When I was in middle school and someone had a sleepover, it was inevitable that a horror movie would be shown. I would act like a opossum and roll myself up in my sleeping bag and pretend to be dead. There was the one where we watched Christine in 7th grade, and to this day, I can’t eat a particular kind of pizza because it’s what we ate before the movie started, and it still conjures up memories of that murderous car. Gross.
Then again, I loved A Nightmare on Elm Street and the first two Halloween movies. I’m even looking forward to the reboot October 19th with Jamie Lee Curtis, I just won’t be seeing it in the theater. Watch the trailer here and you’ll see why I’ll be watching it next Spring when it comes out on video and I can watch it at home during the day.
My niece loves thrillers, so we’ve been setting movie nights {or days, depending on the movie} where we can get her caught up on some classics, as well as some newer ones. Like IT. There was no way in hell, pun intended, I was watching this movie at any other time than DURING THE DAY. I ended up watching it from behind closed fingers and eventually that wasn’t enough, so I just hid behind a pillar and listened to the blood spill.
Turns out, I actually really liked it. I do like being scared. As long as the sun is out.
Here’s my list of the 15 Best Thrillers:
- Black Swan – Darrin Arronofsky knows how to make a creepy movie. This one might be more creep than thrill, but Natalie Portman won an Oscar for her role as a tortured ballerina.
- Fargo – Frances McDormand is pretty special in this one, eh? You’ll never look at a wood chipper the same way again.
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Lisbeth Salander is one badass woman who helps a hottie newspaper reporter solve an unsolved missing persons case. The Swedes made all three books into films and they’re all good, but subtitled. Might not be your thing. The American version is only the first book. And there’s a new one, the fourth book, The Girl in the Spider’s Web starring Claire Foy, coming out November 9th. Hopefully the 2nd and 3rd books will be made into American movies as well. Hollywood politics…
- Halloween – I mean, Michael Myers has his own theme song and he can wield an axe like no other.
- Jaws – Jaws also has his own theme song which makes his movie equally as creepy as Halloween, and you’ll never get in the ocean after the sun goes down again. I tried. Not gonna happen.
- Mystic River – Sean Penn stars as a grief stricken father who’s teenage daughter is murdered. Things don’t go well when two of his childhood friends may be involved.
- North by Northwest – I love Alfred Hitchcock. This one stars Cary Grant as an advertising man being chased by a spy who thinks he’s actually a government agent. Is he?
- Presumed Innocent – Harrison Ford may or may not have killed the woman he was having an affair with…
- Primal Fear – Edward Norton is super creepy in this one about an alter boy who murders the Archbishop of Chicago and Richard Gere is the lawyer tapped to defend him.
- Rear Window – Another Hitchcock movie, this one stars Jimmy Stewart as a photographer, healing from a broken leg, who passes his days watching the comings and goings of his neighbors.
- Se7en – This one is super dark and creepy, and if you know what’s in the box at the end of the movie, it causes more anxiety than a first date.
- Silence of the Lambs – Jodie Foster tries to get into the mind of a serial killer, Anthony Hopkins, while working on a new case involving a similar mindset and a love of lotion.
- Vertigo – Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart team up again in this thriller about an ex-cop who’s hired by an old friend to stop his wife from committing suicide. If that’s really what she’s planning on doing…
- Wait Until Dark – Audrey Hepburn stars as a blind woman in a game of cat and mouse with a group of criminals who want something she has, but she doesn’t know she has it.
- Zodiac – Based on the real life events of the Zodiac killer who terrorized San Francisco, and taunted police in the late 1960’s and 1970’s.
Happy viewing! Don’t watch alone…
xoxo
P.S. – I just remembered I forgot one of my favorite thrillers, so there are actually 16. The Mothman Prophecies is based on true events and it will freak you out!
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