Sumantra Roy's Favorite 75 Thrillers of All Time

I love Thrillers. I guess, keeping the audience interested about what is going to happen next is always a good thing for cinema. Anyways, making any genre based list is difficult and the biggest difficulty arises from the fact that whether the film in contention does actually fall in that genre or not. For example, there are many lists of thrillers in the web where I see films like "Persona", "Woman in the Dunes" or "Rashomon" have been included as thrillers. All three of them are my favorites and I won't deny that there were momentary elements of thrill and suspense in all of them, but I would not include them in my list, because I think they are not predominantly thrillers/suspense movies, the genre that best describes all three of them would be Drama. Now, here it is a purely subjective thing. It all goes down to how broad you want to make it. Well, while you don't want to be too closed and unnecessarily restricted, you also don't want to make it so broad that it doesn't hold any meaning any more. Balancing between the two was tough. I tried it my way.

While I was ranking the films I was wondering if they should be ranked in terms of how good films they are or as how good thrillers. For example, I think "No Country For Old Men" is an overall better film than, say, "Dial M For Murder"...but the later, according to me, is a better thriller. This was another trouble zone for me. I am sure I couldn't have been fully consistent.

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I'm looking forward to it.

Glad to see you doing another list Roy, you are one of my most missed posters and i think a genre specific list is one i'll be able to comment on more, your top 50 looked great but there was quite a few i haven't seen yet. Kinda the same as Sanes, looked great, reminded me of the massive areas of cinema i need to get familiar with, but i could only give my opinions when the typical films showed up.

75. The Rope (1948) - Alfred Hitchcock





74. Headhunters (2011) - Morten Tyldum





73. The Conversation (1974) - Francis Coppola





72. Mother (2009) - Bong Joon-ho





71. Fargo (1996) - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Fargo is great, but it's primary category is crime.

Love Fargo. Top three ot four Coen film for me. I think i have among the weirdest opinions of their films here though.

Yes, I think you are right, may be that's why it's ranked lower...I would have loved to have it higher up...but it's very confusing you see...in this list, there will be films coming up that are primarily Horrors. I mean, how can you leave out, say, "Shining" when you are making a thrillers list! I know I will be contradicting my earlier statement Thriller/Suspense are very difficult to nail down...Horror, Action, Drama, Crime - these exist almost inseparably...

Excuse me for pointing primary genres of movies. It's my new hobby. Don't take it as criticism.

Finally, an awesome list to follow! Can't wait for me, roy.

Glad to see the Scandinavian Headhunters on there, great thriller. Fargo I wasn't a fan of at first but it seems to grow on me. Coen films seem to do that to me, it might end up as a fave. Rope I wasn't too keen on, but that said, it's definitely a prime example of how to make a true thriller - from the master of suspense himself.

Rope is the most underrated Hitchcock, top five of his films for me. I love like the first half of The Conversation, which is a common problem for me with thrillers, despite my love for them. I think Fargo qualifies, therefore it should be much higher, like #1.

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I really like Rope. I'm not much of a Hitchcock fan, but I like Rope a lot. I have Headhunters on dvd but, as is so often the case, I've not seen it yet.

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The Conversation so low down your list? Love that film

I love "Rope". If it weren't for "Psycho", it might be my favorite Hitchcock film. Although, I know I have definitely seen it more times than "Psycho" (I almost enjoy watching "Rope" more).

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Love Rope and Fargo, but I was disappointed in The Conversation on my one viewing. I'm going to try it again.

Yes, great film...I saw it at least 5 times...as a film it should be ranked much higher...the thrill factor was a serious category for me while I was ranking them...may be that took it down...

by the way, the sound design of "The Conversation" is probably the best I have heard, ever...

Headhunters has been sitting on my to-watch list for a while. I'm not sure when I'll get around to it, but it was recommended to me by someone who's taste in film I greatly admire, so I'm looking forward to it. The Conversation looks really interesting too.

70. Spoorloos/ The Vanishing (1988) - George Sluizer





69. Borgman (2013) - Alex van Warmerdam





68. The Departed (2006) - Martin Scorsese





67. Wages of Fear (1953) - Henri-Georges Clouzot





66. Le Samourai (1967) - Jean Pierre Melville

I have only seen two of that set. I think The Departed is a very solid, very watchable flick. Not my favorite Scorsese or even my favorite gangster film, but I like it a lot.

Wages Of Fear really disappointed me, except for a couple of scenes. The love for it is beyond me.

I'm pretty much with sean on that post, with the exception of The Vanishing, which I really liked but haven't seen since the early 90's.

The Vanishing has a great tension. I like it a lot.