Thrillers & Suspense
Thriller and Suspense Films promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension.
A genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal, to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging on the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. Plots of thrillers often involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.
Below is a grand line-up of the best in contemporary Thrillers & Suspense made since 1965. Following a similar theme, with generally a darker look is the "Film Noir" feature, well worth checking out. The exploits of "James Bond 007" may also be accessed stage left.
Right: Frances McDormand makes an arrest in the Coen Bros "Fargo".
French Connection II (1975)
6.8/10
Director: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Bernard Fresson, Fernando Rey, Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman is back as tough-as-nails New York cop "Popeye" Doyle, heading to France to track down the heroin dealer whose syndicate he busted in Ame... Read more
French Connection II (1975)
7.6/10
Director: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Bernard Fresson, Fernando Rey, Gene Hackman, Cathleen Nesbitt
'French Connection II' (1975, 119 mins) - While tracking down a drug lord in Marseilles, "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman reprising his Oscar-winning role) is... Read more
Frenzy (1972)
7.5/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt
A great Hitchcock thriller: the wrong man is suspected when his wife is murdered. Full of Hitchcock's humour, the film stars Alec McCowen, Vivien Merc... Read more
Frequency (2000)
7.4/10
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Andre Braugher, Elizabeth Mitchell
Thirty years after New York firefighter Dennis Quaid is killed in a warehouse blaze, his now grown son, policeman Jim Caviezel, discovers his old ham... Read more
Friday Foster (1975)
6/10
Director: Arthur Marks
Starring: Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Pam Grier, Scatman Crothers, Yaphet Kotto, Thalmus R...
Statuesque action star Pam Grier is supremely cast as comic-strip heroine Friday Foster. A free-lance photographer with an insatiable thirst for adven... Read more
Fright Night (Blu-Ray) (1985)
7.1/10
Director: Tom Holland
Starring: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall
Teenage Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a horror-film junkie, so it's no surprise that, when a reclusive new neighbor named Jerry Dandridge (Ch... Read more
From Darkness (2015)
5.6/10
Starring: Anne-Marie Duff, Johnny Harris
Former Greater Manchester Police officer Claire Church's peaceful existence in the Western Isles is shattered when four bodies linked to her previous... Read more
From Hell (2001)
6.8/10
Director: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
Starring: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Holm, Ian Richardson
London, 1888: the grimy streets of the city's poorest neighbourhood are the stalking grounds of a vicious killer unlike any before him, where a police... Read more
From Hell ( Blu-ray ) (2001)
6.8/10
Director: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, The Hughes Brothers
Starring: Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Johnny Depp, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Richardson
London, 1888: the grimy streets of the city's poorest neighbourhood are the stalking grounds of a vicious killer unlike any before him, where a police... Read more
From Paris with Love (2010)
6.5/10
Director: Pierre Morel
Starring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak, Richard Durden
James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), personal aide to the U.S. ambassador to France, is secretly moonlighting as a low-level CIA operative. Looking for... Read more