Luc Haasbroek is a writer and videographer from Durban, South Africa. He has been writing professionally about pop culture for eight years. Luc's areas of interest are broad: he's just as passionate about psychology and history as he is about movies and TV. He's especially drawn to the places where these topics overlap.
Luc is also an avid producer of video essays and looks forward to expanding his writing career. When not writing, he can be found hiking, playing Dungeons & Dragons, hanging out with his cats, and doing deep dives on whatever topic happens to have captured his interest that week.
Thrillers live and die by momentum. A great one doesn't give you time to relax. It pulls you forward, forcing you to keep watching, even when you're not entirely sure you want to. Every reveal is timed, and every piece of information carefully placed.
This list looks at some of the most effective of them, from the icy fatalism of The Killing to the raw, nerve-shredding endurance test of Sorcerer.
10 'Blow Out' (1981)
"I heard a gunshot." Blow Out is Brian De Palma's riff on Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up, but about sound rather than photography. John Travolta leads the cast as Jack Terry, a sound technician working on low-budget films, who accidentally records what he believes is evidence of a political assassination disguised as a car accident. He attempts to reconstruct what happened, but each new discovery only deepens the conspiracy.
Unusually, much of the suspense comes from process. Most of the movie is built around Travolta's character painstakingly reconstructing the event: syncing tape recordings, analyzing frames of film, trying to prove that what he heard was real. These scenes shouldn't be thrilling on paper, but De Palma shoots them like action sequences. The camera glides, splits the screen, and traps the viewer inside the mechanics of paranoia. All this culminates in a bleak, ironic, but powerful ending.
9 'Mother' (2009)
"Trust your mother." This dark gem from Bong Joon Ho begins as a mystery and slowly transforms into something far more unsettling. When her intellectually disabled son (Won Bin) is accused of murder, a fiercely devoted mother (Kim Hye-ja) takes it upon herself to prove his innocence, embarking on her own investigation. This determination becomes both her strength and her fatal flaw.
On the surface, the movie functions as a procedural. Clues are uncovered, alibis tested, new suspects emerge. But Bong constantly undermines the audience's expectations. Just when you think you understand the direction of the mystery, the film pivots, revealing new information that complicates everything. He also weaves together tones seamlessly, balancing the tension with dark humor. And then there's the ending. Devastating and ambiguous, it forces you to sit with what the characters have done and what it means.
8 'The Grifters' (1990)
"You either go up or down. Usually down, sooner or later." This neo-noir crime film was directed by The Queen's Stephen Frears, though where that movie is stately and dramatic, this one is nerve-wracking and psychological. Indeed, The Grifters pulls you into a world where deception is not just a tactic, but a way of life. Roy Dillon (John Cusack) is a small-time con artist caught between two women: his estranged mother (Anjelica Huston), a seasoned grifter herself, and his girlfriend (Annette Bening), who has ambitions of her own.
The plot is fueled by the characters' shifting alliances. In this world, trust is always provisional, and relationships are constantly being renegotiated. This provides the movie with a bleak emotional undercurrent. Frears directs with a restrained elegance that lets the unease simmer. There are no flashy set pieces, just carefully composed scenes where power dynamics subtly shift.
7 'Blood Simple' (1984)
"You're not that smart, Marty." The Coen brothers' feature debut, Blood Simple is a study in how quickly things can spiral out of control. When a bar owner (Dan Hedaya) hires a private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill his wife (Frances McDormand) and her lover (John Getz), the plan begins to unravel almost immediately, setting off a chain reaction of misunderstandings and violence. Stylistically, that's all unmistakably Coen-esque.
There's also a heavy noir influence that comes through in the shocking violence and grim consequences. This extends to the cinematography, with shadows stretching across walls and neon lights bleeding into darkness. The performances ground all of this in something human and fragile. The always-great McDormand, in particular, makes her character feel constantly on the edge of panic, while Walsh is deeply unsettling as the oily, opportunistic detective.
6 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1962)
"I can't get it out of my mind." A movie so good it coined a piece of political jargon. The Manchurian Candidate operates on pure paranoia, spinning a tale that feels oddly plausible even as it veers into the surreal. After returning from the Korean War, a group of soldiers begins experiencing recurring nightmares, suggesting that their memories (and perhaps their actions)have been manipulated. The film gradually reveals a conspiracy involving brainwashing and hidden control.
The tension here is both psychological and political. The film is steeped in the anxieties of the Cold War, when fears of infiltration were pervasive. Despite that, it doesn't feel out of date. A big part of what makes the movie work is the way it reveals information at just the right moments. The truth comes out gradually, through fractured memories, recurring dreams, and subtle behavioral shifts.
5 'The Killing' (1956)
"When you're planning a robbery, you don't leave anything to chance." The Killing is Stanley Kubrick's lean, mean crime masterpiece. It's a remarkably economical movie, clocking in at a brisk 84 minutes and wasting no time in establishing its tension. Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden), freshly out of prison, assembles a group of men to pull off a meticulously planned racetrack heist. Every participant has a role, and every second is timed. At least, that's the idea.
Naturally, things get a little more complicated, as human impulses and unforeseen events begin to chip away at the plan. The nonlinear storytelling amplifies this effect. By revisiting the same moments from different angles, the film creates a kind of dramatic irony. You know more than any single character, but not enough to feel secure. Each return to a scene adds new information, subtly shifting your understanding and tightening the sense of dread.
4 'The Wages of Fear' (1953)
"There is no room for mistakes." The Wages of Fear is perhaps the defining movie by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who was known as "the French Hitchcock". In it, four men are hired to transport trucks filled with highly volatile nitroglycerin across treacherous terrain. The job is simple in theory: drive carefully, avoid sudden movements, and survive. Instead, what follows is a slow, methodical escalation of danger. Every bump in the road spells a potential catastrophe.
The whole movie is a sustained exercise in white-knuckle tension. Every obstacle, like a pothole, a loose rock, or even a narrow turn, becomes a life-or-death scenario. Clouzot stretches these moments to their limit, forcing you to sit with the danger rather than cutting away from it. The characters are likewise stripped down to their essentials, defined by how they respond to fear and pressure.
3 'Sorcerer' (1977)
"We're all going to die here." Sorcerer takes the premise of The Wages of Fear and amplifies its intensity (which is saying something). It's the same basic plot, but with director William Friedkin at the wheel and Roy Scheider in the lead role. The main characters attempt to transport unstable explosives through the hostile jungle environment. But nothing is easy. Rope bridges sway over vast drops, engines stall at the worst possible moments.
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The most famous sequence, the rope bridge crossing in a torrential storm, is a masterclass in suspense. The trucks teeter, the wood splinters, the rain blinds. Every groan of wood is terrifying. Every second feels like it could be the last. On top of that, the protagonists' own inner demons threaten to destabilize the mission as well. Indeed, Friedkin pushes the material to darker, more existential places.
2 'Point Blank' (1967)
"I want my money." Point Blank strips the revenge thriller down to its bare essentials. Walker (Lee Marvin), a man betrayed and left for dead, sets out to recover the money he is owed. He's focused but detached, almost ghostlike in his pursuit, and the film's style mirrors his state of mind. It's fragmented, often disorienting, with scenes blurring together, time becoming ambiguous, and reality itself feeling unstable.
The movie always keeps us off balance. You're never entirely sure whether what you're watching is happening in the present, a memory, or something more abstract. Marvin's performance is central to this effect. His character is less a conventional protagonist than a force moving through the film. There's something unnerving about his calm. He rarely raises his voice, and yet his presence dominates every scene.
1 'Kiss Me Deadly' (1955)
"Remember me." In Kiss Me Deadly, private investigator Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) picks up a hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman) on a dark highway, only to find himself pulled into a mystery involving a mysterious box that everyone seems willing to kill for. The opening sequence immediately hooks you, and from here the stakes constantly escalate. Clues lead to more questions, and the deeper Hammer digs, the less coherent the world becomes.
Stylistically, director Robert Aldrich (of The Dirty Dozen) leans hard into noir aesthetics but intensifies them. Scenes often feel abrupt, almost jagged, as if the film itself is impatient or unstable. You're always being pushed forward, rarely given time to process what's just happened. There's also a palpable sense of Cold War anxiety running through the film, tied to fears of hidden, destructive forces, symbolized by the unexplained box.
COLLIDER
Collider · Quiz
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die -- if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →
QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT
01
Something feels wrong. You can't explain it -- you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark -- I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think -- and smaller.
NEXT QUESTION →
QUESTION 2 / 8ENVIRONMENT
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
ASomewhere remote -- a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head -- the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are -- because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary -- a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat.
QUESTION 3 / 8STRENGTH
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?
APhysical fitness -- I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness -- I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience -- I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness -- I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism -- I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.
QUESTION 4 / 8FEAR
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
AThe unstoppable -- something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible -- a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological -- something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable -- something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane -- a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late.
QUESTION 5 / 8GROUP
05
You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't.
AThe one who says "we need to leave" first -- and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in -- because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask -- because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.
QUESTION 6 / 8MISTAKE
06
What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
AGoing back for someone -- I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts -- I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants.
QUESTION 7 / 8ADVANTAGE
07
What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
AThe environment itself -- I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience -- I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity -- if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage -- facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation -- I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force.
QUESTION 8 / 8FINAL SCENE
08
It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours?
AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did -- and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start -- and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it.
REVEAL MY VILLAIN →
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against...
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else -- good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable -- and that is the gap you would exploit.
* He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues.
* Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
* The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
* You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect -- until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.
* But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
* Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia -- the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
* Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
* You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong -- and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head -- using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
* You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away.
* The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
* Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
* Your psychological resilience -- the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable -- is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror -- but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
* The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
* You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
* That directness -- the refusal to let fear fester in the dark -- is Pennywise's worst nightmare.
* It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child's Play
Chucky
Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
* You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present -- and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
* Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
* Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism -- rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd -- is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
* Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
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Kiss Me Deadly
Crime
Mystery
Release Date May 18, 1955
Runtime 106 Minutes
Director Robert Aldrich
Writers A.I. Bezzerides
Cast
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