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

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  1. 48 -

    One False Move

    1991, in 8 top lists Check
  2. 23 -

    Du rififi chez les hommes

    1955 — a.k.a. Rififi, in 18 top lists Check
  3. 34 -

    Notorious

    1946, in 24 top lists Check
  4. 84 -1

    Night and the City

    1950, in 12 top lists Check
  5. 46 -

    Blow Out

    1981, in 8 top lists Check
  6. 20 -

    L.A. Confidential

    1997, in 27 top lists Check
  7. 6 -

    Touch of Evil

    1958, in 30 top lists Check
  8. 15 -

    Vertigo

    1958, in 42 top lists Check
  9. 83 -1

    Kill List

    2011, in 4 top lists Check
  10. 56 -1

    Dressed to Kill

    1980, in 7 top lists Check
  11. 33 -

    Spoorloos

    1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 15 top lists Check
  12. 8 -

    The 39 Steps

    1935, in 16 top lists Check
  13. 45 -

    The French Connection

    1971, in 23 top lists Check
  14. 26 -

    Rear Window

    1954, in 31 top lists Check
  15. 2 -

    M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

    1931 — a.k.a. M, in 35 top lists Check
  16. 16 -

    Mulholland Dr.

    2001 — a.k.a. Mulholland Drive, in 26 top lists Check
  17. 98 -

    The Long Good Friday

    1980, in 12 top lists Check
  18. 90 -1

    Play Misty for Me

    1971, in 4 top lists Check
  19. 99 -

    The Stranger

    1946, in 3 top lists Check
  20. 54 -1

    The Lady Vanishes

    1938, in 15 top lists Check
  21. 68 -1

    Funny Games

    1997, in 12 top lists Check
  22. 10 -

    Les diaboliques

    1955 — a.k.a. Diabolique, in 21 top lists Check
  23. 86 -1

    Misery

    1990, in 3 top lists Check
  24. 57 -1

    Black Swan

    2010, in 12 top lists Check
  25. 67 -1

    Dead Calm

    1989, in 4 top lists Check
  26. 88 -1

    The Spy Who Loved Me

    1977, in 4 top lists Check
  27. 77 -1

    The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

    1974, in 6 top lists Check
  28. 100 -

    Wild Things

    1998, in 2 top lists Check
  29. 64 -1

    Cape Fear

    1962, in 6 top lists Check
  30. 39 -

    Profondo rosso

    1975 — a.k.a. Deep Red, in 9 top lists Check
  31. 4 -

    The Third Man

    1949, in 37 top lists Check
  32. 59 -1

    Memento

    2000, in 27 top lists Check
  33. 31 -

    Oldeuboi

    2003 — a.k.a. Oldboy, in 34 top lists Check
  34. 66 -1

    Basic Instinct

    1992, in 10 top lists Check
  35. 22 -

    The Killing

    1956, in 15 top lists Check
  36. 1 -

    North by Northwest

    1959, in 30 top lists Check
  37. 28 -

    Dr. No

    1962, in 7 top lists Check
  38. 42 -

    Blood Simple

    1984, in 10 top lists Check
  39. 87 -1

    King of New York

    1990, in 8 top lists Check
  40. 14 -

    The Fugitive

    1993, in 8 top lists Check
  41. 27 -

    Dog Day Afternoon

    1975, in 23 top lists Check
  42. 58 -1

    The Untouchables

    1987, in 9 top lists Check
  43. 69 -1

    Dirty Harry

    1971, in 17 top lists Check
  44. 12 -

    Zodiac

    2007, in 14 top lists Check
  45. 30 -

    Le salaire de la peur

    1953 — a.k.a. The Wages of Fear, in 29 top lists Check
  46. 37 -

    Heat

    1995, in 23 top lists Check
  47. 3 -

    Chinatown

    1974, in 31 top lists Check
  48. 25 -

    Blue Velvet

    1986, in 27 top lists Check
  49. 17 -

    Taxi Driver

    1976, in 34 top lists Check
  50. 32 -

    The Usual Suspects

    1995, in 24 top lists Check
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Last updated on May 21, 2022 by Fergenaprido; source