Scary Movie Halloween Series Part 2

Top 30 Suspense Thrillers

Continued...#13-30

13a) FALLEN

R: 1998. Starring: Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland. Director: Gregory Hoblit. Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller. Awards: Nominated for the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild’s Best Movie. Running Time: 124 min

DESCRIPTION: “Let me tell you about the day I almost died…” is the opening line of this film with an unexpected twist at the end. This is a seductive crime drama that keeps you guessing until the end.  It begins with Hobbs (Washington) witnessing the execution of a serial killer.  That’s when things get weird. The killer is dead but a new round of murders begin to occur using the same signature and Hobbs needs to find out who is doing the killing before it’s too late.  Did the serial killer arise from the dead…or is it something else?

RENT or BUY Fallen Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

13b) SE7EN

R: 1995. Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow. Director: David Fincher. Genre: Crime, Suspense, Mystery. Awards (22) including Empire Award for Best Film.   Running Time: 127 min.

DESCRIPTION: This is a story about the seven deadly sins (Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Lust, Wrath and Envy) and a serial killer (Spacey) who choses his victims based upon the sin each is guilty of.  Se7en is a mind-bending psychological roller coaster that follows two detectives, (Freeman and Pitt) as they try to make sense of the crimes and find the killer. The cost of success however, leads to a horrific climax that places this film on our list of the Top 30 Suspense Thrillers of all time.

RENT or BUY Se7en Now.  Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

14) SIGNS

PG-13: 2002. Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin. Director: M. Night Shyamalan. Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-fi. Awards (2). Running Time: 106 min

DESCRIPTION: It's been a long time since a movie frightened us enough to scream and the surround sound is something you have to experience. 

Shyamalan is a fan of Steven Spielberg and he has obviously studied his thriller technique of mixing human stories with humor, horror and fear.  Our favorite scene has Mel Gibson walking into his family room to find his two children and adult brother (Phoenix) wearing tin foil hats to keep the aliens from reading their minds.  It's sweet silliness.  What I really love about this movie, aside from its unpredictability is the underlying message of never losing faith in God.  Gibson plays a disillusioned minister who has turned his back on God after the death of his wife.  Throughout the film he struggles with this until ultimately in the end he comes to realize God hasn't abandoned him and everything does happen for a reason. This film boasts a complex mix of positive messages with humanity, humor and fear.

BUY or RENT Signs Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

15) LAURA

NR: 1944. Starring: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price. Director: Otto Preminger. Genre: Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery. Awards (2) including the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Running Time: 88 min

DESCRIPTION: Laura continues to define film-noir and combines romance, suspense and sophistication to create a movie that plays on your emotions and explores the motivations, lusts and anger of men.

Dana Andrews discovers the beautiful advertising executive Laura, (Tierney) is missing and one look at her portrait causes him to fall in love with her. Unknown to him behind the scenes the strings are being pulled by snobby columnist and (Webb) who too is in love with Laura but attempting to place the blame on her fiancé (Price) whom is loveable but not too bright.
I don't want to give away the movie but this love quatro gets an unexpected surprise half way through the movie that will keep you guessing to the very end. This is the first and considered the  best by many of  the Otto Preminger murder mysteries. If you've never seen Laura, do.  Though over sixty years old, this movie plays as Ill today as it did back then.

BUY or RENT Laura Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

16) MARATHON MAN

R: 1976. Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider. Director: John Schlesinger. Genre: Drama, Thriller. Awards (3) including a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. Running Time: 125 min

DESCRIPTION: IS IT SAFE?
 Yes? No? How can you know? This is the movie that gave dentists a bad name.  Mix in fleeing Nazis, secret agents, diamonds and a college kid, (Hoffman) caught in the middle and you have Marathon Man. Laurence Olivier's portrayal of the former concentration camp dentist is chilling and if you've ever had dry socket or a root canal without Novocain, this movie will hit a nerve and make you cringe.

Smart, eerie, thought provoking and surprising, this movie is often cited by the Hollywood elite as one of the best suspense thrillers of all time; our only advice? Get your teeth cleaned before you see this movie, not after!

BUY or RENT Marathon Man Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

17) CAPE FEAR

NR: 1962. Starring: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen. Director: J. Lee Thompson. Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller. Awards: None. Running Time: 105 min

DESCRIPTION: This is the original and still the best though the 1990's remake comes close. 
Both are worth seeing. 

What happens when an attorney doesn't put forth information that would cause his client to be acquitted on a technicality for a murder he commits?  That killer comes back to seek vengeance on the lawyer and his family by stalking and torturing him psychologically and ultimately trying to destroy him.  This is a wild ride that taps into every man's fear when it comes to protecting his family and the lengths he will go to in order to keep them safe.

BUY Cape Fear Now: Available in DVD and Blu-Ray

18) SYRIANA

R: 2005. Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet. Director: Stephen Gaghan. Genre: Drama, Political, Thriller. Awards (6) including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Running Time: 128 min.

DESCRIPTION: This film holds a special place in my heart because I know some of the people who are portrayed in it and the back story from my time in the Middle East.  In fact it was one of the films I brought with me.  My friend recognized himself right away.

Though fictional, it is based loosely on the experiences of former a CIA agent who did quite a bit of work in the region. It's an unusual story in several veins as it shows the culture and people in both a positive light and negative light, something often missing from American films on Arab cultures. You need to watch this and follow it to get the gist, but if you're a fan of Tom Clancy or an avid admirer of the true autobiography Confessions of an Economic Hit Man series by John Perkins, you'll love this film.

BUY or RENT Syriana Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

19) NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

NR: 1964. Starring: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr. Director: John Huston. Genre: Drama, Thriller. Awards (3) including the Academy Award for Best Costumes. Running Time: 125 min

DESCRIPTION: Considered the best of Tennessee Williams' plays, (and he's got a lot of very, very good plays),  Night of the Iguana crawls under your skin at the brilliant direction of the legendary John Huston.

Richard Burton plays a tortured, defrocked priest and Deborah Kerr a strong-willed woman who has learned to survive in an unkind world. This movie is a study of how individual lives can influence history and how each of us will react, the masks and the impact of actions at crucial points of decision.

BUY or RENT Night of the Iguana Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

20) MINORITY REPORT

PG-13: 2002. Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton. Director: Steven Spielberg. Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller. Awards (16) including Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Movie. Running Time: 145 min

DESCRIPTION: If George Orwell were  alive today, this would be his movie.  The entire premise, that people can be accused of crime before it is committed all on the weight of three people with the ability to see into the future is something straight out of 1984.

Cruise does an excellent job playing at first an enforcer of thought crime and then unwittingly a fugitive of it.  In the course of his running, he finds out who the real wizard is behind the curtain and takes down the entire operation.  Samantha Morton shines as the adult 'pre-cog', just as she does later in the 2007 thriller Michael Clayton.  One hell of a ride...and warning about how fragile democracy can be!

BUY Minority Report Now: Available as DVD or Blu-Ray

21) THE SIXTH SENSE

PG-13: 1999. Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette. Director: M. Night Shyamalan. Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller. Awards (31) including Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and Best performance by a young actor. Running Time: 107 min.

DESCRIPTION: This is one of those movies where the ending makes the movie and causes you to review it several times in an effort to catch all of the clues you missed.  Here's a clue: red. It is also the movie that made M. Night Shyamalan.

The Sixth Sense is a masterpiece of cinematography, mystery and storytelling, which explores psychology, relationships, fear and the hidden demons of personality.  Rich in emotion, chilling in its message, The Sixth Sense parallels films of the noir period and is a thriller you will want to watch again and again.

BUY The Sixth Sense Now: Available in DVD and Blu-Ray

22) LA FEMME NIKITA

R: 1990. Starring: Anne Parillaud, Marc Duret, Patrick Fontana. Director: Luc Besson. Genre: Romance, Crime, Thriller. Awards (4) including Cesar Award for Best Actress. Running Time: 118 min

DESCRIPTION: Guys love this movie.  Scantily clad badass woman goes from junkie to assassin and ultimately tries to find her way out to a normal life.  This is the original film that inspired the American version with Brigette Fonda in the 1990's, Point of No Return.

Like a French twist on Pygmalion, Nikita (the hypnotic Anne Parillaud) is a gang-running street girl who gets caught after killing a cop; in light of this, she's quizzically chosen by a shadowy intelligence bureau as the ideal 'nobody' to be remade and remodeled. Trained in the various arts of killing by an engagingly hangdog officer (Tcheky Karyo), she assumes the undercover alias of 'Josephine' and is plopped back into society.

BUY or RENT La Femme Nikita Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

23) SPEED

R: 1994. Starring: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock. Director: Jan de Bont. Genre: Crime, Action, Thriller. Awards: None. Running Time: 116 min

DESCRIPTION: Fast and furious fun like the kind you get with a James Bond classic.  This is the only movie I've ever seen that caused our blood pressure to remain high and our hearts to beat faster by just watching a movie for nearly the entire two hours.

What a wild ride! Seeing former teen "stoner" star Keanu Reeves in an action thriller proves him to be a multi-faceted actor of many talents.  He and Sandra Bullock heat up the screen with chemistry and the movie keeps you cheering all the way to the end.

BUY or RENT Speed Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

24) STRANGERS ON THE TRAIN

PG: 1951. Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Genre: Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery. Awards: None. Running Time: 101 min

DESCRIPTION: Anytime you see a movie where people kill each others spouses to avoid suspicion, Strangers on the Train is its genesis.

Hitchcock builds the plot meticulously and like The Sixth Sense, this is a movie you will want to see over and over.  The tension never leaves and each time you'll spot new clues you missed. The British version of Strangers on a Train is considered one of Hitchcock's crowning achievements.

BUY or RENT Strangers on the Train Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

25) THE CHINA SYNDROME

PG: 1979. Starring: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michale Douglas. Director: James Bridges. Genre: Drama, Political, Thriller. Awards (10) including Best Screen Play The American Movies Awards.  Running Time: 122 min

DESCRIPTION: Talk about timing, The China Syndrome premiered just weeks before its fiction became reality on Three Mile Island.  Unlike The Manchurian Candidate, this movie wasn't pulled.

Jane Fonda plays the token female television news reporter who finds herself in the middle of a scandal when a routine story at the local nuclear power plant turns into a cover-up of epic proportions. She and cameraman Michael Douglas  befriend the plant's whistle blower (Lemmon) Together they try and proceed to expose the hidden dangers hidden in the nuclear reactor. The China Syndrome closes out an era of socially conscious films dealing with the environment and overpopulation causes like Logan's Run and Soylent Green embraced by teen and twenty-something Baby Boomers.

BUY or RENT The China Syndrome Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

26) THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR

R: 1975. Starring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson. Director: Sydney Pollack. Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller. Awards (5) including The Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Motion Picture. Running Time: 117 min

DESCRIPTION: Love political spy thrillers? Three Days of the Condor is right up your ally.  Redford plays a reader for U.S. intelligence who inadvertently escapes the  mass murder of his colleagues. Faye Dunaway is frightened into protecting him from the assassin who is now hunting him.

He wasn't suppose to get away. Max von Sydow plays the professional assassin hunting him in a suspense filled cat and mouse game. The ending is an unusual comment on justice and priorities, that through its unpredictability keeps the viewer guessing until the end.

BUY or RENT Three Days of the Condor Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

27) DUEL

PG: 1971. Starring: Denise Weaver, Eddie Firestone, Gene Dynarski. Director: Steven Spielberg. Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller. Awards (2) including Emmy for Best Film Sound Editing. Running Time: 90min

DESCRIPTION: Made with less than $500,000 as TV movie, Duel is the first film that caused Hollywood to notice Spielberg.

Nothing fancy about this film.  It is raw psychological emotion with few words and the ultimate portrayal of road rage before anyone knew what it was.  I first saw this movie nearly 25 years ago and the images, storyline and suspense made an impression on us then, even at just ten years old!  Now that is a powerful movie. Years later I discovered the name of the movie and watched it with new eyes as an adult.  So simple in its storyline, it is as brilliant a psychological thriller as Hitchcock's The Rope.   Duel proves it isn't the special effects that make the movie.  Ultimately it is the storyline and its ability to create empathy with the viewer and thus creates movie greatness.

BUY Duel Now: Available in DVD and Blu-Ray

28) WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?

NR: 1962. Starring: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono. Director: Robert Aldrich. Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller. Awards (3) including Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Running Time: 134 min.

DESCRIPTION: This is one strange, sadistic psychological film that plays a little on the Sunset Strip theme of a has-been actress trying to regain her thrown.  Former child star Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) attempts to revive her vaudevillian career, but she has become a grotesque caricature of her former self, (the make-up on Davis is ghastly!).

Her older sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) rose as her younger sister fell into oblivion and was relegated to minor roles, which she only received because her sister demanded it. A suspicious car accident puts Blanche in a wheelchair and causes her increasingly insane and sadistic sister to become her caretaker.
Like in The Bad Seed, Jane wreaks terror upon  Blanche, torturing  the housebound woman and slowly starving her to death, while attempting to recapture the fame of her youth. Victor Buono enters as a con man hoping to milk some money off the demented old woman. Both Buono and Davis Ire nominated for Oscars.

Another excellent film (almost made this list) with a similar feel is 1964's Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte with Olivia de Havilland (Gone with the Wind, Robin Hood) and Bette Davis. 

BUY or RENT What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

29) THE NAKED JUNGLE

NR: 1954. Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, Abraham Sofaer. Director: Byron Haskin. Genre: Drama, Adventure, Thriller. Awards: None. Running Time: 95 min

DESCRIPTION: You know those films that stick with you after you’ve seen them? The Naked Jungle is one of them.  It takes place on a cocoa plantation in South America and the jungle surrounding it becomes the biggest threat when a swarm of ants, 2 miles wide and 20 miles deep descends. These ants swarm and eat everything in their path…including people.  How do you stop such a wave? The struggle to rid the land and save their lives makes The Naked Jungle an intense, creepy crawly thriller!  It also makes you feel like you’ve got ants crawling all over you.  Yikes!

RENT or BUY Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

30) THE GAME

R: 1997. Starring: Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Penn. Director: David Fincher. Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller. Awards: None. Running Time: 129 min

DESCRIPTION:What a delightful, ingenious and unique film this turned out to be.  Featuring two of the greatest actors in the past 40 years, Michael Douglas and Sean Penn, this film takes you on the twists and turns of a man learning the true meaning of life.  Douglas plays a billionaire who is rich, but basically not happy.  His younger brother played by Penn gives him a gift he'll never forget.  A real life game.

The problem is, Douglas never knows if what is happening is reality or part of the game.  Likethe aforementioned Inception, The Game is a very original script and an original idea.  The Game will keep you guessing to the very end!

BUY or RENT The Game Now: Available for Streaming or Immediate Download.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE FILM THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST?

Don't be shy!  Leave your comments below.

_______________
About the Author: Laura Dawn Lewis is the Publisher and Founder of Couples Company and the author of  2012 Event, Editorial & Promotional Calendar, The Storybook Advent Calendar: 24 Stories for Christmas and the Laid Off Now What Series. She can also be found on LinkedIn.

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Simon commented on 13-Oct-2011 02:32 PM

Session 9 directed by Brad Anderson belongs on this list. It was filmed at the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts. This movie challenges you to unravel its secrets while terrifying you at the same time.

daddyjohn commented on 06-Feb-2012 07:53 AM

I was in high school when I saw "Return from the Ashes" and I believe it should be in the list.