Time Out’s The 100 Best Thrillers

Time Out’s The 100 Best Thrillers's icon

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Everyone has their favourite genre but we can surely all agree that thrillers are the best. And if you don’t believe us, there’s a suspicious figure in that darkened doorway who’d like a word. From the early classics, like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger or Fritz Lang’s M, to the films of David Fincher and Martin Scorsese, they’re rich in nerve-shredding, adrenaline-pumping rides into the darker recesses of the psyche. Thrillers show us horrors and weave in human dramas, but they use those raw materials to forge something particular: a sense of unease and suspense.

With masterful control of those elements, Hitchcock could manipulate his audiences like puppets on a string, delivering shocks that reverberate through cinema history. Fincher’s Seven and Zodiac have carried on the legacy, while films like Pig, Nightmare Alley and The Card Counter show that the thriller is the genre for all eras. Even superhero flicks, like Captain America: Civil War and The Batman, have been borrowing liberally from the crime thriller. It is, unlike many of its ill-fated characters, alive and well.

But what are the very best of them? As we’ve done with science fiction, horror films, romances, comedies, westerns and war films, we’ve dusted cinema for prints and taken a magnifying glass to its finest thrillers to boil them down to a tonne of all-timers. On the list? Murder, political intrigue, espionage, conspiracy, manipulation, gaslighting and, of course, crime. Lots of crime. Enjoy – and hold on tight.

Written by Abbey Bender, Joshua Rothkopf, Phil de Semlyen, Tom Huddleston, Andy Kryza & Tomris Laffly

List created in June 2018 (updated June 2021)
Last Updated: March 23, 2022

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  1. 8 -

    The 39 Steps

    1935, in 16 top lists Check
  2. 72 -1

    Ah-ga-ssi

    2016 — a.k.a. The Handmaiden, in 13 top lists Check
  3. 80 -1

    Der amerikanische Freund

    1977 — a.k.a. The American Friend, in 8 top lists Check
  4. 89 -1

    Animal Kingdom

    2010, in 2 top lists Check
  5. 40 -

    Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

    1958 — a.k.a. Elevator to the Gallows, in 10 top lists Check
  6. 66 -1

    Basic Instinct

    1992, in 10 top lists Check
  7. 53 -1

    The Big Heat

    1953, in 18 top lists Check
  8. 24 -

    The Big Sleep

    1946, in 22 top lists Check
  9. 57 -1

    Black Swan

    2010, in 12 top lists Check
  10. 42 -

    Blood Simple

    1984, in 10 top lists Check
  11. 46 -

    Blow Out

    1981, in 8 top lists Check
  12. 29 -

    Blow-Up

    1966, in 20 top lists Check
  13. 25 -

    Blue Velvet

    1986, in 27 top lists Check
  14. 82 -1

    Caché

    2005, in 15 top lists Check
  15. 64 -1

    Cape Fear

    1962, in 6 top lists Check
  16. 52 -1

    Le cercle rouge

    1970 — a.k.a. The Red Circle, in 11 top lists Check
  17. 3 -

    Chinatown

    1974, in 31 top lists Check
  18. 21 -

    The Conversation

    1974, in 23 top lists Check
  19. 76 -1

    Coup de torchon

    1981 — a.k.a. Coup de Torchon, in 6 top lists Check
  20. 67 -1

    Dead Calm

    1989, in 4 top lists Check
  21. 81 -1

    Dead Man's Shoes

    2004, in 4 top lists Check
  22. 63 -1

    Deliverance

    1972, in 15 top lists Check
  23. 10 -

    Les diaboliques

    1955 — a.k.a. Diabolique, in 21 top lists Check
  24. 70 -1

    Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse

    1960 — a.k.a. The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, in 5 top lists Check
  25. 69 -1

    Dirty Harry

    1971, in 17 top lists Check
  26. 27 -

    Dog Day Afternoon

    1975, in 23 top lists Check
  27. 11 -

    Double Indemnity

    1944, in 37 top lists Check
  28. 28 -

    Dr. No

    1962, in 7 top lists Check
  29. 56 -1

    Dressed to Kill

    1980, in 7 top lists Check
  30. 23 -

    Du rififi chez les hommes

    1955 — a.k.a. Rififi, in 18 top lists Check
  31. 45 -

    The French Connection

    1971, in 23 top lists Check
  32. 14 -

    The Fugitive

    1993, in 8 top lists Check
  33. 68 -1

    Funny Games

    1997, in 12 top lists Check
  34. 92 -1

    Gaslight

    1944, in 12 top lists Check
  35. 94 -

    Gone Girl

    2014, in 12 top lists Check
  36. 43 -

    The Grifters

    1990, in 8 top lists Check
  37. 37 -

    Heat

    1995, in 23 top lists Check
  38. 65 -1

    In a Lonely Place

    1950, in 19 top lists Check
  39. 85 -1

    In the Cut

    2003, in 4 top lists Check
  40. 91 -1

    The Ipcress File

    1965, in 6 top lists Check
  41. 83 -1

    Kill List

    2011, in 4 top lists Check
  42. 22 -

    The Killing

    1956, in 15 top lists Check
  43. 87 -1

    King of New York

    1990, in 8 top lists Check
  44. 13 -

    Kiss Me Deadly

    1955, in 20 top lists Check
  45. 61 -1

    Klute

    1971, in 11 top lists Check
  46. 20 -

    L.A. Confidential

    1997, in 27 top lists Check
  47. 51 -1

    The Lady from Shanghai

    1947, in 9 top lists Check
  48. 54 -1

    The Lady Vanishes

    1938, in 15 top lists Check
  49. 60 -1

    The Last Seduction

    1994, in 10 top lists Check
  50. 93 -1

    Lola rennt

    1998 — a.k.a. Run Lola Run, in 9 top lists Check
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Last updated on May 21, 2022 by Fergenaprido; source