Time Out’s The 100 Best Thrillers
As seen by SoylentGreen
You are viewing soylentgreen's version of this list. You can view your version too.
An official iCheckMovies list (adopted from Panunzio).
Favorited 29 times, disliked 3 times, added to 48 watchlists.
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
Pssst, want to check out the Time Out’s The 100 Best Thrillers list in our new look?
Filter
-
70 -1
Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse
1960 — a.k.a. The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, in 5 top lists Check -
85 -1
In the Cut
2003, in 4 top lists Check -
48 -
One False Move
1991, in 8 top lists Check -
76 -1
Coup de torchon
1981 — a.k.a. Coup de Torchon, in 6 top lists Check -
67 -1
Dead Calm
1989, in 4 top lists Check -
90 -1
Play Misty for Me
1971, in 4 top lists Check -
91 -1
The Ipcress File
1965, in 6 top lists Check -
43 -
The Grifters
1990, in 8 top lists Check -
74 -1
The Parallax View
1974, in 10 top lists Check -
60 -1
The Last Seduction
1994, in 10 top lists Check -
99 -
The Stranger
1946, in 3 top lists Check -
61 -1
Klute
1971, in 11 top lists Check -
83 -1
Kill List
2011, in 4 top lists Check -
100 -
Wild Things
1998, in 2 top lists Check -
78 -1
Plein soleil
1960 — a.k.a. Purple Noon, in 10 top lists Check -
87 -1
King of New York
1990, in 8 top lists Check -
80 -1
Der amerikanische Freund
1977 — a.k.a. The American Friend, in 8 top lists Check -
73 -1
Where Eagles Dare
1968, in 7 top lists Check -
88 -1
The Spy Who Loved Me
1977, in 4 top lists Check -
98 -
The Long Good Friday
1980, in 12 top lists Check -
79 -1
Nora inu
1949 — a.k.a. Stray Dog, in 9 top lists Check -
95 -
Thief
1981, in 5 top lists Check -
44 -
Nóz w wodzie
1962 — a.k.a. Knife in the Water, in 14 top lists Check -
56 -1
Dressed to Kill
1980, in 7 top lists Check -
84 -1
Night and the City
1950, in 12 top lists Check -
89 -1
Animal Kingdom
2010, in 2 top lists Check -
64 -1
Cape Fear
1962, in 6 top lists Check -
77 -1
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
1974, in 6 top lists Check -
38 -
Point Blank
1967, in 15 top lists Check -
92 -1
Gaslight
1944, in 12 top lists Check -
81 -1
Dead Man's Shoes
2004, in 4 top lists Check -
13 -
Kiss Me Deadly
1955, in 20 top lists Check -
49 new
Madeo
2009 — a.k.a. Mother, in 9 top lists Check -
51 -1
The Lady from Shanghai
1947, in 9 top lists Check -
39 -
Profondo rosso
1975 — a.k.a. Deep Red, in 9 top lists Check -
52 -1
Le cercle rouge
1970 — a.k.a. The Red Circle, in 11 top lists Check -
28 -
Dr. No
1962, in 7 top lists Check -
53 -1
The Big Heat
1953, in 18 top lists Check -
40 -
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
1958 — a.k.a. Elevator to the Gallows, in 10 top lists Check -
66 -1
Basic Instinct
1992, in 10 top lists Check -
46 -
Blow Out
1981, in 8 top lists Check -
36 -
The Long Goodbye
1973, in 15 top lists Check -
71 -1
Z
1969, in 17 top lists Check -
62 -1
The Thin Man
1934, in 14 top lists Check -
33 -
Spoorloos
1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 15 top lists Check -
65 -1
In a Lonely Place
1950, in 19 top lists Check -
8 -
The 39 Steps
1935, in 16 top lists Check -
50 -1
Zero Dark Thirty
2012, in 8 top lists Check -
23 -
Du rififi chez les hommes
1955 — a.k.a. Rififi, in 18 top lists Check -
54 -1
The Lady Vanishes
1938, in 15 top lists Check
Last updated on May 21, 2022 by Fergenaprido; source