A great thriller does not just keep you engaged. That phrase is too weak for what the best ones do. The best thrillers invade your nervous system. They make your shoulders tighten without permission. They make ordinary objects feel loaded. A hallway becomes a threat. A phone call becomes a trap. That is what this list is about.

Not thrillers with one amazing sequence and a soggy middle. Not thrillers that coast on premise. Not thrillers you respect more than you feel. I mean movies that lock in early and never lose the line. Movies that know exactly when to push, when to withhold, when to mislead, when to let a performance take over the room, and when to stop before one twist too many turns electricity into a gimmick. These are the ones that do not ask for patience. They command it. And because this list is about thrillers, I do not care only about plot. I care about pressure. These ten absolutely understand that.

10

‘Blue Ruin’ (2013)

Image via RADiUS-TWC

So many revenge thrillers pretend they are showing cost while secretly making vengeance look like an underground superpower. This movie does not do that for a second. What wrecks me about Blue Ruin is how little glamour it allows revenge. It shows revenge as clumsy, sad, badly planned, emotionally unhealed behavior carried out by a man who looks like life has already taken too much out of him before the blood really starts flowing. Dwight (Macon Blair) is one of the most quietly devastating thriller protagonists of the last decade because he does not enter the movie with mythic force. He feels fragile from the beginning. Not weak, fragile.

That is why the suspense works so well. Every move feels like it could go wrong because Dwight feels like someone who would absolutely be capable of getting in over his head. The violence lands harder because it is ugly, awkward, panicked. The emotional force comes from knowing the movie is not building toward triumph. It is building toward damage spreading. Blue Ruin is amazing because it knows a thriller can be intimate, brutal, and deeply mournful at the same time.

9

‘Prisoners’ (2013)

Image via Warner Bros.

This movie feels like grief dragging itself through rain and concrete. From the first disappearance, Prisoners does not simply become tense. It becomes morally contaminated. It understands that a thriller about missing children cannot just be gripping. It has to feel like something sacred has been ripped out of the world, and every scene afterward has to live in the shadow of that rupture. The film follows Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), a man whose entire identity is built on preparedness, protection, control, and moral certainty, and the film slowly forces all of that into a furnace instead of just making him a desperate father.

He’s like Liam Neeson in Taken. He is loving and terrifying in the same body. You understand him even when you start fearing what he is becoming. That is the kind of character work thrillers often skip in favor of momentum. This film doubles down on it. Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is one of my favorite thriller investigators because he feels haunted before the case even solves anything. And that is why the film is so effective from start to finish.

8

‘The Fugitive’ (1993)

Image via Warner Bros. 

There is something almost holy about how cleanly The Fugitive moves. It does not waste time, and yet it never feels rushed. It understands that one of the purest pleasures in thrillers is watching intelligence operate under pressure. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford)’s character is smart, resourceful, and driven, but the movie never lets him float into action-star invincibility. He looks tired. Cornered. Furious in a way that keeps having to stay practical. That practicality is the whole magic of the film.

Then Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) shows up and turns the whole film into a duel of professional energies. He is sharp, dry, relentless, and fully alive in his own movie. The brilliance is that The Fugitive does not need the marshals to be stupid or corrupt to make Kimble sympathetic. Both sides have competence. That creates momentum with actual teeth. And that’s why it holds all the way through. It is one of those thrillers where every scene either traps, frees, or redirects the protagonist without ever feeling mechanical. The movie trusts velocity, but it earns it through character.

7

‘Gone Girl’ (2014)

Image via 20th Century Studios

This is one of the nastiest American thrillers of the century, and I mean that lovingly. Gone Girl is amazing because it understands that marriage, performance, gender expectations, and media spectacle are already full of thriller energy before anyone starts disappearing. What makes the film sing is how cruelly precise it is about surfaces. Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) are spouses in crisis. They are image managers, fantasy collaborators, mutual disappointments, and eventually each other’s most intimate enemies.

Affleck is perfect casting because his natural ambiguity becomes part of the movie’s design. He can look guilty, blank, aggrieved, stupid, and sincerely blindsided in the same scene. Pike, meanwhile, gives one of the great ice-blooded thriller performances. But the genius is that Amy is not merely a monster of intelligence. She is also a creature of humiliation, ego, theatricality, and rage. The performance works because she is horrifyingly alive. And once the film pivots, it never lets up. Every media beat, every false note of sympathy, every recalibration of power inside the relationship feels like poison becoming more concentrated. This is a thriller that keeps asking: what if the performance is the prison? What if winning means staying in the lie forever? That is such an ugly question, and the movie squeezes it until it sings.

6

‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)

Image via Miramax Films

This film scares me in a way very few thrillers do because it does not behave like it owes you moral structure. It gives you money, pursuit, law, evil, and survival, and then steadily strips away the comforting idea that any of those things will arrange themselves into a shape you recognize. That is why the movie feels so cold. Not because it lacks feeling, but because it refuses false reassurance. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is one of the smartest characters in any thriller on this list.

And then there is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who is terrifying precisely because Bardem never pushes him into flamboyant villain theater. But what deepens the film beyond pure dread is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). Bell is the soul of the movie. He can name the fatigue that comes from living long enough to realize the world no longer fits the moral equipment you brought into it. That sadness hangs over everything in this film.

5

‘Zodiac’ (2007)

Image via Paramount Pictures

There are thrillers about catching a killer, and then there is Zodiac, which understands that obsession can become the real killer long before the case closes. This is one of the most hypnotic procedural thrillers ever made because it treats uncertainty not as a narrative inconvenience but as the whole emotional catastrophe. The killer is terrifying, yes. The inability to turn fragments into finality is even worse.

What makes the film so special is the way it keeps changing who the emotional center belongs to without ever losing pressure. Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) becomes the most obvious vessel for obsession, but the movie has already seeped into everybody long before he fully takes over. Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) carries the fatigue of professionalism under absurd pressure. Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) has all that wit and velocity curdling into corrosion. The whole film feels like talented men being slowly unstitched by the refusal of reality to become solvable. And the suspense is extraordinary. Hardly anything happens in the conventional sense, and your body still forgets how to relax.

4

‘Oldboy’ (2003)

Image via FilmDistrict

Oldboy does not unfold. It stalks, taunts, humiliates, and detonates. Park Chan-wook makes the entire film feel like a revenge mechanism built by a sadist with a poet’s eye and a grudge against ordinary storytelling. It is operatic, ugly, stylish, sick, and emotionally ruinous in a way very few thrillers dare to be. What gives it its force is Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) himself. Choi Min-sik plays him with such wounded animal intensity that the movie never becomes just a formal stunt. He is funny, pathetic, enraged, degraded, determined, and increasingly shattered as the truth tightens around him. You feel how imprisonment has curdled him. You feel how revenge gives him direction without giving him dignity back. That emotional degradation is crucial.

The film’s most disturbing revelations land because they do not just surprise him. They annihilate the parts of him that were still trying to remain human. And yes, the corridor hammer fight is iconic for a reason, but what makes the movie great is that its violence is not there merely to excite. Every blow feels like part of a larger moral architecture of punishment. By the end, Oldboy has become one of the bleakest thrillers ever made about what vengeance really wants: not balance, not justice, but total psychic occupation. It is relentless, and I love it for that.

3

‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)

Image via Orion Pictures

This movie is so completely in control of its own dread that revisiting it almost feels like revisiting a sacred object. The Silence of the Lambs is not just suspenseful. It is intimate with fear. It understands that terror gets worse when it is forced into conversation, when politeness and appetite share a room, when intelligence becomes a form of predation. Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is the heart of the film, and the reason it never becomes merely a serial-killer showcase.

And then there is Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). What more can even be said at this point except that Hopkins somehow makes stillness feel carnivorous? The scenes between him and Clarice are iconic to this date because he sees too much, speaks too precisely, and turns language into touch. The film is amazing from start to finish because every scene either deepens Clarice or sharpens the shape of evil around her. Nothing is wasted. Not a glance. Not a pause.

2

‘Se7en’ (1995)

Image via New Line Cinema

Another David Fincher addition to this list. And while some thrillers feel dark, Se7en feels damned. From the opening credits onward, the movie behaves as if the city has already surrendered to rot and the investigation is simply forcing two men to walk through the smell of it. This is one of the best character pairings in thriller history. Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mills (Brad Pitt) give the movie its weight in a way that any lesser actor might not have been able to. They are rival ways of surviving a world that seems spiritually diseased. Freeman gives Somerset a tired precision that kills me every time. Pitt, meanwhile, makes Mills hot-blooded enough to be reckless and sincere enough to be tragic. The movie needs both energies. Without Mills’ emotional impatience, the film becomes all despair. Without Somerset’s old grief, it loses its depth.

And then the murders. What makes them horrifying is not only their invention, but the way the movie turns each crime scene into a moral atmosphere. It makes you enter philosophies of punishment. The apartment of Sloth. The library nights. The long drives. The rain. The way John Doe’s (Kevin Spacey) logic keeps pressing inward until the film stops feeling like a manhunt and starts feeling like an argument with God.

1

‘Heat’ (1995)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

I love Heat with the kind of intensity that makes me want to defend it before anyone has even criticized it. This is not just one of the greatest thrillers ever made. It is one of the most complete. It has scale without bloat, character without softness, action without stupidity, and melancholy running through it like a private current. It is a thriller about professionals, yes, but what makes it immortal is that it is also about loneliness becoming a life philosophy. Firstly, its star-studded cast is unmatched. Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is one of the greatest movie criminals. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is on the other side of the same wound.

Both these men know what the other has sacrificed to become this exact kind of person. And that is why Heat is number one. Not just because the bank robbery and shootout are still among the greatest action sequences ever filmed, though they are. Not just because Michael Mann directs cities better than most people direct actors, though he does. It is number one because it circles its characters again and again until the suspense becomes emotional, existential. That final airport runway sequence destroys me every time. Two men stripped of all the noise, all the systems, all the teams, all the urban architecture, just one chasing, one fleeing, both having followed their own nature all the way to its end. When that hand reaches out in the dark, Heat becomes more than a thriller. It becomes a tragedy that happened to carry a gun. And that, to me, is perfection.

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Heat

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Release Date

December 15, 1995

Runtime

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170 minutes

Director

Michael Mann

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Writers

Michael Mann

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Less really is more, just ask Kathy Hilton.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star spilled the effortlessly chic beauty and style tips she passed down to daughters Paris, 45, and Nicky, 42, while hosting a fête for LoveShackFancy’s Sweetheart fragrance at her Bel Air, California home on March 20.

Though Hilton loves a glamorous moment (and throws a party like no other), she’s all about keeping things polished, and never overdone.

“A classic rule I’ve told Paris and Nicky is to be comfortable. I’d rather be a little underdressed than overdressed because you can always throw on fun earrings or change your shoes if you’re leaving work or getting off a plane,” she tells ET.

“You don’t want to come in with the whole kitchen sink and make a fool out of yourself. Dim it down a little bit. Just be fresh, pretty, and confident. That’s the best,” the entrepreneur continues.

Naturally, the mother-daughter trio shares more than just style advice, they share closets too.

“They can’t wear my shoes because I have a smaller foot, but they wear my jewelry, my accessories, and my handbags. … I recently borrowed a bag that was so cute from Paris. She was calling every day saying, ‘I’m going to come by and get my bag.’ … She knows her inventory and doesn’t forget, but I’m happy that she takes care of her things and that she’s appreciative,” the Bravo star says.

When it comes to what Hilton actually keeps in her purse, she leans into easy and practical items.

“I carry an eye mask that I found years ago at a drugstore in New York, pale pink silicone foot pads for comfort, my little fan, and my Lorna Murray hat because it gives an outfit a great look, makes me look a little bit taller, and keeps the sun off my face,” she explains.

“I’m also always trying the latest and newest product to moisturize my lips because they’re chronically dry, and I love the Revive neck cream and can’t put on makeup without it.”

Beyond her essentials, one thing Hilton never leaves the house without is a signature spritz.

“I spray my perfume at the end, but I make sure I don’t have pearls on. … I have a collection of fragrances. … There are ones I would wear to a ladies’ lunch, and others that are romantic and sexy that I would wear after 5 p.m. for dinner with my husband.”

Luckily, her current favorite works for just about any occasion. 

“Sweetheart is so fruity and floral, and the bottle is the pinkest, most sparkly, and gorgeous. … It’s perfect for spring and summer because it’s happiness in a bottle. … I like to bring a little bit of summer everywhere I go. … Hot girl summer every day, even in the winter,” Rebecca Hessel Cohen, founder of LoveShackFancy, notes.

“It can take you anywhere. … It’s so beautiful that you want to just hold it or keep it on your dressing table,” Hilton continues.

Still, there is one area where Hilton doesn’t hold back: health and wellness.

“I do TruNiagen IV treatments every week and take two of their supplements every day to give me energy. … I’m a mad professor with putting things together. I always have my lotions and potions, and everyone loves it. … My girls are very into it and it’s fun to compare notes.”

Through it all though, her philosophy stays grounded.

“I’ve always mixed high and low. I’m as happy at Target and Walmart as I am on the seventh floor of Bergdorf Goodman.”

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By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

2018’s Distorted, starring Christina Ricci and John Cusack, has an 18 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. As somebody who genuinely loves bad movies, I had to check it out. What really caught my eye, though, was the 74 percent Popcornmeter score supported by over 500 ratings, suggesting this low-budget flop might actually be better than critics would have you believe. My takeaway is that it’s a pretty run-of-the-mill, boilerplate psychological thriller. It’s adequately acted, shot well, and sells its paranoid premise like any other film cut from the same cloth.

The screenplay, on the other hand, doesn’t do the film any favors. Cusack and Ricci play off each other tremendously, and there’s a lot to be said about their on-screen chemistry as they unpack a conspiracy involving a suspicious luxury apartment, subliminal mind control, and mental illness. It’s a great concept with solid production values, and everybody on screen is doing what they can with the material. But it also feels like they were working from a first draft that wasn’t fully realized before going into production.

When Bipolar Paranoia Becomes Justified

Like most second-rate psychological thrillers, our unreliable female protagonist has to have some sort of mental illness. Lauren Curran (Christina Ricci) suffers from bipolar disorder, which concerns her husband, Russel (Brendan Fletcher). Since Russel is a successful businessman, though you never actually see him working, he decides they need to move out of the city and into a futuristic apartment complex off the beaten path. These smart homes are everything you could possibly want, with top-notch amenities and security, which is especially important to Lauren because an earlier home invasion resulted in the death of their child, rightfully triggering her illness.

Right away, nothing is as it seems in Distorted. Lauren, and only Lauren, hears strange buzzing noises and sees odd images on her television screen. When she checks the CCTV feeds she can access through her iPad, she witnesses other tenants behaving strangely. Her paranoia is fully primed after speaking with a resident named Phillip Starks (Vicellous Reon Shannon), who works in consumer psychology and talks endlessly about subliminal messaging.

When Lauren expresses her concerns to Russel, they’re written off as bipolar delusions, making him question her mental state. Of course, there are plenty of shots of Lauren staring down a pill bottle, likely Lithium, as if taking an extra dose or skipping one would send her into a psychotic break, which isn’t really how that works. Her suspicions, however, are validated by John Cusack’s Vernon Sarsfield, a journalist, hacker, and conspiracy theorist who’s been keeping tabs on her apartment building for his own reasons.

In so many words, Lauren isn’t paranoid. Vernon is about to expose a massive subliminal mind control conspiracy that’s using her and her fellow residents as human test subjects, and he needs her help to dismantle it before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Russel tries checking her into a psychiatric hospital because, to his credit, Lauren has had episodes like this before, and he’s not seeing what she sees.

You Get What You Get

Though Distorted tries hard to play with the “unreliable female protagonist with a mental illness” setup, it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Christina Ricci does an excellent job acting terrified when the moment calls for it, and Cusack delivers at a high level as well, but the story is structured in a way that makes any seasoned psychological thriller fan immediately clock what’s going on. You’re not left wondering if Lauren is crazy. You’re thinking, yeah, something weird is happening here, and she will eventually be vindicated.

Because of this, there’s no real tension. Lauren’s “hallucinations” are visually interesting, but I never bought them as hallucinations. It’s obvious she’s being manipulated, and picking up on that early completely shatters the illusion Distorted is trying to sell.

My experience watching Distorted is one of those rare instances where the critic versus audience split actually favors the critics. I wouldn’t call it 18 percent bad because it’s shot and acted well, and it has enough striking visuals to keep things engaging. But the story is both sloppy and obvious, which is a death sentence for any psychological thriller.

If you’re a fan of the talent involved, it’s worth a watch, but it’s not going to rock your world. It’s still way better than The Glass House, though. 

As of this writing, Distorted is streaming on Netflix.

“One Tree Hill” alum Jana Kramer is voicing her opinion on the ongoing controversy surrounding Taylor Frankie Paul and her two reality shows, “The Bachelorette” and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

For those unfamiliar, Paul has been the center of negative attention over the last week after a video of her appearing to assault her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, was shared online. Before that, Paul’s “Secret Lives” co-stars reportedly went on strike, refusing to film with her over her alleged involvement in another domestic dispute in 2026.

ABC cancelled Taylor Frankie Paul’s upcoming season of “The Bachelorette” earlier this week; however, Kramer believes the network waited too long to pull the plug.

Trigger Warning: This content includes discussions of domestic violence, which may be distressing or triggering for some individuals.

Jana Kramer Seems To Slam ABC For Waiting To Cancel Taylor Frankie Paul’s Season Of ‘The Bachelorette’

“Abuse is never great TV,” Kramer said during a recent episode or her “I Do, Part 2” podcast. “Where it’s being physical, that is not something that our children need to see. … When you have to grab someone, hurt someone, push someone, verbally, physically, that is not something to get viewership for.”

Kramer went on to discuss ABC’s decision to pull what would have been Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette.”

“DV is not something to joke about [or] to get viewership,” she said. “It’s just not at all, and if it was a guy, they would have shut it down immediately.”

Kramer References Taylor Frankie Paul Appearing To Assault Her Ex-Boyfriend In A Shocking Video

ABC addressed its decision to axe the previously filmed season of “The Bachelorette” in a statement, saying the company’s focus “is on supporting the family.”

According to a previous report from The Blast, Paul was observed in a horrifying video released earlier this week, appearing to assault her ex and the father of her son, Mortensen.

In the video, Paul seems to strike Mortensen, pull his hair, and choke him. She also hurled two heavy metal chairs at him, one of which hit her daughter in the head.

“This is called physical abuse. This is all you do,” Mortesen cried out in the clip. “It’s the only thing you know how to do is hurt me. You think this is OK? It’s not OK. Holy sh-t.”

Kramer Sounds Off On ‘Secret Lives’ Co-Stars Refusing To Film With Taylor Frankie Paul

On her podcast, Kramer also commented on the reports that Paul’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” co-stars have refused to film season 5 with her.

A source told Us Weekly that the cast has met with Disney, Hulu’s parent company, about pausing production.

“The girls know they can continue without Taylor and want to keep going,” the source said. “This has brought them closer in a way, and they all have been leaning on each other, checking in. They want to make it work and finish out season 5 on a high note.”

Regarding their reported decision, Kramer said she was “proud” of the women for standing up to Disney, adding that filming with her is “just enabling a situation that is not healthy and is not safe for anybody.”

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Some Believe Paul Has ‘Tainted’ The Bachelor Franchise With Abuse Allegations

Kramer is not the only public figure with strong feelings about Paul’s controversy.

“I think it’s over,” former “Bachelor” star Rachel Lindsay said, according to The Blast. “I was trying to think of a scenario where it could be different, because this isn’t just, ‘Oh, we put it all on a person. This person did this.’ This is the system that allowed this to happen.”

According to Lindsay, Paul’s situation has “tainted” the franchise like never before.

Paul Breaks Silence After ABC Pulls ‘The Bachelorette’

While Paul has not spoken publicly since the video surfaced, a representative for the reality star issued a statement, slamming Mortensen’s “desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor without any regard” for their minor child, Ever.

“Releasing an old video, which conveniently omits context, on their son’s birthday is a reprehensible attempt to distract from his own behavior,” the rep continued.

Despite the drama, the rep said Paul is “grateful for ABC’s support” as she navigates the heavy situation.

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“After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm,” they said.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 13 seconds ago

Most of the time, it’s a kiss of death for a genre TV show when the writers try to make big changes. True Blood went off the rails when it abandoned its small-town, Southern gothic drama in favor of nonstop supernatural slugfests. Dexter went from being a taught procedural with a killer twist to being an endless melodrama, culminating with arguably the worst finale in television history. Even Riverdale transformed its grounded adaptation of Archie Comics into supernatural storytelling that felt like an endless fever dream.

However, would you believe that one of the most iconic genre shows ever made created a thrilling episode by completely abandoning its entire premise? The X-Files is famously about Mulder and Scully investigating government conspiracies, aliens, and various monsters of the week that go bump in the night. But the episode “Irresistible” was written by showrunner Chris Carter without any paranormal elements whatsoever, creating a fan-favorite thriller of a story that feels like it belongs to a different show altogether.

He’s Scarier Than Any Alien

In case you somehow don’t know, The X-Files was a show shaped almost entirely by Agent Fox Mulder’s quest to prove the existence of aliens and other paranormal phenomena. His partner, Agent Dana Scully, is a skeptic, and most episodes of the series feature a tug of war between their very different perspectives. Mulder will always argue that their latest case is proof of his wild theories, while Scully will offer a more grounded and scientific explanation for otherwise fantastic phenomena.

However, X-Files showrunner Chris Carter threw the show’s formula out the window when he wrote “Irresistible,” an episode where Mulder and Scully have to stop a murderous necrophiliac (although, thanks to network censoring, they had to refer to him as a “death fetishist”). Despite how different this episode was, fans really loved it. A large part of that came from the great characterization in this episode, which Carter thought would have been impossible without ditching the show’s trademark supernatural elements.

Scully Was Never Closer To Death

“I think I was able to explore the character of Scully in a way I wouldn’t have been able to with a supernatural theme,” he told X-Files Confidential. “Sometimes even more scary than the things we can imagine are the things that are unimaginable, which is that the man standing next to you could be this kind of guy.” Basically, the showrunner of the world’s spookiest series acknowledges that some viewers aren’t going to be all that scared of intangible threats like aliens and far-reaching government conspiracies. However, they might be absolutely terrified at the thought that a random stranger could be a secret killer with a fetish for dead bodies. 

What did we learn about Scully from this X-Files episode? Chris Carter wanted to explore “what she is most afraid of,” which turned out to be “dying at the hands of someone—creature or not—and she is helpless to do anything about it.” This refers to the heart-stopping climax of “Irresistible,” in which she is kidnapped by Donnie Pfaster, who has awful plans for her body, both before and after he murders her. She escapes and is ultimately saved, but she uncharacteristically breaks down in Mulder’s arms, which is evidence of how deeply this trauma affected her.

The Banality Of Horny Evil

Interestingly, the closest thing to a supernatural element in “Irresistible” is that a captured Scully sees Pfaster transform into the Devil. Carter based this on some grim accounts from surviving Jeffrey Dahmer victims who reported that he shape-shifted in front of them. “Sometimes the face of evil can become frighteningly real and distorted through a prism of your own unconscious fears,” Carter said. “That’s what we were playing with.”

In retrospect, “Irresistible” was a huge gamble: it completely abandoned The X-Files’ paranormal formula and put a beloved character in mortal peril, where she had to face her greatest fear. But the gamble paid off, as this is one of the fandom’s favorite early episodes of this iconic ‘90s show. It fleshed out Scully’s character and introduced a chilling new villain, all while fleshing out this fictional universe. Showrunner Chris Carter wrote an episode unlike anything fans had seen before, and its success effectively validates Mulder’s personal philosophy: sometimes, you have to break all the rules in order to achieve greatness!

If you ask for a good rom-com to watch, you’ll probably end up with a lot of the same suggestions.

Movies like Clueless, When Harry Met Sally, Pretty Woman and You’ve Got Mail are certainly fantastic classics, but it can be refreshing to watch something totally new to you.

Since the Watch With Us team are experts in all things movies, we’ve got just the list for you.

We compiled four romantic comedies we’re pretty sure are almost perfect, but you’ve probably never even heard of them, let alone watched them.

That ends now. Prepare to believe in love again with these four underrated love stories.

Related: Best Rom-Coms to Watch When You’re Stuck at Home

Romance for all! Whether you’re stuck at home due to inclement weather, or simply want a night in, Us Weekly has the perfect must-watch movie list for indoor viewing. While some fans may opt for social media quizzes or binge-watching a new show, others choose to break out their go-to romantic comedies during a long weekend […]

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‘Down With Love’ (2003)

In this homage to “no-sex sex comedies” from the early 1960s, Renée Zellweger stars as Barbara Novak, an aspiring author who touches down in New York City to promote her anti-romance, how-to book Down with Love. When she arrives at Banner Publishing, the executives don’t appreciate the book’s subject matter, and when Barbara attempts to use playboy author Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) to help her out, he rebuffs her. Instead, Barbara gets an unexpected boost from a Judy Garland song, and sales skyrocket. Angering Catcher, he decides to trick Barbara into falling in love with him to prove the fallacy behind her success.

Before Peyton Reed directed the Ant-Man movies for the MCU, he helmed this vastly underappreciated romantic comedy pastiche that is enlivened by screwball humor and a visually ravishing, energetic style. Though Down with Love whiffed with critics and audiences at the time, the movie has since developed a cult following and critical reappraisal for its smart subversion of rom-com tropes. It doesn’t hurt that both McGregor and Zellweger are also absolutely dazzling, putting on their best campy ’60s Hollywood acting performance like they were born for it.

‘Stardust’ (2007)

In England, the quaint village of Wall resides just next to a stone barrier that acts as the divide between the world of humans and the world of magic in Stormhold, and it is guarded to ensure no one ever crosses. When a young man named Dunstan (Nathaniel Parker) manages to get across, he spends the night with an enslaved princess — nine months later, a baby named Tristan is delivered to Dunstan’s doorstep. As an adult, Tristan (Charlie Cox) finds himself at the center of a hunt for a fallen star (Claire Danes), forcing him to cross back over into Stormhold to find her and discover his destiny.

Stardust is perhaps not a typical rom-com, but it is a wonderfully charming fantasy-adventure romance with an undeniable sense of humor that mixes tongue-in-cheek humor that appeals to kids with some racier jokes that will go over their heads. The movie is broadly appealing but not in a bad way; it’s a spirited, lively and exhilarating yarn that is a must-watch for fans of The Princess Bride. Stardust’s fantastic ensemble cast also includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro and Sienna Miller.

‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’ (2012)

High school sweethearts Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) get married young, but their passionate early romance starts losing its spark just as quickly. While Celeste is a successful trend analyzer who runs her own company, Jesse is an unemployed artist who seems in no rush to find steady work. When Celeste finally gets the courage to tell Jesse that she’d like a divorce, she promises him that they will remain friends. But the two former lovers seem unwilling to spend much time apart, and the arrangement raises the eyebrows of their friends — then, Celeste starts having second thoughts.

While Celeste and Jesse Forever isn’t terribly subversive or setting out to do much to differentiate itself from a packed rom-com genre, it excels effortlessly through the unique charms of Jones and Samberg. Ultimately, the movie also succeeds at feeling authentic to reality, capturing the messy, flawed and often incomprehensible behavior of people after they break up. The screenplay (co-written by Jones) does an excellent job of creating characters that are likable, with regard for their emotions.

‘But I’m a Cheerleader’ (1999)

High school student Megan Bloomfield (Natasha Lyonne) is your typical all-American teenager, a cheerleader who dates football player Jared (Brandt Wille). But when Megan seems to express a concerning interest in things like Melissa Etheridge, vegetarianism and her fellow cheerleaders, her parents are left with no choice but to send her to gay conversion camp True Directions. There, she meets fellow lesbians Graham (Clea DuVall), Hilary (Melanie Lynskey) and Sinead (Katharine Towne). But the camp seems to be having an opposite effect, as Megan finds herself falling for Graham.

Related: Rom-Coms You Forgot About and Need to Watch Right Now

Much like there are plenty of fish in the sea, there are also plenty of rom-coms to stream — and these forgotten gems are worth revisiting whether on Valentine’s Day or any of the other 364 days of the year. Throughout these underrated romantic comedies, you’ll spot several familiar faces. Long before he was appearing […]

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But I’m a Cheerleader is a highly stylized and hilarious satirical rom-com that explores heteronormativity, gender roles and feminine identity. While critics denigrated the film at the time for its content, colorful production design and similarities to the films of John Waters (Mink Stole, one of Waters’ primary collaborators, plays Megan’s mother), all these traits have helped to generate the movie’s passionate cult following. It is now beloved as an empowering lesbian love story that celebrates a queer perspective.

Multiple members of the Duggar family have reacted to Joseph Duggar’s arrest on child molestation charges.

Joseph, who rose to fame alongside his family on the reality series 19 Kids and Counting, was taken into custody after being accused of molesting a 9-year-old girl while on a family vacation in Panama City Beach, Florida, in 2020. He was arrested by the Tonitown Police Department in Arkansas on March 18, 2026, after the Bay County Sheriff’s Department obtained a warrant.

“The victim reported Duggar repeatedly asked her to sit on his lap,” the Bay County Sheriff’s Office revealed in a press release at the time. “As the vacation continued, he also asked her to sit next to him on a couch and covered them with a blanket.”

The statement continued, “During this time, Duggar manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals. Duggar would also continue to rub his hands on her thighs.”

Related: Joseph Duggar Arrested on Child Molestation Charges: What We Know So Far

Former TLC star Joseph Duggar was arrested on Wednesday, March 18, after being accused of molesting a 9-year-old girl in 2020. Wednesday’s arrest marks the second child sex abuse case to hit the famous family following Joseph’s older brother Josh Duggar‘s child pornography conviction. Josh was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison in December […]

Joseph was ultimately charged with one count of lewd and lascivious behavior involving molestation of a victim less than 12 years old and a second count of lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by a person 18 years or older.

Joseph appeared in court on March 20 and waived his right to an extradition hearing and ultimately agreed to be transferred to Florida to face the charges.

Days after his arrest, news broke that Joseph was also facing four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor, second degree, and four counts of second degree false imprisonment alongside his wife, Kendra Duggar. Kendra was arrested on March 20, 2026, and released the same day on bond.

Many members of the Duggar family spoke out about Joseph’s arrest, including his siblings Jill and Josh. (Josh is currently in prison after being convicted for possession of child pornography.)

Keep scrolling to see what the Duggars have said about Joseph:

Jill Duggar

Jill Duggar released a statement on her family blog about Joseph Duggar’s arrest.

“We were shocked yesterday evening to learn of Jill’s brother (Joseph Duggar’s) arrest,” the post began. “We first learned of anything related to his charges yesterday via a text from a friend who messaged us about the recent media reports of Joseph’s arrest and his alleged confession to molesting a juvenile female in 2020.”

Jill added that she and husband Derick Dillard are “shocked and heartbroken” over the allegations.

“We strongly condemn abuse. We support the rule of law and hope that justice will be achieved,” she continued. “Our hearts go out to the innocent juvenile victim of this unspeakable crime and her family. We pray God gives her strength, comfort and hope, and that she is able to get all the help and support she needs and deserves in the days ahead.”

Josh Duggar

Josh Duggar spoke out while behind bars about his brother’s arrest, sharing he was “deeply saddened” about the allegations against Joseph Duggar.

“Josh understands the stigma of being accused. He lives with the painful reality of how false accusations can destroy a life,” Josh’s lawyer said in a statement to The Daily Mail on the reality star’s behalf. “He understands how the targeting of a person for publicity can twist the truth into sensationalized fiction.”

The statement added that while “Josh and Joe are not in frequent communication” Josh “hopes and prays for his brother’s well being in this difficult time.”

Amy Duggar King

Joseph Duggar’s cousin, Amy Duggar King, broke her silence on his arrest.

“In light of the recent allegations involving my cousin, Joseph Duggar, I am sickened, heartbroken, and deeply angry,” Amy said in a statement to Us Weekly. “My first thoughts are with the victim, a child who deserved to be safe, protected, and surrounded by people she could trust. The courage it took for her to come forward, especially after years of carrying something so heavy, cannot be overstated. That bravery deserves to be honored above all else.”

Amy added that she was “utterly shocked” by the allegations against Joseph but also addressed the family’s “toxic system.”

“For years, I have spoken out about the importance of truth, accountability, and protecting children, even when it meant going against my own family,” she continued. “Family ties should never equal automatic trust or access, especially when it comes to the safety of children. When an image is protected over truth, and silence is chosen over accountability, it creates an environment where abuse can thrive.”

Amy shared that she has “worked hard to break cycles” in her family and has advocated “for the protection of children.”

“I am praying for the victim and her family as they walk through what is sure to be an incredibly difficult road ahead,” she shared. “Recognizing that we do not yet know the full picture, I am also praying for Joseph’s wife, Kendra, as she begins to process this, and for the protection of their children. I’m praying for eyes to be opened and above all, I pray that justice will be served to the fullest.”

Amy was later seen crying in a social media video after news broke that Kendra was also arrested that week.

Jessa Duggar

Jessa Duggar issued a statement on behalf of herself and her husband, Ben Seewald, on March 20, 2026.

“We learned of this saddening news along with the rest of the world on Wednesday, and we are in complete shock,” the statement read. “Our hearts are grieving for this innocent young girl, and we know this is deeply grievous to God, who cares tenderly for children and the vulnerable. We are keeping her in our prayers.”

Jessa later deleted her upload that same day.