Finding a great thriller can be harder than it seems, in part because the genre does not have a firm definition. Its boundaries are fluid, and that means that you could argue that a wide number of vastly different movies all fall into this general category. It’s not the same as something like an action movie or a horror movie, which has pretty clear conventions and rules that it generally abides by.
In 1964, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart infamously said of pornography, “I know it when I see it” — and perhaps the same is true for thrillers. There are definitely some defining through lines, including murder, lying, and plenty of sex, the thriller is really defined by how it makes the viewer feel.
The best movies that we can define as thrillers also help us better understand the boundaries of the genre itself. In looking at the movies that best exemplify the genre, we can better understand what makes a movie a thriller to begin with.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Memento (2000)
Parasite (2019)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Misery (1990)
Drive (2011)
Critics claimed that Nicholas Winding Refn’s moody neo-noir was an amateurish example of style over substance, but Drive’s growing cult of followers counter that style is substance when it’s done right. Neon-drenched brutalist landscapes, minimalist existential dialogue, elegant and overstated costuming, and an Italo-disco-influenced soundtrack provided by Johnny Jewel’s cabal of witchy women elevate what was unfortunately advertised as a rather average action movie into the realm of high art.
Spellbound (1945)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
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