For some people, movies are a form of escapism, but others prefer suspenseful films that evoke fear and make their hearts race, whether it’s a great thriller or a terrifying horror movie. A solid, suspenseful film is one that creates a rich atmosphere, heavy tension, and grips you with its narrative, keeping you hooked throughout its entire runtime. It leaves you guessing and afraid of what comes next.
If you’re looking for the adrenaline rush that comes from a suspense-filled movie, you can find it in any of these 10 movies curated on this list. Each is suspenseful from beginning to end, making for a psychologically grueling and nail-biting experience. You might want to keep your lights on for some, and pour a glass of wine to dull your nerves for others.
‘The Descent’ (2005)
The Descent is a British survival horror movie written and directed by Neil Marshall. A year after a tragic accident took the lives of her husband and daughter, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) joins her adventure-seeking group of friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. When they enter an uncharted cave, they become hopelessly lost miles below ground, where they’re preyed upon by sightless, flesh-eating creatures (“crawlers”).
An Ever-Tightening, Claustrophobic Nightmare
The film would be terrifying even without the subterranean, carnivorous monsters, with the cave itself slowly robbing the characters of both air and hope. Coupled together, it makes for an absolutely merciless, visceral film. In the darkness and isolation, with the unspeakable creatures roaming around, it feels like something horrifying could happen at any moment. Viewers spend the whole runtime bracing themselves for something unimaginable. Like the characters, it’s a hell from which there seems to be no escape.
‘Funny Games’ (2007)
In 1997, Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke made one of the greatest meta horror movies of all time, and one of the most brutal films to ever exist. His 2007 shot-for-shot American remake is no different, making the same commentary on our obsession with violence and terror in film. It stars Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, and Brady Corbet. The story follows two young men who break into a family’s vacation home, take them hostage, and torture them with sadistic games.
An Anxiety-Inducing Home Invasion Horror Film
The intruders frequently break the fourth wall, speaking directly to the viewers and letting them know they’re doing what they’re doing for the audience’s pleasure and entertainment. The effect is a completely disorienting one — one that turns the viewer from a passive observer to an accomplice. The antagonists become more and more realistic, making the movie increasingly unsettling and suspenseful. Naturally, you want to root for the protagonists to make it out alive, but those hopes are gradually diminished, and all you can do is brace for the worst.
‘Shutter Island’ (2010)
Film buffs are certainly familiar with Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, widely lauded as one of the finest psychological thrillers ever created. If you’re the rare viewer to be unfamiliar with this film, you’re in for one of the most intense, mind-bending cinematic experiences of your life. Set in 1954, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who is sent along with his new partner, Chuck Ule (Mark Ruffalo), to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a remote psychiatric institution for the criminally insane. As he delves deeper into his investigation, he finds something far more sinister lurking within the walls of Ashecliffe Hospital.
A Paranoid Masterpiece
Shutter Island masterfully blends gothic, neo-noir, and psychological horror elements to build palpable suspense that only heightens as it unravels its mysteries. While there are some truly frightening moments and jump scares, the movie’s true triumph is its nightmarish, oppressive atmosphere. The muted tones, stormy weather, shadowy corridors, and sound design create an inescapable sense of psychological dread from beginning to end.
‘I Saw the Devil’ (2010)
Directed by Kim Jee-woon, I Saw the Devil is an unrelenting revenge thriller from Korea about a depraved, sadistic killer and another man determined to avenge the love of his life. Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. His days of hunting people for sport are deadlocked when he murders the fiancée of secret agent Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun). Soo-hyun embarks on a quest for vengeance that turns him into the same kind of monster he is fighting.
An Intense, Gritty Look at Evil
I Saw the Devil is suspenseful from start to finish, opening on a dark and snowy night with a brutal act of violence that sets the stage for a series of blood-drenched and psychological punishments unleashed by the protagonist. The movie is ruthless, never once letting up in its violence and terror. Even after the film ends, there’s no escape, leaving the viewers reflecting on the depth of human darkness.
‘It Follows’ (2014)
Jay Height (Maika Monroe) is a 19-year-old college student living at home in the suburbs of Detroit. With her whole life ahead of her, she has nothing to worry about except school, her friends, and dating. All that changes after a sexual encounter with Hugh (Jake Weary), during which a deadly curse is passed on to her. A paranormal, shape-shifting entity that only she can see slowly creeps towards her, and will stalk her until it kills her, or she passes it on to someone else.
A Highly Unnerving Experience
It Follows is an anxiety-inducing psychological horror film from beginning to end. With an unsettling atmosphere and pervasive sense of paranoia, the audience can’t escape its terror. The inevitable threat of the entity creates a constant sense of impending doom. Audiences are chilled to the bone all throughout. The whole movie feels like an awful countdown towards certain death, making it one of the most terrifying films of the 2010s.
‘Green Room’ (2015)
Green Room is one of the most underrated horror movies of the last decade, as well as one of A24’s most underappreciated films. It follows a struggling punk band, the Ain’t Rights — Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Tiger (Callum Turner) and Reece (Joe Cole) — who, desperate for money for gas, agree to perform at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar after their main gig is canceled. Despite a rocky start, their set goes well, but as they’re leaving, one of the members witnesses something he shouldn’t in the green room. With no other options, they’re forced to barricade themselves inside. What follows is an intense battle for survival.
A Tense, Electric Horror-Thriller
The movie is tense from the moment it begins, with the band opening up with Dead Kennedy’s “Nazi Punks Fuck Off,” and the crowd revolting. Once they realize there’s no escape from the bar, a ruthless standoff ensues, making for a terrifying, tense experience to the very end. Green Room is a movie that should not be overlooked. But watch out, this one will have you biting your nails until the credits appear on the screen.
‘The Gift’ (2015)
Looking for a fresh start, Simon Callem (Jason Bateman) and his wife, Robyn (Rebecca Hall), move from Chicago to Los Angeles, Simon’s hometown. While shopping one day, they run into Gordo (Joel Edgerton), an old classmate of Simon’s. Slowly, the man tries to ingratiate himself into the couple’s lives, randomly dropping by their house and bringing them gifts. Simon’s uneasy demeanor makes Rebecca start to wonder about her husband and Gordo’s past relationship.
A Taut Psychological Thriller
The Gift is a unique take on the “psycho intruder” genre. Instead of taking a conventional stalker approach, the movie creates suspense by exploring psychological manipulation, building tension patiently and purposefully. The atmosphere it creates is an oppressive, unpredictable one. Viewers are left on edge throughout its entire runtime, wondering about the dark truth and Gordo’s sinister intentions. With its ending, a new kind of dread emerges that lingers long after the credits roll.
‘Don’t Breathe’ (2016)
Jane Levy (Evil Dead) stars as Rocky, who, desperate to get herself and her sister out of their abusive, poverty-stricken home, has taken up breaking into houses and stealing along with her boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) and friend Alex (Dylan Minnette). One night, they pick the wrong house to rob, becoming entrapped in a game of cat-and-mouse with a former military man (Stephen Lang), who, although blind, is more than capable of hunting them down.
A Stressful Horror Movie
Fede Álvarez co-wrote and directed this anxiety-inducing reverse home invasion horror, in which audiences are left rooting for the thieves. The claustrophobic film leaves viewers holding their breath from beginning to end. Effectively building and maintaining tension throughout, the film is a complete white-knuckle experience that lives up to its name, using silence and darkness to its advantage.
‘The Invisible Man’ (2020)
The Invisible Man is Leigh Whannell’s reimaging of James Whale’s 1933 film of the same name. Elisabeth Moss stars as Cecilia Kass, a woman trapped in an abusive relationship with wealthy optics engineer Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). After enacting a meticulous plan of escape one night, she finally escapes his evil clutches. Not long after, news breaks of his suicide. As time goes on, Cecilia can’t shake the feeling that he’s still stalking her and intervening in her life. After experiencing increasingly disturbing events, she becomes convinced he’s still alive.
A Visceral Psychological Horror
The movie opens with Cecilia peeling away from the grip of a sleeping Adrian and moving through a dark, quiet house to make her escape. Audiences hold their breath along with her, terrified of what might happen if she was heard. That feeling of fear and impending doom never goes away. As Cecilia slips down a descent into paranoia, so does the audience. Moss’ powerful performance makes her character’s terror a palpable one. Whannell utilizes strategic camera work and empty spaces to heighten that sense of dread and uncertainty. It isn’t until the end of the film, when Cecilia finally has her “good for her” moment, that viewers can finally exhale.
‘Watcher’ (2022)
Julia (Maika Monroe), an American actress, moves to Bucharest with her Romanian-American husband, Francis (Karl Glusman), for his job. After spotting someone staring at her through his window in a neighboring building across the street, she suspects she may have a stalker, her fears becoming stronger after feeling like she’s being followed around the city. News of a local serial killer dubbed “The Spider” beheading women in the area makes her even more afraid, and she becomes convinced it’s the man who has been watching her. No one, not the police and not even her husband, believes her, chalking it up to her being paranoid. But Julia knows she’s not imagining things.
A Brilliant Debut
Watcher is Chloe Okuno’s feature directorial debut. The Hitchcockian thriller captures the universal female experience of having your fears minimized by the same patriarchal structures that put you in danger. Although it’s a slow-burn, it’s incredibly suspenseful, managing to maintain a sense of dread and tension all throughout. Julia’s isolation is exacerbated by the language barrier, with Okuno’s choice to omit subtitles from Romanian-speaking scenes making the audience feel just as alone and trapped as Julia. Okuno’s voyeuristic camerawork — zooming in and out of Julia during intimate moments, pulling the camera back to frame Julia’s window, focusing the camera on Julia to manufacture the male gaze — gives off the threatening sense that Julia is never alone.
Release Date
June 3, 2022
Runtime
96 Minutes
Director
Chloe Okuno
Writers
Chloe Okuno, Zack Ford
Producers
Derek Dauchy, Rami Yasin, Roy Lee, Mason Novick, Sean Perrone, Steven Schneider, Aaron Kaplan, Elizabeth Grave, Gabi Antal, John Finemore, James Hoppe
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