Entertainment
8 Near-Perfect Thrillers of the Last 6 Years, Ranked
The past 6 years have been an exceptionally great time for thriller filmmaking, with a wide array of masterfully crafted movies that have kept audiences on the edge of their seat and amplified the genre’s strength and mass appeal. Whether it be widely acclaimed and award-winning dramatic thrillers like Oppenheimer or exhilarating action thrillers like John Wick: Chapter 4, the past 6 years have had no shortage of top-notch thriller experiences.
Arguably just as interesting and enticing as the thrillers that have achieved near-unanimous praise are those that are right on the cusp of perfection but feature a small element or two that stop them from being heralded as all-time classics of the genre. These films are still absolutely exceptional, and may even be better than many of the other best thrillers of the past 6 years to some people, yet they still have an element or two that holds them back from perfection.
8
‘The Last Stop in Yuma Country’ (2024)
A chaotic dark comedy thriller that grows more intricate with each passing minute, The Last Stop in Yuma County stands out as one of the decade’s best bottle movies so far. The film follows various intricate characters all converging upon a fuel truck station diner in the middle-of-nowhere Arizona, waiting for a shipment of gas. However, the diner quickly transforms into a high-stakes hostage situation when a duo of bank robbers arrives, with the situation getting more dangerous as more people enter the diner.
The Last Stop in Yuma County utilizes an exceptional mixture of dark comedy and compelling characters to make for one of the most underrated thrillers of the 2020s so far. It always knows how to keep the stakes high and the tension palpable while simultaneously feeling hilarious and unpredictable. The film’s style and sense of humor may be a bit one-note, but when it’s this continuously entertaining, it is far from a massive issue.
7
‘Mars Express’ (2023)
Thrillers are rarely explored in the medium of feature-length animation, as the vast majority of films decide to instead cater to family audiences. However, Mars Express utilizes exceptional worldbuilding and top-notch mature themes to create one of the most strikingly original and compelling sci-fi thrillers that animation has to offer. It’s the type of engaging narrative that, if the film were in live-action, it would be heralded as one of the all-time greats of modern noirs.
The French film follows a stern private detective and her android partner in the year 2200, hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. However, as their case continues, they find themselves intertwined in a strange story of corruption on Mars, with massive implications that could forever change humanity’s relationship to androids as a whole. The film has a lot of parallels to classic sci-fi thrillers like Blade Runner, while at the same time forging an identity with its stylish visuals and exceptional symbolic storytelling.
6
‘The Long Walk’ (2025)
One of the many exciting Stephen King adaptations in recent memory, 2025’s The Long Walk adapts one of his bleakest and most unforgiving stories, living up to the source material’s overwhelming pain. The film takes place in a dystopian version of America where groups of young teenage boys compete in a deadly walking contest, where those who don’t maintain the pace are executed until a single survivor remains.
The one thing holding the film back is that its premise is a little basic, considering just how many death game stories have been released over the years. However, the top-notch performances and engaging filmmaking make up for any lack of originality in its storytelling. The Long Walk does an exceptional job with its story beats and keeps the audience engaged from start to finish. It immediately connected with audiences and utilized its strengths to transform this grueling story into a genuine crowd-pleaser.
5
‘Strange Darling’ (2024)
With top-notch performances, compelling visuals, and an exceptional non-linear format that purposefully hides context from the audience, Strange Darling is an electrifyingly entertaining yet simultaneously dark horror thriller. The film tells its six-chapter tale entirely out of order, keeping details hidden, with the larger overarching story being between a one-night stand going wrong and resulting in a deadly chase between a man and a woman.
Strange Darling is at its best when it keeps the audience guessing and slowly reveals the pieces of its intricate puzzle. With a duo of great performances at its center from Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner, the film continuously delights with wild twists, one after another, in service of a complex narrative about identity and survival. The slight downside is that with so much of the film’s ultimate success depending on these twists, subsequent rewatches aren’t as impactful when knowing the full truth of its story from the get-go.
4
‘Sirāt’ (2025)
A masterful exploration of sound design and camerawork that takes a more methodical, patient approach to its thrills and shocking moments, the Spanish thriller Sirāt was largely celebrated as one of the best international films of last year. The film follows a man and his son arriving at a rave in the mountains of Morocco in search of their missing family member, Marina. In the process, they end up joining a group of ravers on their dangerous journey across the mountains to another rave in hopes of finding Marina there.
Sirāt‘s greatest strengths come from its pacing and immaculate sound design, as the rave music and the striking silence of the mountains keep the audience’s heart pumping. Even more so is when the film utilizes its comforting characters to completely catch the audience off guard, reminding them why it’s a thriller and delivering a complete shock to the system. However, with so much emphasis on top-notch sound design, the film is best experienced in a theater, which makes it all the more disappointing that its theatrical run was so short and limited.
3
‘Pig’ (2021)
The prospect of a Nicolas Cage-led thriller where he plays a man embarking on a mission to save his stolen foraging pig sounds like the type of ridiculous, over-the-top concept that would be the punchline of a joke instead of an actual film. However, instead of a crazed John Wick parody, Pig is one of the most emotionally striking and dynamic thrillers in recent memory, featuring Cage’s best performance in years. There is an earnestness and sense of compassion that makes the seemingly silly journey all the more touching, showing the importance of the things we really care about in life.
Pig proves to be much more than just a simple story of a man retrieving his pig, as it’s much more about identity, accepting loss and grief in one’s life, and having the strength to move in the face of unrelenting pain. It’s a beautiful story with layers of depth and emotional weight that only grow more effective as it goes on, catching the audience off guard with its beauty, even if it isn’t the wild story that people expect from Cage.
2
‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ (2024)
A deeply important political thriller whose very existence in itself makes a statement toward the ruthless difficulties of Iran’s authoritarian government, The Seed of the Sacred Fig‘s exceptional portrayal of these underlying tensions is inherently worthy of massive respect. The film follows a judge and his family dealing with the difficulty of political unrest in Tehran, with the paranoia getting to him as he begins to suspect his wife and daughters of foul play when his firearm disappears.
This striking examination of political unrest, combined with the microcosm of mistrust and pain within a fractured family unit, makes The Seed of the Sacred Fig one of the most striking thrillers of the 21st century. However, despite its overwhelming praise as one of the best thrillers of 2024, the one thing holding it back from continued legacy and impact in the years since its release is its length and pacing. Its 167-minute runtime makes it a daunting watch that can grow a bit repetitive, despite the clear importance of its story.
1
‘Decision to Leave’ (2022)
South Korean director Park Chan-wook has been creating masterful thrillers for decades now, so it isn’t particularly surprising that Decision to Leave would also be a masterwork. The film follows a detective (Park Hae-il) delving into the surprising death of a man who fell from a mountain peak, immediately suspecting foul play from the man’s wife, Seo-rae (Tang Wei). However, as he delves deeper into the truth of this crime, he finds himself entangled in a web of deception and desire that holds him back from fulfilling his duties.
Despite the overwhelming strength of the film, it isn’t as masterful as some of Park’s other works, such as Oldboy, The Handmaiden, or even his most recent film, No Other Choice. The one major element holding the film back from true greatness is the decisive split in its narrative, as the pacing takes an unexpected shift when there is a notable timeskip partway through the film. It makes the second half of the story feel a little repetitive in the moment, yet when viewed as a complete package, Decision to Leave is as close to masterful as a modern thriller can get.
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