Thrillers are one of the most reliable genres around. They can pull elements from every genre, offering something for every sort of film fan to enjoy. They can have the intensity of an action movie, the terror of a horror film or a wicked sense of humor to rival the best comedies. Thrillers have been keeping audiences on the edge of their seats for a hundred years and counting, and if the last ten years are any indication, they won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
The past decade has given audiences all sorts of thrillers, from lurid to sophisticated, award-winning to criminally underrated. The best are what some would call masterpieces (and others would angrily disagree in the comments about), and elevate the genre to its highest level. While the genre has thrived in the new millennium, these thrillers rank as the greatest of the last ten years. This list will rank them based on their standing, their contributions to the genre, and their overall quality as standalone efforts.
10
‘Widows’ (2018)
Choosing to follow up his Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave with a heist thriller based on a British television series, Steve McQueen once again defied expectations with Widows, a popcorn thriller given emotional depth and heavy social themes. Set in Chicago, it follows four women whose criminal husbands left them with a heavy debt. With few options, they decide to commit a robbery to pay it off.
Viola Davis leads with conviction, getting ample support from Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo as the other widows, while the rest of the supporting cast turns in solid work as well, especially Daniel Kaluuya as a ruthless enforcer. McQueen is as adept at weaving in the timely racial politics inherent to the story as he is at crafting high-octane action sequences, and that makes Widows a cut above the standard crime thriller.
9
‘You Were Never Really Here’ (2017)
Lynne Ramsay‘s You Were Never Really Here walks on familiar thriller grounds, presenting a plot involving a hammer-wielding mercenary who tracks down young women who have been sex-trafficked. That could be the plotline to any number of Liam Neeson-led B-grade thrillers that would probably offer some cathartically violent kills, but in Ramsay’s hands, and with Joaquin Phoenix in the lead, You Were Never Really Here plumbs into deeper emotional depths with a story of trauma and healing.
Phoenix’s Joe has more in common with loners like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver than he does the vigilantes frequently played by the likes of Charles Bronson. He’s a man broken by his violent past, to the point that violence is the only way he seems to communicate effectively. The fight sequences offer none of the sick thrills of more mainstream thrillers, and instead hold back from providing the bloody release of tension by keeping the climactic moments when hammer meets skull off-screen. You Were Never Really Here may not be what vengeance-hungry audiences are looking for, but it sticks in the mind like a haunting dream.
8
‘Conclave’ (2024)
Whereas heists and violent hitmen come with the promise of thrills on the tin, the election of a new pope doesn’t initially inspire much excitement. However, Edward Berger‘s Conclave has plenty of mystery and surprise hidden under its papal dressing. Set during the titular event, where Catholic cardinals convene to elect a new pope, the film addresses not only the schisms between the old and new orders, but also the secrets and lies buried deep within the politics of religion.
Ralph Fiennes leads an all-star cast of old pros and character actors, who all bring a classy air to the pulpy trappings of the film. Berger brings maximum tension to scenes of debate and discourse in the same way he did the epic battles of his adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front. Conclave is a modern thriller that pokes at the ancient traditions of one of the largest and most influential institutions in the entire world.
7
‘Sicario’ (2015)
Tackling the war on drugs with blunt force, Sicario colors the world in increasing shades of gray. Emily Blunt‘s idealistic FBI agent finds herself in a land of wolves when she joins a joint task force to take on the Mexican drug cartel. Director Denis Villeneuve elevates Taylor Sheridan‘s neo-Western screenplay into a tightly coiled thriller where violence offers the only release.
While Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro are equally brazen as men waging a war without limits, it’s Blunt’s more sensitive performance that grounds the whole affair, as evidenced by the much weaker sequel, which does not include her character. Sicario plays like rolling thunder, distinct for its sustained sense of unease rather than the brief strikes of gunplay, ruthless and unforgiving without descending into gratuitous chaos.
6
‘Blow the Man Down’ (2020)
Darkly comedic with a twisted sense of humor, Blow the Man Down wades into the same waters once treaded by the Coen Brothers with its regional-specific thrills and chills. Set in a small Maine fishing community, this indie darling follows two sisters whose lives get evermore complicated after one of them kills a man who was carrying dark secrets.
In another decade, Blow the Man Down would’ve won accolades for its clever script, chilly atmosphere and pitch-perfect cast, but it was swept away by the tide of COVID and lost in the Amazon Prime sea, where it remains waiting for its future fans. Co-written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy, the film has a unique female perspective that enhances its thrills. The cozy small-town setting makes it one of the most enjoyably and unique thrillers to come out in the last ten years.
5
‘Pig’ (2021)
Nicolas Cage gives what may be his most subdued and nuanced performance ever in the idiosyncratic thriller Pig. As a former chef turned truffle hunter whose only companion is his beloved hog, Cage is drawn back into the underbelly of high cuisine when his porcine partner is taken from him. Those expecting Cage to go ham and cut a bloody path of vengeance across the Pacific Northwest to get his pig back will be sorely disappointed, but writer-director Michael Sarnoski is in search of something far more heartfelt than pulpy hogwash.
The specificity of the film’s setting, along with Cage’s quiet performance, lures the audience in, enveloping them like a Portland fog. At times, Pig approaches the filmic quality of a tone poem, which allows the emotions of it to shine all the brighter. There’s still plenty to chew on in terms of thrills, but they come served up in a less traditional fashion than what may be expected. If Cage’s psychedelic, ultraviolent Mandy is a bloody rack of ribs, then Pig is an exquisitely seasoned pork chop.
4
‘The Handmaiden’ (2016)
Filmmaker Park Chan-Wook knows his way around a thriller, whether it’s of the vengeful, violent variety as in Oldboy or the romantic mystery of Decision to Leave. Between those two thrillers, Park released the equally thrilling The Handmaiden, an erotic thriller that, like all the director’s work, does not fit easily into any one classification. Visually spectacular as its plot is sensual, it’s all another twisty example of why South Korean cinema is putting Hollywood to shame.
Inspired by the Victorian-era set novel Fingersmith but updated to Japanese-occupied Korea, the movie concerns a con man who entices a young female pickpocket to help him seduce and steal from a wealthy heiress. From the starting point, The Handmaiden spins off into a dozen different plot threads, but all of them are part of the same sumptuous tapestry. Like much of the cinematic output from South Korea that has made its way west, the film handles disparate tones and ideas with incredible ease. It’s an erotic thrill ride the likes of which haven’t been properly produced stateside in more than ten years.
3
‘Burning’ (2018)
A psychological thriller of the highest order, Burning rewards patient viewers willing to engage with its thoughtful pacing as it dissects the inner workings of a peculiar love triangle. Yoo Ah-in plays Jong-su, who becomes infatuated with Hae-mi, a former classmate played by Jeon Jong-seo. Their budding romance is interrupted by the arrival of Ben, an enigmatic and wealthy man played with a mercurial edge by Steven Yeun.
Jealousy erupts and mysteries deepen as the film draws on, but it offers no comfortable answers. Its thrills are of the disquieting variety, arriving with a whisper and dissipating in kind, while the film offers a subtle class warfare critique at the center of its relationship triangle. Burning is proof positive that thrillers can effectively operate at a simmer without the need to boil over every ten minutes to keep an audience engaged.
2
‘Uncut Gems’ (2019)
The filmic equivalent of a panic attack, Uncut Gems is as effective an anti-gambling PSA as there ever will be. Coming from the Safdie Brothers, this New York City-set thriller is a high-wire act on a razor’s edge. Adam Sandler gives the performance of his career as jeweler Howard Ratner, whose ability to effectively sell iced-out chains is offset by his debilitating gambling addiction. Drowning in debts and with his personal life unraveling around him, Howard sets up one scheme after another to try and put himself back on top.
Electric from the moment he steps on screen, Sandler is near unrecognizable in comparison to the arrested development man children he built his comedy career out of with black eyes behind Cartier sunglasses and thousands of dollars worth of jewelry adorning his hands. Howard is a consummate loser who can never quit while he’s ahead, but the Safdies and Sandler come out winners in Uncut Gems, an anxiety-inducing thriller that’s disturbing from beginning to end.
1
‘Parasite’ (2019)
Parasite took the world by storm, launching director Bong Joon Ho into the upper echelons of the A-list and becoming the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Though the class divide it depicts feels inherent to its Seoul setting, the clash of two families (one of haves, the other of have-nots) offers universal appeal and thrills that cross every border.
The financially struggling Kim family believes they’ve found their ticket out of their basement apartment when the son becomes a tutor for the wealthy Park family. Soon enough, all the members of the family have ingratiated themselves within the walls of the Park house as employees. The layers of this late-stage capitalist nightmare continue to peel back, revealing deception upon deception as the dysfunction of both families unravels them both. It’s a dizzying display of control and tone management that Bong pulls off like only a master filmmaker could.
