Thriller

[9] If you think of this movie as Jaws on land, as director Steven Spielberg has suggested, it can’t quite compare to that masterpiece. The characters aren’t strong enough. But it’s still a hell of a summer event movie, delivering groundbreaking effects and well-choreographed thrills. The Michael Crichton story focuses on an island theme park where a wealthy entrepreneur (Richard Attenborough) has resurrected dinosaurs from …

[9] Here we have a horror film so classy, it won the Oscar for Best Picture.  Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster each deliver career-defining performances as Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, the central characters in author Thomas Harris’ perverse contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  The screenplay balances their provocative banter with a well-constructed mystery surrounding the identity and whereabouts of a serial killer …

[9] Underwater oil drillers are forced to work with the military to recover lost nuclear warheads, but they discover far more lurking in the depths of the ocean… This unique underwater sci-fi/thriller from James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens) is an ambitious, somewhat uneven film with thinly-drawn stereotypes and a pretentious alien subplot, but you know what? I like it anyway. I really like it — in …

[10] This movie does two things extraordinarily well. It transports me and it terrifies me. Before anything scary even happens, director John Carpenter succeeds in creating an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that locks me into the film and chills me to the bone. The story features a group of men holed up in an Antarctic research station who discover an alien (the outer space …

[9] Stanley Kubrick takes on Stephen King, and while it may not be the most faithful adaptation, The Shining is a gorgeously crafted plunge into fear and insanity. Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall play a husband and wife who take their young son with them to the remote Overlook Hotel, where they’ll be all alone for several months working as caretakers during the winter down …

[10] Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Peter Benchley’s shark thriller is extraordinarily well made and far more sophisticated than your average monster movie. The first half is a solid scare-fest that unwinds beautifully, from the first vicious attack on a late night bathing beauty to the sensational tragedy during the town’s Fourth of July festivities. Once the people of Amnity Island have had enough the movie …

[9] Director William Friedkin (The French Connection) approached William Peter Blatty’s tale of demonic possession with seriousness and realism, striking fear in the hearts of moviegoers worldwide. Often feeling more like a documentary than a sensational horror film, The Exorcist lulls you into a false sense of security with its measured pacing, only to shock the piss out of you when the Devil tightens his …

[9] Clint Eastwood stars as his most iconic character, ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan, a gruff, no-bullshit San Francisco police investigator on the trail of a psychotic sniper who calls himself ‘The Scorpio Killer’. There have been many cat and mouse chase movies over the decades, especially in the paradigm of cop vs criminal, but Dirty Harry left a mark so indelible on the sub-genre, that it …

[9] A crippled woman tries desperately to escape the torture of her jealous sister in this deliciously wicked suspense thriller starring icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Crawford is quite good in the sympathetic role, but its Davis’ maniacal performance as ‘Baby’ Jane Hudson that you’ll never forget. Her part is as juicy as it is ugly, and Davis is fearless in it — whether …

[10] Two small children run for their lives from a murderous preacher in the only film actor Charles Laughton ever directed. The Night of the Hunter is a unique blend — part fable and part thriller, both pastoral and horrific, a beguiling mixture of qualities that usually mark the work of an amateur… or a genius. Laughton is as precise and purposeful as Orson Wells …

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