Top 7- Most intense thrillers
Alien: Covenant comes out this week and seems to be going back to the roots of the original with a thriller deeply rooted in body horror. Yes, that's right, the original Alien is a thriller. There are moments of horror, sure, but for most of the film, it is about keeping you on the edge of your seat and that's what I want to celebrate here. To clarify, I am doing my ranking here based on the intensity of the films, not how much I like them, so while I love films like Psycho and Ex Machina, they don't deliver enough thrills for me to make the cut.
7. Alien
We start with the one that inspired this post and also inspired countless filmmakers. It works essentially on premise alone as a helpless crew are stuck in space and hunted down by a creature that can blend in with the architecture of the ship and kill in a second. Of course, the bit that everyone remembers is the chest burster scene and deservedly so. It is still an impressive display of practical effects today although what is lost is the horror element it held in the seventies. While the horror may be gone, the film definitely still thrills as Ridley Scott's restraint in showing the creature keeps you on the edge of your seat as you panic about who will be the next to die and when. If you haven't seen Alien, you need to remedy that immediately.
6. Hell or High Water
For the few of you who have seen this film, it may be a surprise to see it on the list but I have a good reason for this. Personally, I consider tension to be how a film keeps you on the edge of your seat and while it does it subliminally, Hell or High Water certainly does that. It's a slow burn, sure, but when the bullets finally start to fire, every single shot makes you flinch. You hear a bullet land and you fear for any of the characters. As an independent film, it's also hard to tell who, if any, of the characters will survive and that too keeps the tension high. It's hard to explain what keeps the tension high but with this and Sicario, the secret probably lies in Taylor Sheridan's script writing abilities.
5. The Gift
Of all the films on the list, this film is probably the one you haven't seen and I'd recommend remedying that quickly. For that reason, I won't get into any story details, other than to say that a figure from the past returns to the lives of a couple and he isn't exactly welcome. It manages to avoid that worst of worst crimes in a thriller, that of the excessive jumpscare. There is one and it is fairly cheap but the rest of the film relies on a tension that starts slow as the mystery is unveiled and eventually becomes near unbearable. If you don't feel at least a bit sick to your stomach by the end, there is something wrong with you.
4. 10 Cloverfield Lane
One of my surprise favourites of last year, not least because it was announced two months before release. Again, it returns to the classic staple of thrillers where you just put the characters in a confined space and wait for someone to snap. Instead of having aliens trapped with them in the bunker though, there is... Well, mystery. Only John Goodman's character seems to know what's happening and he isn't telling us so we have to work it out ourself. This is a proper piss palm movie (it's exactly what it sounds like) where everything is painful to witness, from not so casually veiled threats to the scariest game of Articulate that anyone has ever played. The ending lessens the tension somewhat but for the middle section of the film, you will be on the edge of your seat and the end of your nerve.
3. Seven
Seven is the closest modern example we have to a gothic thriller and it is astounding. The first time I saw David Fincher's creepiest film, I didn't get it as I was basically waiting for the big reveal at the end that I already knew. On a second watch though, the film grabbed me and didn't let go. The cat and mouse chase between detectives and a twisted serial killer delivers what is initially a slow burn tension but gradually escalates until it is almost unbearable. If you don't know the finale, it gets particularly nasty then, although to be fair, if you do know what's coming, that might make it worse. Seven will grip you though and won't let go till long after your viewing has ended.
2. The Hurt Locker
Most people best know Kathryn Bigelow's film Point Break and to be fair, that is an absolute action classic. She surpassed that though and created a masterpiece of tension with The Hurt Locker, a film about bomb defusal in Afghanistan. You can already tell where the tension is coming from but it really delivers. There are plenty of scenes that are intense because of the subtext of violence constantly looming but the actual defusal scenes take some beating. With some extreme close ups, we see the sweat dripping off the character's faces and it isn't soon before we do the same. Bigelow never lets us forget the lives at stake, right from the first scene and the specter of threat stays with you until the film ends, keeping you as shaken due to the tension as you are due to the intense character study.
1. Whiplash
Whiplash is one of my favourite films ever and Damien Chazelle is quickly becoming one of my favourite directors so it only feels appropriate to celebrate his masterpiece. See, while it is a film about a drummer, it is also a deep psychological dive into what it takes to strive for musical greatness. La La Land did it fairly well but compared to this, it is nothing. There are few films that when rewatching, there are genuinely scenes I have to look away from because they're too intense. Honestly, if J.K. Simmons was this scary in real life, he would never get hired but he would be the greatest motivator in the world, as this film shows. Fun fact, Chazelle also wrote the screenplay for 10 Cloverfield Lane after this and while it was great to see him flex his skills at delivering tension again, he was not quite the tempo he set before. Whether you're rushing or you're dragging, this film never fails to thrill and is one that is oddly amazing to rewatch, despite the unwatchability of every performance scene.
7. Alien
We start with the one that inspired this post and also inspired countless filmmakers. It works essentially on premise alone as a helpless crew are stuck in space and hunted down by a creature that can blend in with the architecture of the ship and kill in a second. Of course, the bit that everyone remembers is the chest burster scene and deservedly so. It is still an impressive display of practical effects today although what is lost is the horror element it held in the seventies. While the horror may be gone, the film definitely still thrills as Ridley Scott's restraint in showing the creature keeps you on the edge of your seat as you panic about who will be the next to die and when. If you haven't seen Alien, you need to remedy that immediately.
6. Hell or High Water
For the few of you who have seen this film, it may be a surprise to see it on the list but I have a good reason for this. Personally, I consider tension to be how a film keeps you on the edge of your seat and while it does it subliminally, Hell or High Water certainly does that. It's a slow burn, sure, but when the bullets finally start to fire, every single shot makes you flinch. You hear a bullet land and you fear for any of the characters. As an independent film, it's also hard to tell who, if any, of the characters will survive and that too keeps the tension high. It's hard to explain what keeps the tension high but with this and Sicario, the secret probably lies in Taylor Sheridan's script writing abilities.
5. The Gift
Of all the films on the list, this film is probably the one you haven't seen and I'd recommend remedying that quickly. For that reason, I won't get into any story details, other than to say that a figure from the past returns to the lives of a couple and he isn't exactly welcome. It manages to avoid that worst of worst crimes in a thriller, that of the excessive jumpscare. There is one and it is fairly cheap but the rest of the film relies on a tension that starts slow as the mystery is unveiled and eventually becomes near unbearable. If you don't feel at least a bit sick to your stomach by the end, there is something wrong with you.
4. 10 Cloverfield Lane
One of my surprise favourites of last year, not least because it was announced two months before release. Again, it returns to the classic staple of thrillers where you just put the characters in a confined space and wait for someone to snap. Instead of having aliens trapped with them in the bunker though, there is... Well, mystery. Only John Goodman's character seems to know what's happening and he isn't telling us so we have to work it out ourself. This is a proper piss palm movie (it's exactly what it sounds like) where everything is painful to witness, from not so casually veiled threats to the scariest game of Articulate that anyone has ever played. The ending lessens the tension somewhat but for the middle section of the film, you will be on the edge of your seat and the end of your nerve.
3. Seven
Seven is the closest modern example we have to a gothic thriller and it is astounding. The first time I saw David Fincher's creepiest film, I didn't get it as I was basically waiting for the big reveal at the end that I already knew. On a second watch though, the film grabbed me and didn't let go. The cat and mouse chase between detectives and a twisted serial killer delivers what is initially a slow burn tension but gradually escalates until it is almost unbearable. If you don't know the finale, it gets particularly nasty then, although to be fair, if you do know what's coming, that might make it worse. Seven will grip you though and won't let go till long after your viewing has ended.
2. The Hurt Locker
Most people best know Kathryn Bigelow's film Point Break and to be fair, that is an absolute action classic. She surpassed that though and created a masterpiece of tension with The Hurt Locker, a film about bomb defusal in Afghanistan. You can already tell where the tension is coming from but it really delivers. There are plenty of scenes that are intense because of the subtext of violence constantly looming but the actual defusal scenes take some beating. With some extreme close ups, we see the sweat dripping off the character's faces and it isn't soon before we do the same. Bigelow never lets us forget the lives at stake, right from the first scene and the specter of threat stays with you until the film ends, keeping you as shaken due to the tension as you are due to the intense character study.
1. Whiplash
Whiplash is one of my favourite films ever and Damien Chazelle is quickly becoming one of my favourite directors so it only feels appropriate to celebrate his masterpiece. See, while it is a film about a drummer, it is also a deep psychological dive into what it takes to strive for musical greatness. La La Land did it fairly well but compared to this, it is nothing. There are few films that when rewatching, there are genuinely scenes I have to look away from because they're too intense. Honestly, if J.K. Simmons was this scary in real life, he would never get hired but he would be the greatest motivator in the world, as this film shows. Fun fact, Chazelle also wrote the screenplay for 10 Cloverfield Lane after this and while it was great to see him flex his skills at delivering tension again, he was not quite the tempo he set before. Whether you're rushing or you're dragging, this film never fails to thrill and is one that is oddly amazing to rewatch, despite the unwatchability of every performance scene.
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