10 Thriller Movies That Are 10/10 Masterpieces
Michael Block is a 14 time GLAM Award nominated writer, producer, and host of the podcast Block Talk. Throughout his time in the entertainment industry, he has worked on and off Broadway as a stage manager, written several produced plays, critiqued hundreds of theatrical performances, drag and cabaret shows, and has produced events randing from drag competitoons to variety concerts!
On Block Talk, he interviews nightlife personalities, covers the wide world of entertainment through features, ranking episodes, and recaps ALL of Drag Race, as well as Dragula and Survivor. He has interviewed hundreds of RuGirls that span the globe at DragCon NYC, DragCon LA, and DragCon UK.
In his free time, he makes one-of-a-kind jewelry and gift baskets with his mom. He is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community.
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A good thriller keeps you on your toes, eager for what’s to come around the next turn. Whether murder mysteries or science-fiction nightmares, films under the broader thriller umbrella have delighted audiences for decades. But the ones that remain timeless are the ones that are 10/10, no notes.
From horror to psychological, the 10 films on this list are simply perfect because they are exceptionally gripping and entertaining. And they just so happen to span a large history of cinema. Many of these films established a blueprint that future films borrowed in hopes of receiving no notes themselves. While there are many other films that could be swapped in, these 10 have established themselves as iconic.
1 'Alien' (1979)
When it comes to the most influential science fiction films of all time, Alien will forever be on that list. As the premiere sci-fi thriller, the Ridley Scott-directed masterpiece put a face to the fear of extraterrestrials. In the film that launched a franchise, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from cryo-sleep to investigate a distress signal on a desolate planetoid. They discover a nest of alien eggs, unleashing a deadly extraterrestrial organism known as the Xenomorph that stalks and kills them one by one. With Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as the sole survivor, the space cat-and-mouse game forces her to combat the threat in hopes of escape. A game-changing film, Alien found the perfect marriage of science fiction and horror, creating a truly masterful work.
Alien brought forth a story of blue-collar heroes engulfed in a nightmare within a space haunted house. Using the elements that brought the horror genre success, Scott transported it to space for a visually perfect, visceral atmosphere. With H.R. Giger's help in designing the perfect creatures, the elements came together effortlessly. Though the giant Xenomorph is the main baddie, it’s the others that helped build the rising tension. From a facehugger on Kane’s (John Hurt) face to one bursting through his chest, the thrills are certainly entertaining, but absolutely terrifying nonetheless. Alien is relentless and claustrophobic — a psychological thriller that pushes the fear of the unknown to the extreme. Alien is destined to get your adrenaline rushing.
2 'Black Swan' (2010)
The cross-section of ballet and psychological horror comes to fruition in the Darren Aronofsky thriller Black Swan. The film follows the New York City Ballet's production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Requiring a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, a competition for the part unravels between the committed dancer Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) and her new rival Lily (Mila Kunis). Overwhelmed by the immense pressure, Nina begins to lose her grip on reality as she descends into madness. A masterful exploration of obsession, artistic rivalry, mental breakdown, and the dark, transformative cost of achieving artistic greatness, Black Swan is an enthralling journey to the bottom.
Against the delicate backdrop of the ballet world, Black Swan is a mesmerizing exploration of the lengths to which one will go in pursuit of artistic excellence. As a metaphor, the titular character represents the reckless, uninhibited, and imperfect side of humanity that Nina fears yet must embody to achieve artistic perfection. What’s haunting about that premise is that Nina represents many viewers, whether we care to believe it or not. Through the intensity of mental and physical sacrifice, the psychological and bodily horror comes across as realistic. A full-throttle Portman earned her Academy Award for a performance of fragility and raw, seductive power, embodying the character. Black Swan is a compelling character study of an unraveling psyche that continues to resonate.
3 'Inception' (2010)
Some thrillers are remarkable works of art. Such is the case in Christopher Nolan’s spectacular Inception. The film follows Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a thief who steals secret information from people's dreams, taking on the impossible job of "inception" — planting an idea in the target's subconscious. While forced to deal with his past traumas, if he succeeds, Dom can get his life back, as his past criminal history will be erased. A wondrous journey through grief and the desire to let go, Inception is an intricately multifaceted puzzle of storytelling. Suspense and thrills go hand in hand through a rapidly ticking clock, a complex, layered dream-within-a-dream, and the constant threat of psychological entrapment.
Blurring the lines between dream and reality, the multi-layered film uses corporate espionage as the backdrop against a twisted, complex dreamscape. Inception explores profound questions about the subconscious, memory, and the power of ideas in an accessible yet thrilling manner. Beyond its technical visual achievements, Inception finds auditory success with its sound design and score, which smartly integrates Edith Piaf’s music as a recurring theme. And yes, the inception of Inception is having Marion Cotillard, who played Piaf, in the film. With a brilliant cast that includes Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, and Cillian Murphy, Inception is an action-packed adventure that goes to places other films never dreamed of (pun intended).
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
4 'Knives Out' (2019)
For a very long time, our affinity for Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries has sustained our fascination with the genre. Utilizing the charm and whimsy of the Christie classics with a modern thriller sensibility, Knives Out championed the past while recontextualizing the murder mystery. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the whodunit mystery finds renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) found dead with his throat slit after his 85th birthday. Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is anonymously hired to investigate, uncovering that the dysfunctional Thrombey family had motives to kill him. Filled with twists, turns, and red herrings, Knives Out showcases how money means more than family.
With a pinch of humor, a dash of camp, and a handful of intrigue, Knives Out cooks up a delicious recipe that brilliantly subverts the genre's tropes while delivering a satisfying, airtight mystery. Johnson’s script is smartly plotted and logically structured, leaving clues that allow the audience to investigate alongside Blanc. All this while providing a scathing commentary on privilege and class, Johnson uses the dysfunctional Thrombey family to hold a mirror up to modern societal issues. Of course, our fascination with the central family stems from the first-rate ensemble, which also includes Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, and Toni Collette. Knives Out may not be an adrenaline rush thriller, but the rush you feel as the mystery unfolds is worth watching.
5 'Misery' (1990)
Obsession is a dangerous thing. Just ask this main character. In the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery, famous novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is held captive by his "number one fan," Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), a former nurse with severe emotional instability, after rescuing him during a blizzard from a car crash. Annie forces Paul to rewrite his latest book to bring back to life her favorite character. Exploring themes of obsession, addiction, and creative captivity, Misery is not only King’s crowning achievement, but it also allowed horror films a place at the award show table.
Many of King’s stories focus on monsters or the supernatural. Here, it’s a real-world threat. Misery is more than a flawless thriller; the story evokes a fascinating metaphor of addiction, with Annie serving as both caregiver and captor, supplying Paul with the drug Novril while restricting his freedom. A brilliantly tense two-person psychological thriller that explores the dark side of fame and fandom, both stars are at the top of their game, with Bates at her all-time best in the iconic part. Directed by Rob Reiner and scripted by William Goldman, the film captures the essence of King’s novel through a torturous, claustrophobic atmosphere. It's suspense over gore, though that clobbering is quite visceral. The intense psychological warfare found in Misery has never been topped — only replicated.
6 'North by Northwest' (1959)
There are countless films that cinephiles mark as their favorite Alfred Hitchcock film, but no film captures the thrills quite like North by Northwest. The film follows Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), an advertising executive, who, after being kidnapped and framed for murder, is mistaken for a government agent named George Kaplan. Pursued across the US by foreign spies led by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), he meets a mysterious woman named Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) and tries to clear his name. A masterclass in mistaken identity, North by Northwest is a celebration of suspense, humor, and iconic set pieces, featuring a famous aerial plane attack and a final chase across the face of Mount Rushmore.
By no means is it a slow-burning, suspenseful film; it's a fast-paced thriller that uses extraordinary directorial and cinematic techniques to pull you straight into the action. Dramatic, high-angle shots and evocative imagery elevate it to a top-tier level in the spy genre. Through Hitchcock’s legendary direction, North by Northwest is thrills with no frills. Helping establish the blueprint for spy thrillers on the big screen with the Hitchcockian formula, the marriage of the signature MacGuffin with a breezy tone provided an exhilarating watch that has stood the test of time.
7 'Prisoners' (2013)
Sometimes being an underappreciated gem isn’t as bad as it seems. It just means when you’re discovered, it becomes a joyous find for the viewer. Such was the case with the Denis Villeneuve-directed and Aaron Guzikowski-written crime thriller Prisoners. The dark drama is about a father, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), who takes matters into his own hands when police, led by Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), fail to find his kidnapped daughter and her friend, once the primary suspect, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), is released due to lack of evidence. Dover kidnaps Jones, torturing him for answers. Prisoners taps into the moral gray zones of desperation, torture, and how far a parent will go to protect their family.
Known for its gritty cinematography with technical precision, moving through its suspenseful, complex plot, Prisoners is a raw watch. The moral ambiguity forces viewers to question the actions of the individuals at the center of the story. Would they do the same? Would they unleash the same beastly nature that overrides rationality? Prisoners is a harrowing tale, featuring emotionally charged performances. Jackman, as the desperate father, is extraordinary, going to great lengths for action. Gyllenhaal is grounded and focused, offering a sharply controlled balance to the story's chaotic nature. Aside from its obvious thrills, Prisoners explores themes of religious faith, societal failings, and the loss of innocence. A complex whodunit, Prisoners is a film for the ages.
8 'Se7en' (1995)
Using the Seven Deadly Sins as a plot device in crime thrillers is old hat, but none utilized them better than in Se7en. Directed by David Fincher, two detectives — veteran William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and rookie David Mills (Brad Pitt) — are tracking a meticulous serial killer. The murderer bases his gruesome crimes on the Seven Deadly Sins, targeting individuals representing each sin in a grim, rainy city. As the bodies pile up and the sins reach their end, a complex climax results in one of the bleakest finales in cinema history. A Neo-noir masterclass, Se7en’s tightly constructed script provides for a detailed, devastating, psychologically intense story.
Through atmospheric perfection, Se7en is a relentless thriller that keeps your heart racing. And just when you think you can breathe again, Fincher takes that opportunity away from you. A brutal, gruesome crime thriller, Se7en went beyond the typical police procedural to deliver something thought-provoking and intelligent, while still shocking. Se7en wasn’t necessarily a mystery in the sense that you didn’t know who did it; it was more so how he would do it. In doing so, the film was a dark examination of evil through the terrifying John Doe (Kevin Spacey), who became one of the most brilliant murderers to ever appear on film. Unafraid to be graphic in exposing its deep themes, Se7en pushed the audience to the brink, yet made them ultimately unwilling to tap out.
9 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991)
Once the table was set during award season, The Silence of the Lambs was ready to devour. Perhaps an uncouth pun, but cannibalism has rarely been tied to cinema more so than in the Jonathan Demme masterpiece. Based on the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs follows young FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), who must interview the brilliant, incarcerated cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to get insights into another serial killer, "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine), who skins his female victims. As Starling begins to develop a dangerous psychological bond with Lecter, trading personal confessions for clues, Starling must race to save Buffalo Bill's current hostage, Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), and confront her own past trauma, symbolized by the screaming "lambs" she couldn't save as a child. A masterfully suspenseful horror film, The Silence of the Lambs has had an immeasurable impact on the genre.
This is not an easy film to consume, yet it’s the enthralling nature of the storytelling that makes it an extraordinary watch. The Silence of the Lambs is undoubtedly terrifying and expertly gruesome. Unafraid to push the bounds of acceptability through taboo trends and topics, The Silence of the Lambs may shock you, but it's to remind the audience about the depths serial killers may go to. There has never been a cop and killer duo quite like Starling and Lecter, and it's all thanks to the career-defining performances from both individuals. Through its balance as a psychological thriller with a straight-up horror film, no face conjures more fear than Hannibal Lecter. Yes, I still cannot see Hopkins as anyone but Hannibal the cannibal!
10 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' (1999)
When you examine the lineup in The Talented Mr. Ripley — Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman — you might be perplexed how you’d get that much star power into a singular film. But the year was 1999, and The Talented Mr. Ripley helped launch these Hollywood elites to great heights. Based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley follows Tom Ripley (Damon), a charming yet amoral con artist sent from New York City to Italy to convince rich and spoiled playboy Dickie Greeleag (Law) to return home. Unswayed, Ripley becomes dangerously entangled and attached to Dickie and his luxurious lifestyle. Directed by Anthony Minghella, the psychological thriller explores themes of identity, class, desire, and deception in utterly extraordinary fashion.
On the surface, the story is a complex narrative of intriguing themes. But by barreling that Hitchcockian suspense against a lush 1950s Italian backdrop, the allure goes beyond the brightness, as the darkness beneath becomes exquisitely grim. Cinematographer John Seale’s ability to allow the sun-drenched facade to create a starkly beautiful contrast to the twisted events makes the film so deliciously juicy. The moral ambiguity and the power that Damon has as Ripley to empathize with a villain is remarkable. A gorgeous film, The Talented Mr. Ripley walked so Saltburn could dance to “Murder on the Dancefloor.” Though not the first, nor the last, this iteration of Highsmith’s story is its best. Sorry, Andrew Scott and Ripley!
The Talented Mr. Ripley
- Release Date
- December 25, 1999
- Runtime
- 140 minutes
- Director
- Anthony Minghella
- Writers
- Anthony Minghella
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