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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97 -
Mou gaan dou
2002 — a.k.a. Infernal Affairs, in 14 top lists Check -
56 -1
Dressed to Kill
1980, in 7 top lists Check -
22 -
The Killing
1956, in 15 top lists Check -
46 -
Blow Out
1981, in 8 top lists Check -
76 -1
Coup de torchon
1981 — a.k.a. Coup de Torchon, in 6 top lists Check -
47 -
Le samouraï
1967 — a.k.a. Le Samouraï, in 20 top lists Check -
80 -1
Der amerikanische Freund
1977 — a.k.a. The American Friend, in 8 top lists Check -
55 -1
Sicario
2015, in 2 top lists Check -
21 -
The Conversation
1974, in 23 top lists Check -
33 -
Spoorloos
1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 15 top lists Check -
94 -
Gone Girl
2014, in 12 top lists Check -
35 -
The Night of the Hunter
1955, in 34 top lists Check -
30 -
Le salaire de la peur
1953 — a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, in 29 top lists Check -
78 -1
Plein soleil
1960 — a.k.a. Purple Noon, in 10 top lists Check -
58 -1
The Untouchables
1987, in 9 top lists Check -
28 -
Dr. No
1962, in 7 top lists Check -
84 -1
Night and the City
1950, in 12 top lists Check -
50 -1
Zero Dark Thirty
2012, in 8 top lists Check -
89 -1
Animal Kingdom
2010, in 2 top lists Check -
90 -1
Play Misty for Me
1971, in 4 top lists Check -
96 -
The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999, in 6 top lists Check -
39 -
Profondo rosso
1975 — a.k.a. Deep Red, in 9 top lists Check -
95 -
Thief
1981, in 5 top lists Check -
85 -1
In the Cut
2003, in 4 top lists Check -
14 -
The Fugitive
1993, in 8 top lists Check -
12 -
Zodiac
2007, in 14 top lists Check -
42 -
Blood Simple
1984, in 10 top lists Check -
93 -1
Lola rennt
1998 — a.k.a. Run Lola Run, in 9 top lists Check -
16 -
Mulholland Dr.
2001 — a.k.a. Mulholland Drive, in 26 top lists Check -
45 -
The French Connection
1971, in 23 top lists Check -
71 -1
Z
1969, in 17 top lists Check -
40 -
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
1958 — a.k.a. Elevator to the Gallows, in 10 top lists Check -
79 -1
Nora inu
1949 — a.k.a. Stray Dog, in 9 top lists Check -
87 -1
King of New York
1990, in 8 top lists Check -
98 -
The Long Good Friday
1980, in 12 top lists Check -
54 -1
The Lady Vanishes
1938, in 15 top lists Check -
25 -
Blue Velvet
1986, in 27 top lists Check -
8 -
The 39 Steps
1935, in 16 top lists Check -
62 -1
The Thin Man
1934, in 14 top lists Check -
65 -1
In a Lonely Place
1950, in 19 top lists Check -
23 -
Du rififi chez les hommes
1955 — a.k.a. Rififi, in 18 top lists Check -
82 -1
Caché
2005, in 15 top lists Check -
29 -
Blow-Up
1966, in 20 top lists Check -
53 -1
The Big Heat
1953, in 18 top lists Check -
19 -
The Manchurian Candidate
1962, in 15 top lists Check -
10 -
Les diaboliques
1955 — a.k.a. Diabolique, in 21 top lists Check -
34 -
Notorious
1946, in 24 top lists Check -
57 -1
Black Swan
2010, in 12 top lists Check -
75 -1
Strangers on a Train
1951, in 17 top lists Check -
37 -
Heat
1995, in 23 top lists Check
Last updated on May 21, 2022 by Fergenaprido; source