Thrillers & Suspense
Thriller and Suspense Films promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension.
A genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal, to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging on the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. Plots of thrillers often involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.
Below is a grand line-up of the best in contemporary Thrillers & Suspense made since 1965. Following a similar theme, with generally a darker look is the "Film Noir" feature, well worth checking out. The exploits of "James Bond 007" may also be accessed stage left.
Right: Frances McDormand makes an arrest in the Coen Bros "Fargo".
Passenger 57 (1992)
5.9/10
Director: Kevin Hooks
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Bruce Payne, Tom Sizemore
Wesley Snipes is a crack anti-terrorist expert planning early retirement when he is thrust into the middle of an airline hi-jacking perpetrated by vil... Read more
Patriot Games (1992)
6.9/10
Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Thora Birch, James Fox, J...
This edge-of-the-seat thriller has ex CIA agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) intervening in a terrorist attack, inspiring an Irish radical (Sean Bean) to... Read more
Raising Cain (1992)
6/10
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer
A tour-de-force performance by John Lithgow as a psychologist who is coerced into joining his disturbed father (Lithgow again) in conducting sadistic... Read more
Shining Through (1992)
6.4/10
Director: David Seltzer
Starring: Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith, Liam Neeson, Joely Richardson, John Gielgud
Sweeping WWII romance-drama stars Melanie Griffith as a secretary who falls in love with her mysterious new boss (Michael Douglas). She soon discovers... Read more
Single White Female (1992)
6.3/10
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Starring: Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Steven Weber
This erotic thriller stars Bridget Fonda as a young woman living in a New York apartment building who takes on a roommate when she learns her boyfrien... Read more
Sneakers (1992)
7.1/10
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Starring: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley
An entertaining thriller starring Robert Redford as a computer wizard who has been living 'underground' since the 60's and leads a group of other 'hac... Read more
Under Siege (1992)
6.5/10
Director: Andrew Davis
Starring: Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey
A rousing action hit about a group of terrorists led by psychotic Tommy Lee Jones who commandeers the Battleship U.S.S. Missouri and ex-Navy SEAL Stev... Read more
Unlawful Entry (1992)
6.3/10
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Starring: Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta, Madeleine Stowe
A tense tale about the befriending of an LAPD officer (Ray Liotta) by Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe after a break-in at home. But the disturbed cop... Read more
White Sands (1992)
6/10
Director: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Mickey Rourke
Willem Dafoe plays a small-town sheriff who finds a body with a suitcase full of cash and decides to investigate, much to the chagrin of drugs and arm... Read more
Delicatessen (1991)
7.6/10
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro
A post-apocalyptic future becomes the setting for pitch black humor in this visually intricate French comedy. A circus performer takes a position as a... Read more