Thrillers have continued to stand the test of time as some of the most engaging, high-stakes filmmaking experiences imaginable, with a wide array of exceptional examples released throughout film history. The genre has near limitless great options to choose from, ranging from all-time classics like Fight Club and Oldboy to recent hits like Oppenheimer or Conclave. However, for all of the iconic and widely celebrated thrillers across film history, there are also a wide array of well-crafted ones that people simply don’t talk about today.
Whether it be once widely celebrated thrillers whose recognition simply faded with time or modern thrillers that were overshadowed by the competition, these under-the-radar thrillers can be just as compelling and impactful as those at the front of the conversation. Their elusive, hidden gem nature manages to add to the intrigue and impact of these films, especially when it’s a genuinely great experience that deserves to be talked about.
10
‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ (2015)
Based on a true story and one of the most infamous psychological experiments of the 20th century, it would make sense that The Stanford Prison Experience makes for a deeply unsettling and challenging thriller experience. It largely follows the real-life story, with a group of college students conducting an experiment where they act as prisoners and correctional officers, resulting in a painful display of abuse as they immerse themselves in their roles.
The film doesn’t hold back with its display and interpretation of psychological torture, with its all-star supporting cast going all in when it comes to emotional vulnerability, pain, and sadistic abuse of power. Most of it is carried by the impact and weight of its real-life story, but the performances from the likes of Tye Sheridan, Michael Angarano, and Ezra Miller go a long way in leaving an emotional impact on the audience. The film has been largely overshadowed since its release, a shame considering it has some undeniably great qualities to it.
9
‘You Were Never Really Here’ (2017)
Following in the wake of explosive, highly entertaining revenge thrillers like John Wick and Kill Bill, You Were Never Really Here takes a more guttural, gruesome approach to a story of a single man going on a quest of bloodshed and revenge. The film sees Joaquin Phoenix as Joe, a traumatized veteran who has been desensitized not only to the violence that he enacts, but the pain in the world surrounding him. He works a job doing the painful, dirty work that few others are willing to do, tracking down missing and kidnapped girls and returning them to their families.
You Were Never Really Here is as much about the painful self-destruction that violence does on one’s psyche as well as the gruesome, conspiratorial nature of our abusive world. The film doesn’t just use its mature themes for its symbolism and messaging, as Phoenix also provides a gruesome, pained performance, emphasized by some shocking, realistic displays of violence and vengeful murder. It deconstructs the very notion of what a revenge thriller should be, with a highly deserving execution, especially in an era when revenge thrillers are all the rage.
8
‘Roadgames’ (1981)
While Jamie Lee Curtis made a name for herself starring in many legendary and impactful horror films and thrillers during the ’70s and ’80s, one such film that is often overlooked from the height of her talent is Roadgames. The Ozploitation film follows truck driver Patrick Quid (Stacy Keach) as he travels across Australia, finding himself tracking down a vicious serial killer with the help of a hitchhiker (Curtis). The killer has been butchering women and dumping their bodies along the desolate highways.
Roadgames expertly utilizes the barren wasteland of the Australian highways to create maximum tension and fear out of its central serial killer, with its impactful duo doing all they can to put a stop to the ruthless killing spree. Despite the film’s high quality and critical praise, it is often overlooked by the many other impactful films that Curtis starred in during the era. Roadgames also had difficulties crossing cultural barriers from Australia to American audiences.
7
‘Cold Pursuit’ (2019)
Following the success of films like Taken and The Grey, Liam Neeson became one of the defining action thriller stars throughout the 2010s and beyond, seemingly starring in a new forgettable thriller every year. However, amidst these overlooked thrillers stand a select few hidden gems, with one of the best being that of the dark comedy thriller Cold Pursuit, which utilizes Neeson’s strengths in a distinctly different way than any of his other thrillers. Neeson’s stern, serious demeanor becomes an avenue for a great comedic delivery years before The Naked Gun reboot would find success in the same vein.
However, Neeson himself is only one aspect of what makes Cold Pursuit such a distinctly entertaining thriller. The film sees a wide array of different characters and stories intersecting with one another for darkly comedic shenanigans. It has a similar energy to that of a Coen Brothers film, balancing dark subject matter and occasional action sequences with genuinely great writing that elevates the world-building and tone of the film as a whole.
6
‘Read My Lips’ (2001)
Long before French director Jacques Audiard directed one of the most infamous Best Picture nominees in Emilia Perez, he created one of the most underrated French thrillers of the 21st century in Read My Lips. The film follows the unexpected partnership between Paul (Vincent Cassel), an ex-con on parole, and Carla (Emmanuelle Debos), a nearly deaf secretary who has been treated poorly by her colleagues. Despite having lived completely different lives and initially fearing one another, they end up forging an impactful relationship as they help each other with their struggles.
Read My Lips proves to be one of the most sensitive and emotionally impactful crime thrillers imaginable, taking a more somber and reflective stance on the genre in stark opposition to many other crime thrillers of the early 2000s. Its characters feel real and layered with grounded intricacies, with their connection growing powerfully and realistically throughout the film and creating a deep, emotional bond towards the plot.
5
‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ (2022)
While it initially stirred up some discourse with its release, causing a scare from law enforcement agencies, How to Blow Up a Pipeline has sadly become one of many overlooked thrillers of the 2020s that deserved much more praise and recognition. The ecoterrorism thriller follows a group of young environmental activists taking action into their own hands, forging a tight-knit plan to sabotage an oil pipeline to strike back against the hyperpollution of such massive corporate entities.
Even if one doesn’t agree with the stark political statements and messages that the film presents, the setup and execution of an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist for its ecoterrorist mission make for a highly engaging experience. It provides a style of heightened tension that simply isn’t seen on many thrillers of the modern era, amplifying it with relevant and important messages to further maximize its impact and memorability. While sadly overshadowed after its release, How to Blow Up a Pipeline‘s substantial quality will hopefully make it a defining hidden gem thriller of the 2020s.
4
‘Operation Avalanche’ (2016)
A low-budget found footage conspiracy thriller that balances the unexpected comedic wit and charm of its stars with the uneasing dread and terrifying implications of its story, Operation Avalanche puts an exceptional twist on the most notorious conspiracy theory of all time. The film follows a group of CIA agents who are tasked with infiltrating NASA in order to expose a potential mole within the agency, unexpectedly setting the stage and becoming a part of a conspiracy to fake the Moon landing of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.
While it starts relatively innocuously enough, with fun banter between its characters as it sets up the pieces for faking the moon landing, it soon becomes a tension-fueled thriller when the inevitability of tying up loose ends catches up with them. Its stark shift in tone makes the shock that much more painful and impactful, a powerful message of the danger of conspiracy as a whole. While the film itself is sadly overlooked, its baseline premise was almost taken in its entirety for the recent comedy box-office bomb, Fly Me to the Moon.
3
‘The Silent Partner’ (1978)
Featuring some great underappreciated performances from Hollywood icons Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer, The Silent Partner is a surprisingly overlooked Christmastime thriller of the ’70s that exemplifies the decade’s mastery of the genre. The film sees Gould as Miles Cullen, a bored teller working at a shopping mall bank a few days before Christmas, accidentally learning that the bank is about to be robbed. While he takes the steps to hide money from the suspected culprit, Harry Reikle (Plummer) soon begins to stalk and threaten Miles for the rest of the money.
The Silent Partner plays into a lot of the inherent strengths that amplified thrillers of the era, utilizing defining central performances, a nuanced and dynamic premise that is instantly engaging to the audience, and a great mix of drama into its thrills. While the film received a great deal of critical praise, its prospects as a Canadian film limited its potential in American marketplaces, holding it back from cementing the thriller legacy that it deserves.
2
‘Diva’ (1981)
Diva is an interesting case when it comes to its lasting legacy and impact on global filmmaking. It’s often cited as a prominent film during the colorful French film movement known as Cinema du look, making it deeply important in French film history. However, it is largely unknown outside this specific niche in film history, often being associated with its status as a foreign cult film over actually being an impactful thriller.
But removed from this historical significance and lens, Diva is a deeply engaging thriller that utilizes great performances, an array of unexpected twists and turns, and a beautiful visual style to be one of the best French thrillers of all time. It’s a genuine shock that it isn’t as talked about as often as it deserves to be, as it has all the pieces and acclaim to be in frequent conversation as one of the greatest gangster thrillers of all time. One can only hope that as more time passes and more people bear witness to its mastery, Diva will become a more prominent conversation piece among all-time great thrillers.
1
‘Mother’ (2009)
Especially after the release of Bong Joon Ho‘s Parasite, the vast majority of his filmography was put under the spotlight of reexamination, with films like Memories of Murder and The Host now being wildly celebrated for their narrative strengths. However, one such film among Bong’s exceptional filmography that is still largely overlooked by international audiences is Mother (not to be confused with the divisive Jennifer Lawrence film). Interestingly, it tells a relatively straightforward story by Bong’s standards, yet the pristine execution still makes it a terrifying thriller from beginning to end.
The film sees a quiet, unnamed mother (Kim Hye-ja) living alone with her only son (Won Bin) in southern South Korea, leading a simple life where they sell medicinal herbs and conduct unlicensed acupuncture treatments for the town’s women. However, their life ends up being upended when her shy, reclusive son with an intellectual disability becomes the primary suspect in a murder case, leaving it up to the mother to prove him innocent by any means necessary.
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