Entertainment
6 Best Thriller Movies Released Since 1990
The 1990s were one of the most transformative decades for cinema in history, and the 21st century has thus far produced several of the greatest masterpieces film has ever seen. As such, it should come as no surprise that from 1990 until the present, there have been many thriller movies which have already gone down in history as some of the best in the genre. What’s more, they only keep getting better with age, so they’ll very likely be talked about a few decades from now with the same kind of reverance and admiration that cinephiles talk about the best thrillers from Hollywood’s Golden Age today.
But even though there have been many exceptional thriller films made over the course of the last 36 years, there are six in particular that stand out above all the others as some of the most perfect in the history of thrillers. Whether it’s a groundbreaking ’90s classic like The Usual Suspects or a modern game-changer like Parasite, the best thrillers the world has seen since 1990 are proof of just how suspenseful, well written, and perfectly directed the genre can get when in the hands of master filmmakers. Anyone who loves thriller movies and hasn’t seen these six films is seriously missing out.
6
‘The Usual Suspects’ (1995)
Directed by Bryan Singer and written by a pre-Mission: Impossible Christopher McQuarrie, The Usual Suspects is nothing short of one of the most legendary indie thrillers of all time. The ’90s were the Golden Age of and breakout decade for Hollywood independent cinema, allowing personal auteurial visions to flourish in ways that they had rarely been allowed to before. From this cultural re-allignment came Usual Suspects, which earned McQuarrie the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1996.
The whole idea for The Usual Suspects was born out of the simple premise of five men meeting in a police line-up. In a perfect testament to the fact that the most creative and complex thrillers often come from the simplest and most easy-to-summarize set-ups, Singer’s magnum opus is a brilliantly dark thriller full of razor-sharp dialogue and consistently jaw-dropping twists. The biggest one of these turns comes right at the very end of the film, and it’s one of the most iconic final plot twists in movie history, the sort that completely recontextualizes everything that came before. As such, The Usual Suspects is one of those thriller movies that are even better the second time.
5
‘Parasite’ (2019)
Few countries make thrillers quite as gripping as those made by South Korean filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho. Bong has always been one of the greatest South Korean directors not just of his generation, but of all time, having made several of the best Asian movies of the 21st century. However, never before had the world seen anything quite like the historic Parasite. First-ever non-English-language winner of the Best Picture Academy Award, nothing less than the most prestigious award in the entire film industry, this modern masterpiece is one of the best Best Picture Oscar winners since 2000.
But aside from its achievements being historic, Parasite has the quality to show that it deserved to make history in the first place. The way Bong juggles genres in this brilliant social satire is nothing short of genius, and the way it blends with the film’s constantly-escalating sense of tension, mystery, and suspense is also absolutely perfect. Parasite‘s critique of socioeconomic disparities aren’t particularly subtle, but Bong isn’t a director that’s ever been known for being shy with his thematic explorations. Loud, timely, and an awful lot of fun, Parasite is one of the best films of the 21st century so far.
4
‘Oldboy’ (2003)
As if any more proof were needed that South Korean filmmakers are absolute masters of the thriller genre, there’s also Park Chan-wook, who has made several thriller masterpieces over the course of his career. The question of which one’s the best of the bunch, however, isn’t actually much of a question at all. It has to be Oldboy, one of the best action thrillers of the 2000s, as well as one of the most disturbing crime movies ever made.
Oldboy is not for the faint of heart, but the way Park uses shock value here always feels perfectly calculated and artfully deliberate instead of gratuitous or exploitative. Exquisitely character-driven and packed with jaw-dropping twists, including some of the most shocking final twists toward its showstopping third act, Oldboy is a psychological thriller that all those with the stomach for it should check out at least once in their lives. Full of perfectly shot action sequences and emotionally stirring character moments, it’s one of the most well-rounded thrillers of modern times.
3
‘Memento’ (2000)
Before he was Academy Award winner Christopher Nolan, king of Hollywood blockbusters; he was up-and-coming indie filmmaker Christopher Nolan, the man whose sophomore feature, Memento, took the world by storm as soon as it premiered at the Venice Film Festival at the tail end of the 20th century. Today, there are still those who would confidently refer to this as Nolan’s best movie to date, and for good reason. It may lack the epic scale or sense of spectacle of his newer blockbuster fare, but that is precisely where its thematic, narrative, and aesthetic strength comes from.
There are plenty of reasons why Memento is one of the best films of the 2000s, not least of which is the genius way in which Nolan structures the story in reverse chronological order. This never feels like a cheap gimmick, but rather like a masterfully-constructed framing device that makes the film consistently surprising at every turn. By the time the credits roll, Memento has recontextualized itself as a drama of surprising philosophical depth, exploring the lengths to which people will go in order to give their lives some semblance of meaning.
2
‘Se7en’ (1995)
By the time 1995 rolled in, David Fincher was still very far from being the hugely-acclaimed filmmaker that cinephiles celebrate him as today. After all, by that point, the only feature film under his belt was Alien³. That’s when Se7en came along. When Fincher was brought on board the project, he was still better-known for his work directing music videos, and he wasn’t a fan of the script’s police procedural elements. Even still, he was so fascinated by the escalating plot and the incredibly bleak story that he agreed to direct. The result? One of the most fatalistic movies of all time.But as overwhelmingly bleak as it is, Se7en still managed to make over $300 million dollars at the box office worldwide, immediately establishing Fincher as a talent to look out for in the thriller space. Today, he’s one of the greatest thriller filmmakers currently working. That would have probably never happened without Se7en, a psychological thriller so terrifyingly pessimistic and violent that there are those who would argue it qualifies as a horror movie, too.
1
‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
There’s really no question about it: Since the arrival of the ’90s, there still hasn’t been a thriller quite as iconic, influential, or legendary than The Silence of the Lambs. It’s the latest movie to have won all Big Five Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress) for a reason. Anchored by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster delivering some of the strongest work of their careers, this psychological thriller/horror masterpiece is one of the greatest serial killer mystery movies ever made.
This is yet another film that definitely demands that the viewer have a strong stomach in order to get through the whole film, but watching Silence of the Lambs at some point is nevertheless a bona fide requirement for considering oneself a cinephile. It’s one of those horror movies that are perfect throughout, a thematically complex character-driven gem bolstered by Ted Tally‘s timeless script and Jonathan Demme‘s downright flawless direction. Since 1990, The Silence of the Lambs is the best thriller movie that the big screen has received—and it’ll take something very special to take that top spot away from it.
The Silence of the Lambs
- Release Date
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February 14, 1991
- Runtime
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119 minutes
- Director
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Jonathan Demme
- Writers
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Ted Tally, Thomas Harris
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