It's certainly easier as a film connoisseur to simply stick to the most recent releases and other up-to-date films, as they've built upon generations
It’s certainly easier as a film connoisseur to simply stick to the most recent releases and other up-to-date films, as they’ve built upon generations of growth in the industry and are at the forefront of conversation and culture. However, this up-to-date culture is only as great as it is thanks to the films that helped establish the standard and provide the building blocks of growth in the classic era of cinema. Each genre has had this sense of growth and evolution, yet there’s something truly special about a well-made classic thriller.
Even when classic films aren’t as directly gruesome or shocking in their subject matter compared to up-to-date thrillers, the masterful usage of pacing, mystery, and tension has helped make them timeless in their execution and still incredibly effective all these decades later. Many of the most recognizable and acclaimed thrillers of the up-to-date day simply wouldn’t exist without the influence and standard-setting brilliance of these original masterpieces of the genre.
‘Touch of Evil’ (1958)
Image via Universal-International
While many people will immediately recognize director Orson Welles for his work directing the often lauded greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane, that film only scratches the surface in terms of his impact and exceptional filmmaking in the classic era. The other immediate film that comes to mind in terms of his stature and strength within the medium is Touch of Evil, an exceptional film noir thriller that was initially unrecognized by critics before gaining a reputation as one of Welles’ best films.
The film sees Charlton Heston as Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas, who converges on a miniature town on the US-Mexico border to aid investigate a recent bombing. However, he constantly finds himself clashing with the local police force and their overwhelming corruption on all sides. A struggle over power and justice between Miguel and the police ensues, as Miguel fights for the absolute truth of this crime to be revealed.
‘Rebecca’ (1940)
Image via United Artists
One name that you will certainly become familiar with by the time you’ve finished reading this list (if you miraculously haven’t heard the name already) is Alfred Hitchcock. In terms of the classic era of thriller filmmaking, no singular filmmaker exemplified growth and daring vision like Hitchcock. One perfect example of his brilliance is Rebecca, a romantic psychological thriller and the only Hitchcock film to win Best Picture.
The film follows a newborn woman (Joan Fontaine) who, after marrying a fascinating widower (Laurence Olivier), soon realizes that she will constantly be living her life in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca. While attempting to adapt to her fresh life, she constantly finds herself being belittled by her housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who simply cannot accept a fresh woman as the mistress of the house. It’s a story of power dynamics and obsession with the past that is still incredibly powerful all these years later as one of the finest works in Hitchcock’s filmography.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
Parasite
Everything Everywhere
Oppenheimer
Birdman
No Country for Old Men
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want?
The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I’m watching one kind of film and then reveals I’m watching another entirely.
BSomething overwhelming — amusing, gloomy, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once.
CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I’m watching.
DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do.
ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film?
Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity.
BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart.
CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back.
DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you’re still alive to watch it happen.
EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
How do you like your story told?
Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different.
BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride.
CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence.
DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I’m living it in real time, no cuts to safety.
ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What makes a truly great antagonist?
The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
AA system — concealed, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face.
BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most.
CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect.
DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance.
EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What do you want from a film’s ending?
The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it.
BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess.
CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after.
DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I’m still thinking about it days later.
EBleakness — an candid refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Which setting pulls you in most?
Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
AA gleaming up-to-date city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation.
BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person.
CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades.
DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap.
EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most?
Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface.
BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience.
CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you’re watching.
DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them.
ESilence and restraint — what’s left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What kind of main character do you root for?
The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
ASomeone clever and resourceful who makes increasingly threatening decisions under pressure.
BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary.
CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other.
DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing.
EA silent, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time?
Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
AI love a sluggish build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal.
BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end.
CEpic runtime doesn’t scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours.
DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout.
EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema?
The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
AUnsettled — like I’ve just seen something I can’t fully explain but can’t stop thinking about.
BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto.
CHumbled — like I’ve been in the presence of something genuinely significant and overwhelming.
DExhilarated — like I’ve just seen cinema doing something it’s never quite done before.
EHaunted — like a icy, silent dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Academy Has Decided
Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly amusing, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel significant without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses uncomplicated comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a fresh kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we operate to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is candid in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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‘Vertigo’ (1958)
John Ferguson (James Stewart) seen hanging from a ledge in Vertigo.Image via Paramount Pictures
Yet another absolute masterclass thriller from Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo‘s greatest strengths and influences span far beyond strictly the thriller genre; in fact, its camera techniques are still a point of inspiration to up-to-date films of all genres. This hefty psychological thriller balances the grace and weight of its story seamlessly with a case of rising tension and mystery, with this primarily being attributed to the groundbreaking directing that Hitchcock employs in this masterpiece.
Even if Vertigo weren’t the first film to operate the dolly zoom, it would still be celebrated as an icon of American filmmaking thanks to the brilliance of its story and the precision and craft utilized in every other aspect of its production. The psychological thriller has been at the forefront of excellence within the genre ever since its release, being one of the most influential thrillers ever released, and a true masterpiece of filmmaking.
‘The Third Man’ (1949)
A desperate man in an empty tunnel in the film The Third ManImage via Studiocanal
One of the greatest examples of utilizing powerful visuals to amplify the weight and impact of the story being told in a classic thriller, The Third Man is one of the most beautiful-looking black-and-white movies ever made. The film’s German expressionist-inspired cinematography works wonders in terms of creating a sense of bleakness, reflecting the overall pain felt in the world in the wake of the destruction of World War II and the exhaustion at the beginning of the Cold War.
Visuals aren’t the only inherent strength of The Third Man, as its themes of illusion and moral ambiguity fit perfectly with its story of mystery and romance. The film follows Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) as he arrives in Vienna, Austria, to meet with his childhood friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to learn that he’s died right as he arrives. While Martins begins to get wrapped up in a conspiracy about a potential “third man” who was present at the time of Harry’s death, he finds solace and companionship in Harry’s grief-stricken lover, Anna (Alida Valli).
‘Rififi’ (1955)
Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, and Robert Manuel watching as Jules Dassin cracks a secure in RififiImage via Pathé
The heist movie is a classic archetype of crime thriller that has found success in every era of filmmaking; watching a group of talented criminals attempting to pull off a high-stakes job makes for such captivating filmmaking. In terms of heist movies from the classic era, none comes close to the brilliance and exceptional craft of the French film Rififi. This perfect heist thriller is so brilliant and precise in its filmmaking that its fictional central burglary has been a point of inspiration and mimicry for many actual crimes across the world.
The film follows what was initially supposed to be a minor smash-and-grab job transformed into a full-scale jewel heist as a notorious thief works to impress his aged girlfriend, who has become the lover of a local gangster while he was in prison. The largest point of appreciation centers around its iconic heist sequence, which goes on for a half-hour and depicts the raw, minute details of the crime in near silence to create maximum tension and stakes.
‘Rope’ (1948)
Image via Warner Bros.
One great element that the thriller genre holds over many other genres is its ability to focus on and delve into the psychology of some truly depraved lead characters, tapping into their flawed ideals as both the protagonist and the villain of their story. Hitchcock understands this strength very well, with Rope seeing him utilize this concept to the fullest as he makes the most out of what was already a highly beloved stage play released decades prior.
The director does an exceptional job of elevating and evolving the strengths of the original stage play to fit the medium of film while still staying true to the great strengths that made it so impactful. With powerful long takes and exceptional editing adding to the tension, Rope makes the absolute most of its circumscribed setting to create an intricate web of lies and deception that is a blast to slowly watch unfold.
‘The Wages of Fear’ (1953)
Image via Cinédis
Nail-biting tension is a feeling that thrillers are all too familiar with. The ability to keep audiences on the edge of their seat and in anticipation with each scene is what continues to make the genre so tantalizing. While this type of anxiety-driven filmmaking is certainly more prominent nowadays, the absolute icon of heart-pounding tension is undeniably the French thriller, The Wages of Fear. This thrilling movie masterpiece pushes audiences to their absolute limits in a perfect display of craft.
The film follows four European men with nothing else to lose, hired by an American oil company to transport two trucks filled with nitroglycerin over the dirt mountains and jungles of South America. If the story sounds familiar, it’s because the source material was also adapted into the ’70s American thriller masterpiece Sorcerer, although there is a genuine argument to be made for Henri-Georges Clouzot‘s adaptation of the material to be an even greater thriller.
‘M’ (1931)
Peter Lorre looking back at his reflection in a window in ‘M’ (1931)Image via Paramount Pictures
What could arguably be considered the first true thriller masterpiece post-silent cinema, the German gem M has been an icon of psychological thrillers ever since its release. It’s about as timeless as thrillers get, heralded as one of the most significant films of the genre and an unrivaled masterpiece whose influence and legacy in the genre are still incredibly massive nearly 100 years later.
All aspects of the film have built up its legacy as one of the all-time greats, from the immaculate directing of Fritz Lang to the iconic lead performance from Peter Lorre as the despicable Hans Beckert. M is the type of film whose overwhelming influence on filmmaking has become so widespread that many of the ideas and concepts that it helped popularize are simply commonplace in the up-to-date age. The genre wouldn’t be where it is today without M; even more impressive is that it works just as well today as it did all those years ago.
‘Rear Window’ (1954)
Jeff Jefferies (James Stewart) looks through his camera in Rear Window.Image via Paramount Pictures
The definitive Hitchcock masterpiece that stands as one of the absolute greatest achievements of 20th-century filmmaking, Rear Window is the type of undeniably iconic film whose overwhelming reputation precedes itself. The film is an all-time classic in every sense of the word, with striking imagery and powerful directing elevating a timeless story of voyeurism, morality, and isolation. Time has only been kind to this legendary work of art, as it continues to be celebrated and lauded as one of the greatest thrillers ever made.
Few other classics come close to the level of influence combined with overwhelming praise that Rear Window has received over the years. It makes the absolute most out of its circumscribed location and creates a raw, deeply personal and intricately layered story that has stayed with audiences for generations now. For as long as film continues to be a medium that people discuss and celebrate, Rear Window will be a regular point of conversation as one of the greatest filmmaking achievements of all time.
‘Double Indemnity’ (1944)
A woman, Phyllis, in sunglasses and a man, Walter Neff, in a hat, hide behind a bar in Double Indemnity, 1944.Image via Paramount Pictures
It is one thing for an exceptional classic thriller to aid further solidify the trends and conventions of the genre as they are known today. It’s another thing entirely for a film to nearly single-handedly create and popularize one of the most pervasive subgenres of thriller out there. Double Indemnity is one of the very few films that can lay claim to defining, if not outright creating, a genre, as film noir simply would not exist without the impact of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece.
All of the classic conventions that endure within film noir were popularized in Double Indemnity, from the moral corruption in its lead characters to one of the most well-crafted femme fatale characters ever created in Barbara Stanwyck‘s Phyllis Dietrichson. More than just a classic of the thriller genre, Double Indemnity is a fundamental building block for filmmaking that has helped push the medium forward in the wake of its success.
Double Indemnity
Release Date
July 3, 1944
Runtime
107 Minutes
Director
Billy Wilder
