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
Source
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37 -
Heat
1995, in 23 top lists Check -
73 -1
Where Eagles Dare
1968, in 7 top lists Check -
50 -1
Zero Dark Thirty
2012, in 8 top lists Check -
12 -
Zodiac
2007, in 14 top lists Check -
94 -
Gone Girl
2014, in 12 top lists Check -
16 -
Mulholland Dr.
2001 — a.k.a. Mulholland Drive, in 26 top lists Check -
72 -1
Ah-ga-ssi
2016 — a.k.a. The Handmaiden, in 13 top lists Check -
52 -1
Le cercle rouge
1970 — a.k.a. The Red Circle, in 11 top lists Check -
96 -
The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999, in 6 top lists Check -
20 -
L.A. Confidential
1997, in 27 top lists Check -
1 -
North by Northwest
1959, in 30 top lists Check -
30 -
Le salaire de la peur
1953 — a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, in 29 top lists Check -
3 -
Chinatown
1974, in 31 top lists Check -
14 -
The Fugitive
1993, in 8 top lists Check -
49 new
Madeo
2009 — a.k.a. Mother, in 9 top lists Check -
80 -1
Der amerikanische Freund
1977 — a.k.a. The American Friend, in 8 top lists Check -
76 -1
Coup de torchon
1981 — a.k.a. Coup de Torchon, in 6 top lists Check -
15 -
Vertigo
1958, in 42 top lists Check -
66 -1
Basic Instinct
1992, in 10 top lists Check -
39 -
Profondo rosso
1975 — a.k.a. Deep Red, in 9 top lists Check -
18 -
Se7en
1995, in 29 top lists Check -
71 -1
Z
1969, in 17 top lists Check -
19 -
The Manchurian Candidate
1962, in 15 top lists Check -
27 -
Dog Day Afternoon
1975, in 23 top lists Check -
88 -1
The Spy Who Loved Me
1977, in 4 top lists Check -
95 -
Thief
1981, in 6 top lists Check -
79 -1
Nora inu
1949 — a.k.a. Stray Dog, in 9 top lists Check -
55 -1
Sicario
2015, in 2 top lists Check -
25 -
Blue Velvet
1986, in 27 top lists Check -
31 -
Oldeuboi
2003 — a.k.a. Oldboy, in 34 top lists Check -
85 -1
In the Cut
2003, in 4 top lists Check -
58 -1
The Untouchables
1987, in 9 top lists Check -
23 -
Du rififi chez les hommes
1955 — a.k.a. Rififi, in 18 top lists Check -
78 -1
Plein soleil
1960 — a.k.a. Purple Noon, in 10 top lists Check -
7 -
The Silence of the Lambs
1991, in 36 top lists Check -
82 -1
Caché
2005, in 15 top lists Check -
10 -
Les diaboliques
1955 — a.k.a. Diabolique, in 21 top lists Check -
24 -
The Big Sleep
1946, in 22 top lists Check -
92 -1
Gaslight
1944, in 11 top lists Check -
61 -1
Klute
1971, in 11 top lists Check -
98 -
The Long Good Friday
1980, in 12 top lists Check -
17 -
Taxi Driver
1976, in 34 top lists Check -
89 -1
Animal Kingdom
2010, in 2 top lists Check -
21 -
The Conversation
1974, in 23 top lists Check -
59 -1
Memento
2000, in 27 top lists Check -
36 -
The Long Goodbye
1973, in 15 top lists Check -
26 -
Rear Window
1954, in 31 top lists Check -
29 -
Blow-Up
1966, in 20 top lists Check -
28 -
Dr. No
1962, in 7 top lists Check -
43 -
The Grifters
1990, in 8 top lists Check
Last updated on May 21, 2022 by Fergenaprido; source