| Title |
Year |
Rating |
Rank |
Review |
| Inception | 2010 | 94 | 1 | - It's a dream inside a dream inside a dream. It's also a good movie inside a great movie inside a terrific movie. |
| Side Effects (2013) | 2013 | 94 | 1 | - Side Effects reminds us why we enjoy going to the movies in the first place: to take part in thrill rides we alone couldn't conjure up. |
| Memento | 2000 | 93 | 3 | - Watch this without knowing anyone or anything behind it and you'll say, "where has this movie been all my life?" Then discover Christopher Nolan's name and say "Ah, that explains it all." |
| Taxi Driver | 1976 | 91 | 4 | - An unsettling character study that shows how fragile the boundaries of good and evil can be. |
| Zodiac | 2007 | 90 | 5 | - A riveting sort of 'historical thriller', but at times the film feels as though it covers its span of 22 years in realtime. |
| Contagion | 2011 | 89 | 6 | - It'll scare you to your core, but there's no villain. The villain is mother nature, making it all the more terrifying. It's a medical Silence of the Lambs, and Hanibal is no bigger than a human cell. |
| Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) | 1962 | 89 | 6 | - A classic thriller. One of THE greatest/shocking/amazing endings of all time. |
| Shining, The | 1980 | 87 | 8 | - It's a mind-melting horror show, and might've been darn near perfect had it been about 30 minutes shorter. |
| Silence of the Lambs, The | 1991 | 87 | 8 | - It's rare that a thriller is, at the same time, both genuinely creepy and compelling. Ultimately, that's what makes The Silence of the Lambs special. |
| American Psycho | 2000 | 85 | 10 | - A really, really, really well done film. In fact, it may be OVER done. We could've lived without the "questioning reality" side of the story. It's commentary on greed, superficialness, and intimacy are enough. |
| Saw | 2004 | 85 | 10 | - Saw wants to be a commentary on society, but it doesn't need to go that far. Just be happy with having a sick S.O.B. who wants to terrorize largely innocent people for illogical reasons. It's been the key to success for countless horror classics. Why mess with the formula? |
| Sixth Sense, The | 1999 | 85 | 10 | - The final plot twist (you KNOW the one I'm talking about) goes right up there with Vader telling Luke who his father is. |
| Buried | 2010 | 84 | 13 | - Simple yet complex. Familiar yet unique. Stagnant yet fully engrossing. There's no other way to say it: this is a one-of-a-kind treat in filmmaking. |
| Ex Machina | 2015 | 84 | 13 | - It's fascinating how such a seemingly simple story can evoke such complex themes. |
| Gone Girl | 2014 | 84 | 13 | - David Fincher is successful in his effort to make a story that was so compelling in novel-form as compelling when transferred to the big screen. |
| The Gift (Edgerton / Bateman) | 2015 | 84 | 13 | - It's a gripping suspense-driven drama. |
| The Strangers | 2008 | 84 | 13 | - It's scary, yes, but even more so it's just very, very dark. There never seems to be any real hope of getting out alive for the poor protagonist and thus the whole movie feels like a morbid countdown to their inevitable doom. |
| Basic Instinct | 1992 | 83 | 18 | - It's a well-done crime thriller, but it's not as smart as it thinks it is. |
| Mystic River | 2003 | 82 | 19 | - You may feel as though you need to start taking anti-depressants as the end credits roll up, but it'll be worth it. |
| Nightcrawler | 2014 | 78 | 20 | - 'Nightcrawler' essentially sets out to villify anyone and everyone associated with television news. And painting in such broad strokes will be off-putting to many. |
| 10 Cloverfield Lane | 2016 | 77 | 21 | - Inside the fallout shelter lay a wonderfully thrilling story. Psychological in a cabin fever sort of way, clostrophobic as three virtual strangers are forced into confinement with one another, and eerily twisted like a Hitchcock great. Then she pops the lid, runs from aliens, and everything we go through suddenly feels a bit more silly. |
| Nocturnal Animals | 2016 | 77 | 21 | - Honestly, had the film only been of the story in the manuscript itself, it would have been better. The superficial characters of the 'real world' bring nothing to the table and even Edward Sheffield, who we only see in flashbacks, ends us with a reminder that he's not much better, either. |
| Psycho | 1960 | 77 | 21 | - It's value isn't necessarily what is on the screen so much as what it has inspired since. |
| Kiss the Girls | 1997 | 76 | 24 | - Don't focus on the fact that it's a James Patterson novel too much. What 'Kiss The Girls' really is adapted from is 'The Silence of the Lambs', which it wants to be oh so very badly. |
| Insomnia | 2002 | 75 | 25 | - This is one of Christopher Nolan's lesser-known works, probably with sound reason. |
| Black Swan | 2010 | 73 | 26 | - Sort of plays like a choppy music video, rife with innuendo and insinuations. It's rather easy to delve into the mind of a crazy person and call it art. |
| Along Came a Spider | 2001 | 72 | 27 | - It absolutely feels like a novel transferred to the big screen. Is it that a good or bad thing, though? |
| Joy Ride | 2001 | 71 | 28 | - Your standard-issue thriller destined to be a Saturday matinee on cable channels everywhere. |
| Phone Booth | 2002 | 69 | 29 | - You get the idea that its supposed to be a scary situation, but you have a very hard time buying it. |
| Rear Window | 1954 | 68 | 30 | - Hitchcock did better in his career. |
| Martha Marcy May Marlene | 2011 | 65 | 31 | - More bizarre than anything else. It's biggest success is really just tainting yet another Olsen. |
| Limitless | 2011 | 64 | 32 | - Maybe this movie should take one of those pills because it's not nearly as smart as its main character is. |
| Seven | 1995 | 63 | 33 | - It's not nearly the philosophical essay on morals that it thinks it is. |
| Mulholland Drive | 2001 | 60 | 34 | - David Lynch's headlong dive into the troubled (understatement!) mind of a young starlet is wholly intoxicating. Not the fun-night-out-with-friends kind of intoxicating, though. The I'm-sick-make-this-night-stop kind. |
| Adjustment Bureau | 2011 | 58 | 35 | - It is interesting, to be sure, but your intrigue isn't rewarded with all that much. Leaves you kind of wondering what was the point. |
| History of Violence, A | 2005 | 57 | 36 | - One of those movies that thinks it's smarter than it actually is. Never succeeds in grasping the audience. |
| Vertigo | 1958 | 50 | 37 | - Alfred Hitchcock's thriller piques your interest, but fails to keep it. |
| The Third Man | 1949 | 49 | 38 | - Underneath its steely cinematography and chilling score, there's just not a whole lot there. |
