433 Best Thriller Movies to Watch (Page 12)

Jaane Jaan is one of those thrillers where you hope that the main characters would get away with murder. Based on the 2005 Japanese novel, the Hindi adaptation still has the cat-and-mouse dynamic between the relentless detective and math genius protecting the suspect, along with their elaborate chess-like mind games. However, the film changes a major plot point from the novel, and without spoiling too much, it turns the math teacher, now named Naren, into a less sympathetic character. Given today’s sensibilities, it’s easy to understand why the change was made. After all, just because someone’s a genius, it doesn’t mean that they’re someone to be admired. Jaane Jaan still keeps up the exciting thrills and suspense of the original novel, but in making its changes, it becomes unclear who the film is rooting for.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Jaideep Ahlawat, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Karma Takapa, Lin Laishram, Naisha Khanna, Saurabh Sachdeva, Suhita Thatte, Ujjwal Chopra, Vijay Varma

Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Rating: R

This is the follow-up film by the director of the (also) excellent and intense Blue Ruin. Like that film, Green Room often subverts genre expectations. The basic premise: a lefty punk band winds up taking a show at a skinhead club because they are desperate for cash. The show goes well, but afterward the band accidentally witnesses something they shouldn’t have and are trapped in the club’s green room. This film is brutal and intense, especially because you actually care about what happens to the characters. Bonus: Sir Patrick Stewart plays the leader of the skinhead organization, and gives a subtle yet effectively sinister performance. While some truly horrific acts of violence occur (especially in the back-half of the film) they really do serve the story. Still, there are a handful of scenes that may require more sensitive viewers to cover their eyes. You have been warned.

Genre: Crime, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Alia Shawkat, Anton Yelchin, Brent Werzner, Callum Turner, David Thompson, David W. Thompson, Eric Edelstein, Imogen Poots, Jeremy Saulnier, Joe Cole, Joseph Bertót, Kai Lennox, Lj Klink, Macon Blair, Mark Webber, Mason Knight, Michael Draper, October Moore, Patrick Stewart, Samuel Summer, Taylor Tunes

Director: Jeremy Saulnier

Rating: R

For the longest time, land was where people formed strength in community, where people were born, lived, died, and was buried in, but it was also how empires grew in power, often at the expense of the people that came before. Exhuma is centered in a haunted burial site of a Korean family that migrated due to the war, but as the shamans try to unearth the casket, they also uncover the psychospiritual ways in which Japan colonized Korea– haunting the land with their own ghosts, dividing its people through belief, and leaving deep scars that hasn’t yet been fully recovered from. While the double exorcism situation can be a tad confusing, Exhuma nonetheless elevates this folk horror drama with their respect and attention to detail for Korean shamanism.

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Baek Seung-chul, Choi Min-sik, Choi Moon-kyoung, Hong Seo-jun, Jang Ui-don, Jeon Jin-gi, Jung Yun-ha, Kim Go-eun, Kim Jae-chul, Kim Ji-an, Kim Min-jun, Kim Sun-young, Kim Tae-jun, Lee Da-wit, Lee Do-hyun, Lee Eun-joo, Lee Jong-goo, Lee Young-lan, Park Jae-wan, Park Jeong-ja, Park Ji-il, Rikiya Koyama, Yoo Hai-jin

Director: Jang Jae-hyun

Rating: NR

Filmmaker Petra Costa tells the story of moving to New York from Brazil to follow her dream, the same one her mother once followed, of becoming an actress.

She carries memories of a third person who made the same move, a sister called Elena. Elena left her when she was seven-years-old, and after intermittent calls and messages, disappeared.

This documentary is a tale of three women: of their feelings separation, longing, and ambition. It’s made to be a visual poem of their story.

Genre: Documentary, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Elena Andrade, Li An, Petra Costa

Director: Petra Costa

Rating: N/A

Realistic, intimate, and compelling, Elena is a movie that makes you think a lot after you finish watching it. It is an inherently Russian movie, however there is something about how the story is told that makes it a universal family drama. A woman from a modest background to which she still has a lot of attachement is married to an old wealthy business man. Upon learning that the man might write her off his will, she feels pushed to get her hands dirty to honor her responsibilities towards her original family. The question of right and wrong when faced with extreme situations is at the heart of this aesthetically slow-burning family drama.

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Actor: Aleksandr Kazakov, Aleksandr Slastin, Aleksey Maslodudov, Aleksey Rozin, Anastasiya Sapozhnikova, Andrey Smirnov, Anna Gulyarenko, Dana Agisheva, Dmitry Pavlenko, Ekaterina Tarkovskaya, Elena Lyadova, Igor Ogurtsov, Ivan Dobronravov, Ivan Mulin, Larisa Khalafova, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Nadezhda Markina, Nikita Slepchenkov, Oksana Semenova, Olga Lapshina, Vasilii Prokopev, Vasily Michkov, Vasily Zotov, Yana Lvova, Yaroslav Zhalnin, Yuriy Borisov

Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev

Rating: Not Rated

Clive Owen stars as a struggling writer who reluctantly accepts a lucrative offer to work as a croupier at a London casino. His characteristic aloofness, hatred of gambling, and sharp observational skills allow him to remain uncompromised and able to catch any attempt at cheating within his field of vision. But when a savvy professional gambler he shares an attraction with asks him to participate in a heist in an uncompromised way, he’s forced to consider playing the angles. Owen’s coolly detached performance is a marvel, and the depiction of the London casino scene is detailed and gritty, both of which make for compelling British noir.

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Actor: Alex Kingston, Alexander Morton, Barnaby Kay, Clive Owen, David Hamilton, Eddie Osei, Gina McKee, Kate Hardie, Nicholas Ball, Nick Reding, Ozzie Yue, Paul Reynolds, Rhona Mitra, Sheila Whitfield

Director: Mike Hodges

Rating: Unrated

It's sadly common that in the cases of assault, many are hesitant to speak up. The hesitation in question makes sense– After all, there's a possibility that the assaulters they could've reported would take their fists towards them. Bedevilled is centered on one such hesitant bystander, but through learning what's become of her childhood friend, writer-director Jang Cheol-soo depicts how, when left unchecked, the very same violence that Hae-won was avoiding inevitably escalates without intervention, and the only time to stop it from growing is when you can. Bedevilled is impressively shot, and holds a haunting score, but most of the terror stems from how this can be real.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Bae Sung-woo, Baek Su-ryeon, Chun Young-min, Hwang Geum-hee, Jo Deok-jae, Park Jeong-hak, Seo Young-hee, Son Young-soon

Director: Jang Cheol-soo

Rating: NR

13 Tzameti is a unique suspense movie from Georgia and the debut of director Géla Babluani. This film explores the life of a migrant worker from Georgia working in France, who literally gambles his life in a high stakes game of chance organized by powerful criminals.  13 Tzameti won the World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance in 2008, and of course, a not nearly as good American remake. Do yourself a favor and check out the original!

Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Augustin Legrand, Aurélien Recoing, Bruno Davézé, Christophe Vandevelde, Didier Ferrari, Fred Ulysse, George Babluani, Jacques Gallo, Jo Prestia, Nicolas Pignon, Olga Legrand, Pascal Bongard, Vania Vilers

Director: Géla Babluani

Rating: Not Rated

Because of our continued interest in living, one would think that human beings would shy away from death, but the opposite seems to be the reality. There’s a certain morbid fascination with violence, to the point that some people are captivated in making it more intense, more sensational, and more dangerous. Just before his groundbreaking second feature, Alejandro Amenábar made his debut around that idea in Thesis. It’s quite meta, of course, with the film about film students studying violence in media pulled into a murder mystery after discovering a snuff film, but Amenábar also sticks quite close to the narrative conventions of the genre, remixing certain tropes and the general knowledge of how such a film would go to heighten the sense of paranoia that Angela (and the audience) feels.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Ana Torrent, Eduardo Noriega, Emiliano Otegui, Fele Martínez, Fele Martínez, José Luis Cuerda, Miguel Picazo, Nieves Herranz, Paco Hernández, Rosa Campillo, Xabier Elorriaga

Director: Alejandro Amenábar, Alejandro Amenábar

Rating: R

David Fincher's return to form almost ten years after Gone Girl turns the eponymous French graphic novel series into a stone-cold stunner. The Killer can be described as a crime thriller and a neo noir, but it's perfectly Fincherian in the ways it withholds information from the viewer, building up suspense in a masterful rhythm. The film opens on the inside of a construction site—a WeWork office to-be—where our Killer stalks his pray across the street. A rather static beginning, where nothing much happens: one may question the thriller qualities of the film during its first act for similar reasons, but just give it time; that's exactly what The Killer would say. But little does he know that time is something he doesn't have much of...

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Actor: Arliss Howard, Bernard Bygott, Brandon Morales, Carlos Rogelio Diaz, Cécile Coves, Charles Parnell, Daran Norris, Emiliano Pernia, Endre Hules, Erik Hellman, François Patissier, Gabriel Polanco, Ilyssa Fradin, Jack Kesy, Jérôme Keen, Julia Rowley, Kellan Rhude, Kerry O'Malley, Kev Morris Sr., Leroy Edwards III, Lía Lockhart, Michael Fassbender, Monique Ganderton, Nikki Dixon, Sacha Beaubier, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, Stéphane Vasseur, Tilda Swinton

Director: David Fincher

Rating: R

Despite being remade, parodied, and absorbed into pop culture over the years, the original Ring defiantly marches to the beat of its own drum. Focused entirely on building a slow-burn mystery instead of dispensing scares, the film provides ample space for a number of interpretations: on the spread of technology, the erasure of traditional beliefs, or even motherhood. It's all relentlessly quiet and extremely creepy, the tension building with the same energy as ghost stories told around a campfire. And while famous for its eerie images and the rules surrounding its cursed videotape, Ringu also serves as a reminder that great horror should compel the audience to keep on watching, even if they already know exactly what awaits them if they do.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Actor: Daisuke Ban, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Hitomi Satô, Katsumi Muramatsu, Kiriko Shimizu, Masako, Miki Nakatani, Miwako Kaji, Nanako Matsushima, Rie Ino'o, Rikiya Ôtaka, Yôichi Numata, Yôko Ôshima, Yûko Takeuchi, Yûrei Yanagi, Yutaka Matsushige

Director: Hideo Nakata