Francis Ford Coppola

between my movies The Godfather And The Godfather Part IIDirected by Francis Ford Capula Conversation, a masterpiece with elements of skeptical tension that reaches the heights of his best work. The film stands out today as a brilliant portrayal of a man’s professional life devastated by his inescapable personal convictions. Gene Hackman delivers a standout performance as Harry Cole, a grieving surveillance expert who finds himself embroiled in a potential assassination plot while trying to recover from his role in the deaths of 3 people years earlier.

7. Zodiac (2007)

zodiac

director: David Fincher

Film comes zodiac From director David Fincher, this suspenseful arthouse thriller centers around the hunt for the Zodiac Killer in the late 1960s. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. star in this cold-blooded crime saga born from decades of baffling truths and suspicions built up around the case.

6. Double Indemnity (1944)

Double Indemnity

director: Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder left behind a legacy of being one of the most versatile and talented directors in Hollywood history. If only you knew actor Fred MacMurray as a loving father in… My ThreeSons You’ll look at him differently after seeing his performance as Walter Neff in Double IndemnityA captivating thriller about an insurance salesman and a beautiful housewife (Barbara Stanwyck) who team up to kill her husband. It’s dark, sarcastic, and full of dark humor that’s as tense as it is engaging.

5. Se7en (1995)

Se7en

director: David Fincher

David Fincher’s Seven (or Se7en) brought an element of sinister wit and gritty thriller to the serial killer films that ’90s cinema was imbued with. A wonderfully dark thriller, revealing the bloody story of a madman who punishes his victims with brutal methods based on the Seven Deadly Sins, Seven stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as two detectives on the cusp of their worlds being shattered forever.

4. Chinatown (1974)

Chinatown

director: Roman Polanski

Featuring a powerful Oscar-winning screenplay by Robert Towne, Chinatown is a brilliant thriller that tells the story of private detective J. j. Gates (Jack Nicholson) investigates a murder and comes across a conspiracy involving the future of Los Angeles. Chinatown tells a brilliantly complex story and features brilliant performances by Nicholson and co-star Faye Dunaway, and has been on every thriller shortlist since its premiere in 1974.

3. Psycho (1960)

Psycho

director: Alfred Hitchcock

Simply, it is considered Psycho One of the best and most influential suspense films of all time, and one of the best horror films in history. This classic 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh changed cinema and inspired countless directors in the process. As for Hitchcock, who has made films like North by Northwest And vertigo And rear windowThe film was a clear departure from its well-known formula. The film was shot on a smaller budget, in black and white, and by the crew of its TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presentswhich made it controversial (at the time) both structurally and thematically, but it now stands tall as one of the best films of all time.

2. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silence of the Lambs

director: Jonathan Demme

Remember when a horror movie won the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay? Did not cause a movie The Silence of the Lambs Not only launched a Hannibal Lecter media franchise and ushered in a short era of the “stylish horror” genre, but it also led to dozens of serial killer spinoffs being made throughout the ’90s. And did we mention that it’s a great movie with some of the best surprises, twists, and scary moments in history? that The Silence of the Lambs One of the incomparable movies.

1. North By Northwest (1959)

North By Northwest

director: Alfred Hitchcock

Honestly… this article of ours could have been composed of Alfred Hitchcock films alone. So it only makes sense that he takes first place here with his famous epic movie North By Northwest. A spy-adventure story full of intrigue and fun, featuring some of the most imitated scenes in film history, the film stars Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, a man mistaken for a spy who is forced to escape a relentless pursuit that leads to the making of A basic blueprint that all thrillers can follow.