Last Updated on 12 June 2024
The following list is the Official Definitive List of the 400 best thriller movies of all time.
I found 17 different ranked lists online of “best thriller movies of all time” and pulled them all into Excel and merged them all to get this definitive compilation. See my Methodology page for the research process that was used, including links to all 17 lists that were averaged.
Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Thrillers generally keep the audience on the “edge of their seats” as the plot builds towards a climax. The cover-up of important information is a common element. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, unreliable narrators, and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is often a villain-driven plot, whereby they present obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.
WIKIPEDIA: HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/THRILLER_(GENRE)
Below is a checklist you can print to track which ones you’ve seen, followed by the ranked list with links to IMDb.
- Rear Window (1954)
- Vertigo (1958)
- Parasite (2019)
- Psycho (1960)
- North by Northwest (1959)
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Se7en (1995)
- Chinatown (1974)
- Zodiac (2007)
- The Usual Suspects (1995)
- Double Indemnity (1944)
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- The Third Man (1949)
- Shutter Island (2010)
- Memento (2000)
- The Hunger Games (2012)
- Jaws (1975)
- The Conversation (1974)
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
- Taxi Driver (1976)
- The Sixth Sense (1999)
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
- The Godfather (1972)
- No Country for Old Men (2007)
- Gone Girl (2014)
- L.A. Confidential (1997)
- Uncut Gems (2019)
- Nightcrawler (2014)
- Basic Instinct (1992)
- The Night of the Hunter (1955)
- Mulholland Drive (2001)
- The Fugitive (1993)
- The Departed (2006)
- M (1931)
- Joker (2019)
- The Handmaiden (2016)
- Blue Velvet (1986)
- Ex Machina (2014)
- Inside Man (2006)
- Notorious (1946)
- The French Connection (1971)
- Prisoners (2013)
- Winter’s Bone (2010)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Fatal Attraction (1987)
- Argo (2012)
- Rebecca (2020)
- Primal Fear (1996)
- The Hateful Eight (2015)
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
- The Lady Vanishes (1938)
- Drive (2011)
- Get Out (2017)
- Inception (2010)
- The 39 Steps (1935)
- The Game (1997)
- Gerald’s Game (2017)
- Fargo (1996)
- Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
- Gravity (2013)
- Black Swan (2010)
- Hush (2016)
- Oldboy (2003)
- Reservoir Dogs (1992)
- Touch of Evil (1958)
- Burning (2018)
- High and Low (1963)
- Nocturnal Animals (2016)
- Red Dragon (2002)
- The Conformist (1970)
- Panic Room (2002)
- The Vanishing (1988)
- Split (2016)
- The Lives of Others (2006)
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
- The Great Escape (1963)
- Widows (2018)
- The Dark Knight (2008)
- Dial M for Murder (1954)
- Run (2020)
- The Machinist (2004)
- No Way Out (1987)
- In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- Rififi (1955)
- The Revenant (2015)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- The Girl on the Train (2016)
- Buried (2010)
- Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
- Blow Out (1981)
- Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
- Woman in the Dunes (1964)
- You Were Never Really Here (2017)
- The Village (2004)
- I Care a Lot (2020)
- The Wages of Fear (1953)
- The Crying Game (1992)
- The Prestige (2006)
- The Woman in the Window (2021)
- The Terminator (1984)
- Dirty Harry (1971)
- The Birds (1963)
- The Shining (1980)
- Good Time (2017)
- Dark Waters (2019)
- Cape Fear (1962)
- The Long Goodbye (1973)
- There Will Be Blood (2007)
- Blood Simple (1984)
- Rebecca (1940)
- Sicario (2015)
- Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
- Gaslight (1944)
- Knives Out (2019)
- Heat (1995)
- Misery (1990)
- Deep Red (1975)
- Blow-Up (1966)
- The Platform (2019)
- In the Line of Fire (1993)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- One False Move (1992)
- Perfect Blue (1997)
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)
- Halloween (1978)
- American Psycho (2000)
- Mystic River (2003)
- Point Blank (1967)
- Blood Diamond (2006)
- The Killing (1956)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Maria Full of Grace (2004)
- Spotlight (2015)
- The Others (2001)
- Alien (1979)
- Greta (2018)
- Die Hard (1988)
- Les Diaboliques (1955)
- Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
- Fear (1996)
- Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
- Yojimbo (1961)
- mother! (2017)
- Scream (1996)
- The Gift (2015)
- I See You (2019)
- Bird Box (2018)
- Baby Driver (2017)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
- Rope (1948)
- The Martian (2015)
- Le Trou (1960)
- The Hurt Locker (2008)
- The Untouchables (1987)
- The Invitation (2015)
- The Bourne Identity (2002)
- High Noon (1952)
- House at the End of the Street (2012)
- Bound (1996)
- Fight Club (1999)
- Thief (1981)
- The Father (2020)
- The Guilty (2021)
- Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
- Signs (2002)
- Léon: The Professional (1994)
- Oxygen (2021)
- In a Lonely Place (1950)
- Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
- The Devil All the Time (2020)
- Body Heat (1981)
- Metropolis (1927)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Soylent Green (1973)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
- The Power of the Dog (2021)
- Caché (Hidden) (2005)
- To Catch a Thief (1955)
- Hypnotic (2021)
- Intrusion (2021)
- The Little Things (2021)
- The Voyeurs (2021)
- Things Heard & Seen (2021)
- The Beguiled (2017)
- Stowaway (2021)
- American Hustle (2013)
- Donnie Darko (2001)
- The Da Vinci Code (2006)
- Slender Man (2018)
- Set It Off (1996)
- Marathon Man (1976)
- Klute (1971)
- Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)
- Infernal Affairs (2002)
- The Constant Gardener (2005)
- Dr. Strangelove (1964)
- King Kong (1933)
- Wait Until Dark (1967)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
- The Big Sleep (1946)
- Run Lola Run (1998)
- Minority Report (2002)
- Deliverance (1972)
- Promising Young Woman (2020)
- Lady Vengeance (2005)
- Bullitt (1968)
- The Hunt for Red October (1990)
- Contagion (2011)
- Funny Games (1997)
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
- Dressed to Kill (1980)
- The Grifters (1990)
- Thelma & Louise (1991)
- Green Room (2015)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
- Goldfinger (1964)
- Speed (1994)
- Battleship Potemkin (1925)
- Queen & Slim (2019)
- Aliens (1986)
- Come and See (1985)
- Sleepy Hollow (1999)
- Children of Men (2006)
- The Insider (1999)
- Training Day (2001)
- Train to Busan (2016)
- 1917 (2019)
- Mean Streets (1973)
- The Gift (2000)
- Z (1969)
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
- Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
- The Firm (1993)
- The Last Seduction (1994)
- Brick (2005)
- Don’t Look Now (1973)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
- Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
- Let the Right One In (2008)
- From Russia with Love (1963)
- All the President’s Men (1976)
- Charade (1963)
- A Hijacking (2012)
- Icarus (2017)
- What Lies Beneath (2000)
- Amores perros (2000)
- Looper (2012)
- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
- Cam (2018)
- Taken (2008)
- Gosford Park (2001)
- Memories of Murder (2003)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
- Skyscraper (2018)
- Taken 2 (2012)
- The Exorcist (1973)
- A Simple Plan (1998)
- Us (2019)
- Dunkirk (2017)
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
- Source Code (2011)
- The Road (2009)
- Stranger by the Lake (2013)
- Captain Phillips (2013)
- A Quiet Place (2018)
- Angels & Demons (2009)
- Insomnia (2002)
- Oxygen (1999)
- Titanic (1997)
- We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
- The Nice Guys (2016)
- Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
- Clue (1985)
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
- Super 8 (2011)
- The Lighthouse (2019)
- District 9 (2009)
- The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
- Michael Clayton (2007)
- Dr. No (1962)
- Peeping Tom (1960)
- Prometheus (2012)
- The Irishman (2019)
- V for Vendetta (2005)
- Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
- Safe House (2012)
- Casino Royale (2006)
- Eastern Promises (2007)
- Chess of the Wind (1976)
- Identity (2003)
- The Bodyguard (1992)
- The Deer Hunter (1978)
- Hotel Rwanda (2004)
- Bridge of Spies (2015)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- Carlos (2010)
- The China Syndrome (1979)
- Salt (2010)
- Collateral (2004)
- Internal Affairs (1990)
- Mother (2009)
- Now You See Me (2013)
- The Burial of Kojo (2018)
- Spellbound (1945)
- The American Friend (1977)
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018)
- Casablanca (1942)
- The Bourne Legacy (2012)
- Enemy (2013)
- Glass (2019)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Frenzy (1972)
- Logan (2017)
- Room (2015)
- Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
- Wild Tales (2014)
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- Knife in the Water (1962)
- Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
- Son of Saul (2015)
- Eagle Eye (2008)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Bullet Train (2022)
- Carrie (1976)
- Repulsion (1965)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
- Le Samouraï (1967)
- The Pelican Brief (1993)
- After Hours (1985)
- Vanilla Sky (2001)
- Airport (1970)
- Ben-Hur (1959)
- The Godfather Part II (1974)
- Passengers (2016)
- Raging Bull (1980)
- The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
- Inherent Vice (2014)
- Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
- Rocky (1976)
- The Big Heat (1953)
- To Have and Have Not (1944)
- A Scanner Darkly (2006)
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
- Gone Baby Gone (2007)
- The Tale (2018)
- Unbreakable (2000)
- Witness (1985)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- Eyes Without a Face (1960)
- The Town (2010)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- The Client (1994)
- Planet of the Apes (1968)
- Scarface (1983)
- The Passenger (1975)
- Flightplan (2005)
- Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
- Oblivion (2013)
- Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
- Spartacus (1960)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
- The Thin Man (1934)
- Elle (2016)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
- The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
- Entrapment (1999)
- The Dirty Dozen (1967)
- Presumed Innocent (1990)
- Spiderhead (2022)
- Gold (2022)
- The Accountant (2016)
- The Matrix (1999)
- Dead Calm (1989)
- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
- Shallow Grave (1994)
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
- The Valkyrie (2008)
- The Weekend Away (2022)
- Disclosure (1994)
- Synchronic (2019)
- The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
- The Wild Bunch (1969)
- 21 (2008)
- Level 16 (2018)
- The Fallen Idol (1948)
- The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960)
- Disturbia (2007)
- Sweet Country (2017)
- The Occupant (2020)
- Jack Reacher (2012)
- Platoon (1986)
- The Gray Man (2022)
- Where Eagles Dare (1968)