The most important ingredient for making an exciting thriller work is suspense. No amount of great pacing or compelling characters can make up for a lack of tension in a movie. Renowned thrillers like The Fugitive (1993) or Oldboy (2003) would fall flat without a visceral sense of urgency, which can translate into anxiety, excitement, or both.
Great thrillers also explore lasting consequences, making it clear that none of the characters are safe while danger looms over them. With these elements in place, the art of a smart twist and the wonders of movie magic help tie everything together.
With that in mind, here are the five most exciting thriller movies of all time, ranked.
5
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs might be an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel, but the Philadelphia director certainly makes it his own. We follow young FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), who is unexpectedly asked to hunt down Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), a serial killer who only targets female victims. Demme frames Clarice’s everyday routine at the FBI through a claustrophobic lens, making her presence within male-dominant spaces feel especially vulnerable. Pushing past these judgments, Clarice seeks help from the cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to help solve the case. Lecter takes an immediate liking to Clarice’s moral integrity, and seems to respect her willingness to be courageous in the face of unpredictable danger.
Demme builds tension through close-quarter conversations. Although Bill feels menacing whenever he is onscreen, the suspense stems from Lecter’s refined cat-and-mouse game that Clarice must play to catch the killer. These interactions are fascinating, with Lecter constantly challenging Clarice to think like the suspect, while unraveling what makes her tick in exchange. As the hunt for Buffalo Bill continues, the use of multiple perspectives, red herrings, and spine-chilling sequences allows The Silence of the Lambs to crawl under our skin. It is a thriller that plays around with light and darkness to induce suffocation, while knowing when to go all out and indulge in gore-fueled carnage.
4
Memento (2000)
Time manipulation is an integral element of Christopher Nolan’s robust filmography. Films like Inception and Tenet dabble in convoluted sci-fi concepts to drive their thriller elements forward, but Nolan’s Memento accomplishes the same disorientation in the most grounded way possible. Based on Jonathan Nolan’s short story, Memento Mori, the film follows anterograde amnesiac Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), whose inability to form or retain new long-term memories makes for a dizzying puzzle. To help himself remember, Leonard uses a complex system of photos, notes, and tattoos to uncover the perpetrator who killed his wife, who is also the one responsible for his condition.
Nolan masterfully weaves through the non-linear narrative, using Leonard’s amnesia as a source of tension. Whenever he feels lost, we do as well, allowing the audience to mire in the protagonist’s fragmented reality. This becomes the perfect opportunity to use unreliable narration within a thriller setting, making us realize that Leonard might be looking at things through a warped lens. Every character, including Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), seems to have shifting allegiances due to Leonard’s constantly shifting sense of self. Memento intimately understands the importance of immersion, and figures out methods to effectively break it.
3
Mulholland Drive (2001)
David Lynch’s filmography operates in the realm of ideas, and often, these ideas have to do with dreams. While Mulholland Drive might be one of Lynch’s most straightforward films (apart from The Straight Story), it can be confounding on a first watch. The story opens with a wide-eyed, aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), who arrives in Los Angeles with dreams of making it big. After she befriends the amnesiac Rita (Laura Harring), Betty experiences a string of surreal events, including the mystery surrounding a blue key, the death of a strange woman, and an odd encounter inside a nightclub.
Although Mulholland Drive feels like an impossible puzzle, the mystery unravels as soon as we understand Lynch’s profound love for the blurred lines between reality and illusion. He explores this concept in Lost Highway and Blue Velvet, albeit through completely different lenses of identity and dream logic. Suspense is embedded in Mulholland Drive, a film that requires more than one rewatch. Once we grasp the key to understanding the bleak counter-narrative in the second half of the film, Mulholland Drive becomes an unforgettable exploration of grief, rejection, and disillusionment with stardom.
2
Jaws (1975)
A young woman is attacked by an unseen force and killed underwater in Jaws, a film that builds and sustains its breathtaking tension from this chilling opener — and it never lets go. Steven Spielberg doesn’t rush to give us a glimpse at the great white shark that’s responsible. Instead, he uses the power of suggestion to heighten anxiety, using the creature’s point of view to capture the sheer dread that the victims feel before their final moments. This alone would’ve elevated Jaws into a brilliant killer shark flick, but Spielberg takes it a step further by fleshing out the human characters at the center of the drama. After all, Jaws is less about a ravenous shark than it is about the greed of humanity, who continue to put people in danger just to protect capitalist interests.
The making of Jaws was wildly ambitious (and dangerous) in itself, adding yet another layer of appreciation for Spielberg’s masterful filmmaking. Confined spaces, character close-ups, and artful blocking are used to draw out the suspense, with Spielberg making the best out of unfortunate behind-the-scenes circumstances and the chaotic natural presence of the ocean. This pervasive sense of dread is shared by police chief Brody (Roy Scheider), marine biologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw), who act as a flawed human tether amid the tragic events that unfold.
1
Vertigo (1958)
Any discussion about a genre that thrives on suspense is incomplete without Alfred Hitchcock, whose Vertigo is a disorienting tale about grief and obsession. Retired detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) develops a fear of heights (accompanied by vertigo) after his colleague falls to his death in an attempt to save him during a chase. Taking on a case for an acquaintance to distract himself, Scottie gets fixated on the target Madeleine (Kim Novak), developing a strange obsession with her that reveals more about his fragile psychological state as the film progresses.
Vertigo employs a rich cinematic language to convey its dense psychological themes. Vivid colors are used to induce anxiety, with Hitchcock using the iconic dolly zoom to simulate a sense of vertigo in the audience. Sharing Scottie’s perception of reality, even for a few seconds, helps us understand the impulses that drive him. Vertigo uses the framework of a traditional detective mystery to uncover something darker about male obsession and entitlement, and how grief can twist one’s sense of morality and doom them. Nostalgia is not a sweet sentiment in a Hitchcockian world, as the desire for the past can make the most sane individuals embrace their worst selves.
