Time Out’s The 100 Best Thrillers

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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. 2 -

    M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

    1931 — a.k.a. M, in 35 top lists Check
  2. 3 -

    Chinatown

    1974, in 31 top lists Check
  3. 5 -

    Reservoir Dogs

    1992, in 26 top lists Check
  4. 7 -

    The Silence of the Lambs

    1991, in 36 top lists Check
  5. 9 -

    The Maltese Falcon

    1941, in 27 top lists Check
  6. 10 -

    Les diaboliques

    1955 — a.k.a. Diabolique, in 21 top lists Check
  7. 11 -

    Double Indemnity

    1944, in 37 top lists Check
  8. 12 -

    Zodiac

    2007, in 14 top lists Check
  9. 16 -

    Mulholland Dr.

    2001 — a.k.a. Mulholland Drive, in 26 top lists Check
  10. 17 -

    Taxi Driver

    1976, in 34 top lists Check
  11. 18 -

    Se7en

    1995, in 29 top lists Check
  12. 20 -

    L.A. Confidential

    1997, in 27 top lists Check
  13. 21 -

    The Conversation

    1974, in 23 top lists Check
  14. 22 -

    The Killing

    1956, in 15 top lists Check
  15. 23 -

    Du rififi chez les hommes

    1955 — a.k.a. Rififi, in 18 top lists Check
  16. 25 -

    Blue Velvet

    1986, in 27 top lists Check
  17. 27 -

    Dog Day Afternoon

    1975, in 23 top lists Check
  18. 29 -

    Blow-Up

    1966, in 20 top lists Check
  19. 30 -

    Le salaire de la peur

    1953 — a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, in 29 top lists Check
  20. 31 -

    Oldeuboi

    2003 — a.k.a. Oldboy, in 34 top lists Check
  21. 32 -

    The Usual Suspects

    1995, in 24 top lists Check
  22. 34 -

    Notorious

    1946, in 24 top lists Check
  23. 35 -

    The Night of the Hunter

    1955, in 35 top lists Check
  24. 36 -

    The Long Goodbye

    1973, in 15 top lists Check
  25. 37 -

    Heat

    1995, in 23 top lists Check
  26. 38 -

    Point Blank

    1967, in 15 top lists Check
  27. 40 -

    Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

    1958 — a.k.a. Elevator to the Gallows, in 10 top lists Check
  28. 43 -

    The Grifters

    1990, in 8 top lists Check
  29. 44 -

    Nóz w wodzie

    1962 — a.k.a. Knife in the Water, in 14 top lists Check
  30. 47 -

    Le samouraï

    1967 — a.k.a. Le Samouraï, in 20 top lists Check
  31. 48 -

    One False Move

    1991, in 8 top lists Check
  32. 49 new

    Madeo

    2009 — a.k.a. Mother, in 9 top lists Check
  33. 50 -1

    Zero Dark Thirty

    2012, in 8 top lists Check
  34. 51 -1

    The Lady from Shanghai

    1947, in 9 top lists Check
  35. 52 -1

    Le cercle rouge

    1970 — a.k.a. The Red Circle, in 11 top lists Check
  36. 55 -1

    Sicario

    2015, in 2 top lists Check
  37. 57 -1

    Black Swan

    2010, in 12 top lists Check
  38. 58 -1

    The Untouchables

    1987, in 9 top lists Check
  39. 60 -1

    The Last Seduction

    1994, in 10 top lists Check
  40. 63 -1

    Deliverance

    1972, in 15 top lists Check
  41. 65 -1

    In a Lonely Place

    1950, in 19 top lists Check
  42. 68 -1

    Funny Games

    1997, in 12 top lists Check
  43. 71 -1

    Z

    1969, in 17 top lists Check
  44. 72 -1

    Ah-ga-ssi

    2016 — a.k.a. The Handmaiden, in 13 top lists Check
  45. 76 -1

    Coup de torchon

    1981 — a.k.a. Coup de Torchon, in 6 top lists Check
  46. 79 -1

    Nora inu

    1949 — a.k.a. Stray Dog, in 9 top lists Check
  47. 81 -1

    Dead Man's Shoes

    2004, in 4 top lists Check
  48. 82 -1

    Caché

    2005, in 15 top lists Check
  49. 89 -1

    Animal Kingdom

    2010, in 2 top lists Check
  50. 90 -1

    Play Misty for Me

    1971, in 4 top lists Check
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Last updated on May 21, 2022 by Fergenaprido; source