The 6 Best Thriller Movies Released Between 2010 and Now

A man gambles away money he desperately needs, and somehow I'm begging him to place another bet. Somebody makes an unforgivable decision, and I start negotiating with myself about what I might have done in their position. I get so emotionally invested in these terrible choices that I occasionally forget the characters aren't listening to me. But then I have several things to learn — what I would’ve done in their place, how I would’ve won.

I think that's where my favorite thrillers have permanently damaged my judgment. They make me understand somebody well enough to become temporarily unreasonable on their behalf. Then I watch the movie again, notice everything I missed while panicking over the plot, and discover an entirely new collection of reasons to admire it. Here are the 6 best thriller movies released between 2010 and now.

6 'Nightcrawler' (2014)

Image via Open Road Films

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an unemployed petty criminal who discovers that freelance cameramen can earn considerable money filming accidents and violent crime scenes for local television stations. Nightcrawler follows his transformation into an increasingly successful entrepreneur as he learns the industry's requirements, purchases better equipment, and develops a working relationship with news director Nina Romina (Rene Russo). Dan Gilroy, who wrote and directed the film, gives Lou an extraordinary advantage over practically everybody he encounters. He possesses absolutely no meaningful moral boundaries, and he's entering an industry prepared to reward him for precisely that.

I genuinely cannot get enough of Lou's conversations. He delivers motivational speeches, discusses career advancement, and negotiates employment conditions with such confidence that his complete disregard for other people becomes almost hypnotic. His relationship with assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed) is especially disturbing because Lou understands how desperately the young man needs his job and exploits that vulnerability without hesitation. Then there's his willingness to manipulate crime scenes to obtain better footage. The increasingly uncomfortable realization is that Lou keeps succeeding because he understands exactly what his customers want. I find the ending particularly infuriating, and that's an enormous compliment.

5 'Uncut Gems' (2019)

Imag via A24

Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) owns a jewelry store in New York City's Diamond District, owes enormous amounts of money, and is convinced that his latest acquisition will solve practically every financial problem in his life. Uncut Gems follows Howard as he attempts to sell a valuable Ethiopian black opal while juggling increasingly dangerous creditors, a deteriorating marriage, and an obsession with sports gambling. When basketball star Kevin Garnett (Garnett plays himself) becomes fascinated with the gemstone, Howard discovers another opportunity to make money. Naturally, he immediately complicates everything.

I have never experienced another movie that makes somebody else's financial irresponsibility feel this physically exhausting. Howard constantly speaks over people, answers calls at catastrophically inappropriate moments, and treats every opportunity to escape disaster as an invitation to pursue an even larger reward. Sandler is extraordinary because Howard genuinely believes his next decision will vindicate every previous mistake. Then comes that outrageous final basketball wager, and I somehow find myself desperately wanting him to win. Josh and Benny Safdie directed this film.

4 'Gone Girl' (2014)

Image via 20th Century Studios

David Fincher's Gone Girl is out of this world. On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) discovers that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. As police begin investigating, mounting evidence and an increasingly hostile media circus transform Nick from a concerned husband into the country's most recognizable murder suspect.

Gone Girl constructs an elaborate mystery around their marriage, gradually challenging practically everything we believe about the people involved. Nick's account and Amy's diary offer different perspectives on their relationship, leaving us to question how accurately either spouse understands the other. The media interviews are among my favorite parts of this movie. Nick smiles at a spectacularly inappropriate moment, and suddenly millions of strangers believe they've discovered something sinister about his personality. Even after the central mystery becomes clearer, the psychological warfare remains absolutely fascinating.

Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh

Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.

🍷Lecter

🃏Joker

♟️Moriarty

🪙Chigurh

MEET YOUR NEMESIS →

01

What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.

AMy manners, and everything I am careful not to say. BThat I still believe people are basically decent. CThat I am clever, and quietly enjoy proving it. DThat I handle things myself, and always have.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.

AA polite letter. Beautiful handwriting. Quietly wrong. BSomething on fire, with a message left beside it. CA puzzle, left where only I would look. DNo contact. Just the aftermath, and a coin.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.

AThere are lines. Mine are private and absolute. BRules are the only thing keeping us from being animals. CMorality is a system, and systems can be solved. DThings happen. Most of it was never up to me.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.

ABeing seen clearly by somebody I cannot read. BWatching good people do something ugly. CLosing to someone who was simply better prepared. DHaving no move left that changes anything.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.

ACarefully, and never where they expect to be touched. BLoudly. I would rather lose than play their game. CWith a better plan. I can out-think this. DDirectly, once, with whatever is closest to hand.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.

AMy privacy. I have kept far too much to myself. BMy conscience. I will not cross the line they want. CMy ego. I cannot resist a worthy opponent. DMy certainty that I can handle it alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.

ATo understand me better than anyone ever has. BTo prove I am no better than they are. CTo finally be beaten by someone worth the trouble. DNothing at all. I stepped into the wrong path.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.

AA conversation I will be replaying for years. BA choice forced on me that has no clean answer. COne final move, and the better mind wins. DA coin in the air, and nothing I can say.

REVEAL MY NEMESIS →

The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…

Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours. Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from the encounter.

Hannibal Lecter

Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the conversation is.

• Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
• You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve is exactly the door he would knock on.
• The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence. It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
• He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.

The Joker

Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.

• The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
• He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool you would normally reach for.
• His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend the rest of your life proving him wrong.
• He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.

Moriarty

Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.

• Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from: a mind the equal of the hero's, pointed the wrong way.
• You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he has already built the room.
• This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs the game to be worth playing.
• It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.

Anton Chigurh

Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.

• Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
• You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no interest in how capable you are.
• No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
• Call it. He will wait.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

3 'The Handmaiden' (2016)

Image via Amazon Studios/ CJ Entertainment

During Japan's occupation of Korea, a young pickpocket named Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) accepts an assignment to become the personal maid of wealthy Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee). Her employer is actually a con artist posing as Count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo), who intends to seduce Hideko, steal her fortune, and have her committed to a psychiatric institution. The Handmaiden complicates their elaborate scheme when Sook-hee develops genuine feelings for the woman she's supposed to betray. Park Chan-wook directed this extraordinary adaptation of Sarah Waters' Fingersmith, relocating its story to colonial Korea.

I would desperately love to experience this movie again without knowing anything about it. The changing perspectives completely transform our understanding of earlier conversations, and practically every character possesses considerably more intelligence than somebody initially gives them credit for. There's also something magnificent about the developing relationship between Sook-hee and Hideko. Their affection becomes increasingly significant as we understand the elaborate systems of exploitation surrounding them. I particularly love the destruction of Hideko's uncle's collection of pornographic literature. Watching those books get torn apart is unexpectedly exhilarating because we've come to understand exactly what they represent. Every exquisite visual detail ultimately contributes to an enormously satisfying emotional payoff.

2 'Prisoners' (2013)

Image via Warner Bros.

Two young girls disappear during a Thanksgiving gathering, and Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) begins investigating while one of their fathers, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), becomes increasingly convinced that the police are failing his family. When the initial suspect is released, Keller takes matters into his own hands, secretly imprisoning the young man and attempting to force a confession. Prisoners follows the official investigation alongside Keller's increasingly horrifying decisions, gradually transforming a missing-person mystery into an examination of how far desperation can push an otherwise ordinary person.

I've argued with people about Keller's behavior more times than I can remember. Jackman makes his anguish almost unbearable, but the moment he begins torturing somebody whose guilt he cannot establish, sympathy becomes considerably more complicated. Loki fascinates me just as much. His increasingly exhausted determination provides a powerful contrast to Keller's uncontrolled desperation, particularly as the investigation uncovers disturbing evidence that repeatedly challenges his assumptions. Denis Villeneuve (the director) refuses to provide comfortable moral answers.

1 'Parasite' (2019)

Image via NEON

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite follows the financially struggling Kim family. They discover an opportunity to improve their circumstances when their son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) becomes an English tutor for the daughter of the wealthy Park family. Through increasingly elaborate deception, the Kims gradually secure employment throughout the household, concealing their relationships with one another. Parasite initially develops into an extraordinarily entertaining con story as the family exploits its employers' trusting nature.

Then an unexpected visitor arrives during a rainstorm, and the entire arrangement becomes considerably more dangerous than anybody anticipated. I could write an entire article about that rainstorm alone. The Parks consider it a minor inconvenience that ultimately improves the weather for their son's birthday celebration. For the Kims, the same rain floods their home with sewage, destroying their belongings and temporarily eliminating whatever stability they've managed to acquire. I love how difficult Bong makes it to assign simple moral identities to the families. Their circumstances are radically different, yet everyone is capable of astonishing selfishness. The birthday celebration brings those tensions together with almost unbearable force. I still struggle to think of another thriller that changes its entire emotional character so confidently while remaining completely in control of its story.

Parasite