Here we’ve preserved Eliza Janssen’s short reviews of excellent thrillers, removed at various points from different streaming service guides. Click on each title to check out where the films are available to stream right now.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
The only movie on this list to feature a Nic Cage versus iguana staring competition? Unfortunately yes, but fortunately for all of us, this gonzo Werner Herzog film has everything you could want in a nutty corrupt cop saga. Jennifer Coolidge, Xzibit, Brad Dourif and more bring the criminal proceedings to a new height of madness.
Blow Out (1981)
Director Brian De Palma was at his voyeuristic best in this loose remake of Antonioni’s Blow Up, this time following a sound effects technician convinced he’s captured audio of something terrible. It’s one of those great, exploitative neo-noirs about how great and exploitative cinema is in itself, and John Travolta weaponises his suave persona well as the nosy lead character.
Blue Velvet (1986)
The thrills in David Lynch’s big breakout feature don’t so much make you jump as they sicken you to your stomach: once Dennis Hopper’s monstrous villain Frank Booth is on the scene, we feel we’re in for something much more twisted than any other suburban noir story. Drenched in the dreaminess and repression of 1950s Americana, it’s an enduringly powerful and dark voyage.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
With its millennium-era shakycam and Matt Damon as a very likeable Hitchcockian ‘wrong man’, the Bourne franchise gave cinemagoers a grittier alternative to the then-bloated James Bond films. All three of Damon’s original films can be found on Prime, offering the ultimate white-knuckle action-thriller marathon.
Get Out (2017)
One of the finest, most hair-raisingly tense horror films of the last decade. Jordan Peele sparked a new movement of socially conscious thrillers, but none so far have managed the dread and acute political commentary of Get Out, perhaps because Daniel Kaluuya’s emotive lead performance makes us believe the danger he’s in so deeply.
Jaws (1975)
The element that marks Jaws as a brilliant thriller, as opposed to just a nice gnarly creature feature, lies in one of Spielberg’s biggest production limitations. It was so damn difficult to get a convincing shark model working (one ended up at the bottom of the ocean!) that the film barely shows us the man-eating beastie, resulting in one of the very first blockbusters and a tense tale of survival that still terrifies us today.
The Killing (1956)
Only Kubrick’s third film, this robust heist picture still shows off much of the cult filmmaker’s budding genius—jarring shifts between documentary-style and experimental, warped-looking shots, nihilistic characters, etc. In plot it’s a pretty conventional crime-noir, following Sterling Hayden’s gang as they attempt a racetrack robbery, but the director’s muscular, obsessive focus and a bulletproof script from hardboiled pulp writer Jim Thompson elevate basic elements into a powerful package.
Killing Them Softly (2012)
More Andrew Dominik, this time with a film that got a much poorer reception than Chopper. But Killing Them Softly has just as much to say about the hollow quality of criminal life, with a beleaguered James Gandolfini and a hilariously unhinged Ben Mendelsohn standing out as two of the great supporting characters giving Brad Pitt’s assassin extra grief.
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
The oldest thriller on our list, Hitch’s train-set mystery is devilishly sophisticated and oh-so-British. You’ll be completely absorbed by its Christie-esque plot of an elderly woman who seemingly vanishes from a train carriage into thin air, and also by the eccentric supporting cast helping and hindering the search along the way.
Misery (1990)
Fandom can be terrifying, and James Caan’s grouchy paperback novelist sees this in spades when “rescued” by his number one fan, an unforgettably creepy Kathy Bates. Director Rob Reiner hones in on both characters incisively, urging us to get closer to Bates’ Annie Wilkes even as we need Caan’s Paul to escape. And hey, we’ve all felt like Annie at times, getting a little too invested in the pop culture tripe we’re fed; “he didn’t get out of the cockadoodie car!”
Saw (2004)
You might say that this shoestring-budgeted franchise starter is more horror than thriller, but the grisly slew of sequels we’ve had since its release can obscure the compelling detective mystery the series started out as. James Wan and Leigh Whannell get heaps of bang for their buck out of pushing the human body—and will—into new realms of agony, and that final twist still has the power to shock even upon rewatch.
Scarface (1983)
Lurid Florida colours and substance-addled characters breathe new life into Brian De Palma’s adaptation of a 1930s gangster flick, with Al Pacino’s uncontrollable performance still what he’s probably best remembered for. Its dark depiction of the American dream is all the more sordid for the fact that Tony Montana ended up being worshipped on so many teen boy’s walls.
Snowtown (2011)
Still, your corpse could end up somewhere even worse: like the barrels of South Australian’s serial killers. Based on a sickening true story of psychopathy and the vulnerable young people caught in its lure, this dramatisation of the Snowtown killings is certainly not for the faint of heart.
The Untouchables (1987)
David Mamet writes and Brian De Palma directs this fictionalised dramatisation of the hunt for Al Capone, played by none other than screen mob legend Robert De Niro. Kevin Costner’s prohibition agent gets swept up in a Chicago-wide crime racket, leading to a tremendous action sequence inspired by Battleship Potemkin’s iconic stair scene.
