Time Out’s The 100 Best Thrillers

Time Out’s The 100 Best Thrillers's icon

An official iCheckMovies list (adopted from Panunzio).

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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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  1. 3 -

    Chinatown

    1974, in 31 top lists Check
  2. 4 -

    The Third Man

    1949, in 37 top lists Check
  3. 5 -

    Reservoir Dogs

    1992, in 26 top lists Check
  4. 6 -

    Touch of Evil

    1958, in 30 top lists Check
  5. 7 -

    The Silence of the Lambs

    1991, in 36 top lists Check
  6. 8 -

    The 39 Steps

    1935, in 16 top lists Check
  7. 15 -

    Vertigo

    1958, in 42 top lists Check
  8. 16 -

    Mulholland Dr.

    2001 — a.k.a. Mulholland Drive, in 26 top lists Check
  9. 18 -

    Se7en

    1995, in 29 top lists Check
  10. 19 -

    The Manchurian Candidate

    1962, in 15 top lists Check
  11. 21 -

    The Conversation

    1974, in 23 top lists Check
  12. 23 -

    Du rififi chez les hommes

    1955 — a.k.a. Rififi, in 18 top lists Check
  13. 26 -

    Rear Window

    1954, in 31 top lists Check
  14. 29 -

    Blow-Up

    1966, in 20 top lists Check
  15. 30 -

    Le salaire de la peur

    1953 — a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, in 29 top lists Check
  16. 31 -

    Oldeuboi

    2003 — a.k.a. Oldboy, in 34 top lists Check
  17. 32 -

    The Usual Suspects

    1995, in 24 top lists Check
  18. 33 -

    Spoorloos

    1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 15 top lists Check
  19. 36 -

    The Long Goodbye

    1973, in 15 top lists Check
  20. 38 -

    Point Blank

    1967, in 15 top lists Check
  21. 40 -

    Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

    1958 — a.k.a. Elevator to the Gallows, in 10 top lists Check
  22. 41 -

    Shadow of a Doubt

    1943, in 15 top lists Check
  23. 42 -

    Blood Simple

    1984, in 10 top lists Check
  24. 43 -

    The Grifters

    1990, in 8 top lists Check
  25. 45 -

    The French Connection

    1971, in 23 top lists Check
  26. 46 -

    Blow Out

    1981, in 8 top lists Check
  27. 50 -1

    Zero Dark Thirty

    2012, in 8 top lists Check
  28. 52 -1

    Le cercle rouge

    1970 — a.k.a. The Red Circle, in 11 top lists Check
  29. 53 -1

    The Big Heat

    1953, in 18 top lists Check
  30. 54 -1

    The Lady Vanishes

    1938, in 15 top lists Check
  31. 56 -1

    Dressed to Kill

    1980, in 7 top lists Check
  32. 57 -1

    Black Swan

    2010, in 12 top lists Check
  33. 59 -1

    Memento

    2000, in 27 top lists Check
  34. 60 -1

    The Last Seduction

    1994, in 10 top lists Check
  35. 61 -1

    Klute

    1971, in 11 top lists Check
  36. 63 -1

    Deliverance

    1972, in 15 top lists Check
  37. 64 -1

    Cape Fear

    1962, in 6 top lists Check
  38. 66 -1

    Basic Instinct

    1992, in 10 top lists Check
  39. 67 -1

    Dead Calm

    1989, in 4 top lists Check
  40. 69 -1

    Dirty Harry

    1971, in 17 top lists Check
  41. 70 -1

    Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse

    1960 — a.k.a. The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, in 5 top lists Check
  42. 74 -1

    The Parallax View

    1974, in 10 top lists Check
  43. 75 -1

    Strangers on a Train

    1951, in 17 top lists Check
  44. 77 -1

    The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

    1974, in 6 top lists Check
  45. 78 -1

    Plein soleil

    1960 — a.k.a. Purple Noon, in 10 top lists Check
  46. 80 -1

    Der amerikanische Freund

    1977 — a.k.a. The American Friend, in 8 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. 83 -1

    Kill List

    2011, in 4 top lists Check
  50. 85 -1

    In the Cut

    2003, in 4 top lists Check
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Last updated on May 21, 2022 by Fergenaprido; source