Best thrillers in cinema history

Overwhelming, surprising, but, above all, eternal. You won’t be a true movie buff until you’ve seen all of these thrillers. It can be psychological, horror, spy, dramatic, science fiction, and even comical. The thriller is one of our favorite genres because it assures us of emotion until the end.

Some of the best jewels in cinema belong to a genre in which no matter how high the plot flies, in the end all the pieces have to fit perfectly. This is our selection with the best thrillers for mystery film lovers, arranged in chronological order that you can watch in streaming and from home through 123movies.

Memento (2000)

One of the first roles of Christopher Nolan in the thriller genre, which was later adapted in the novel Memento Mori. Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano star in an intricate film about a man with antegrade amnesia, unable to generate new memories, trying to find his wife’s killer.

This film was one of Nolan’s first roles before establishing himself as a great director.

Seven (1995)

One of the best thrillers of the nineties and also one of the most important films of the decade. Seven is a David Fincher film, starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, who follow a dangerous serial killer, whose murders are based on the Seven Capitals of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

This neo-noir film was established as one of the most praised and impressive films of its decade.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Anthony Hopkins endorsed the character of Hannibal Lecter, immortalizing this accurate film version of cinema’s most famous cannibal and also one of its most celebrated villains.

The Silence of the Lambs was established in the 90s as one of the most revolutionary and shocking detective and police thrillers, presenting to the viewer the parallel duality between the criminal antagonist and the investigators, treating the subject with a high index of rigor and seriousness. Hence, it is still considered one of the best thrillers in history.

Old Boy (2003)

We’re talking about Park Chan-wook’s original movie, not the Old Boy remake that premiered in 2013 with Josh Brolin as the lead. The story is about a man who spends fifteen years locked in a hotel, held as a prisoner. When he manages to escape, or rather, they release him, he begins his path of revenge, and looks for the person responsible for his confinement. But this path will only bring you pain.

The original Old Boy movie is just one of three stories that make up the so-called Vengeance Trilogy, alongside Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005).

Shutter Island (2010)

In 2010 Leonardo DiCaprio starred in the adaptation of the novel Shutter Island in which a Marshalls investigator traveled to the insane prison on the island to investigate the disappearance of patient Rachel Solando. However, everything will end up becoming an excuse to settle accounts with the alleged murderer of his wife and children, the infamous Andrew Laeddis.

Shutter Island is inspired by numerous mystery and suspense movies with a dreamlike twist, making it one of those cheat movies. So it reached a wide audience at the time of its release. Even today, the Shutter Island film is still an ideal title for thriller lovers.

The Game (1997)

Michael Douglas and Sean Penn starred in another of David Fincher’s thrillers in the 90s: The Game. In this film, Douglas played a businessman who for his birthday received an invitation to participate in a mysterious game that was played in his day to day. However, things would soon become more sinister and the protagonist would not know where reality began and where his paranoia.

The Game is one of the great thriller movies of its decade and deserves to be watched with much attention and care. Especially for the details and clues that its writer and director leave us little by little until the end is revealed.

Psycho (1960)

We could not leave without mentioning Psycho in this list, one of the great films of the genre and also one of the most emblematic of its director, Alfred Hichcok.

Psycho was a very controversial film for its time, since it adapted (very freely) the case of the infamous serial killer Ed Gein, who also inspired the psychopath Leather Face.

Nowadays, the Psycho movie is one of the thriller’s masterpieces and one of those must-see titles, as part of its staging was later used for many later films. Also,  Psycho is one of the best black and white movies ever.