The cinema has a very wide typology of styles; above all, if we take into account the cinematographic subgenres. However, the movies that catch us the most and intrigue us are usually suspenseful. This happens because the main objective of this genre is to keep the receiver waiting.
The suspense or mystery film genre causes a tension, generated by the characters or the conflict, that makes us get involved in the story and be aware of each new advance in the plot. Generating concern is the end of this type of cinema that usually deals with realistic themes.
There are great masters of suspense, who does not directly relate these movies to Alfred Hitchcock
A pioneer of the techniques that characterize suspense films and psychological thrillers; British director and producer creator of ‘Rear Window’ or ‘Psycho’, among many others.
Also highlight Christopher Nolan, creator of ‘Memento’, ‘Origin’ or ‘Interstellar’, for example. A film director, screenwriter and producer who has been nominated five times for the ‘Oscar Awards’. Or Night Shyamalan, Indian-American director, producer and screenwriter who stands out for films like ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘Signs’ or ‘The Protected One’.
Great movies that often combine mystery with terror and that we remember in this compilation of the best suspense movies:
Psycho
A 1960 film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, from a screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Framed in the horror and suspense genre, it tells the story of Marion, a secretary who disappears and is wanted by her sister Lila de Ella.
The plot takes place in the Bates motel and has actors such as: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh, John Garvin, Martin Balsam, Patricia Hitchcock or Simon Oakland. It is based on the 1959 novel by Robert Bloch, inspired in turn by the crimes of Wisconsin.
I think… we all have our private traps. We are trapped in them and none of us can free ourselves. We scratch and scrape but only against the air, only against ourselves. And despite all that we don’t move an inch. Sometimes, we get into those traps on purpose. I was born in mine. I do not care anymore.”
The Sixth Sense
Directed by Night Shyamalan, with a script by the director himself, is a film from the year 1999. A film of the suspense genre that features actors such as Bruce Willis, Olivia Williams, Toni Collette, Donnie Wahlberg or Haley Joel Osment.
It’s about a well-known child psychologist, Malcolm Crowe, obsessed with a memory. The psychologist constantly remembers a patient he could not help and tries to assist an eight-year-old boy to try to redeem himself. An opportunity full of supernatural visits.
«- Sometimes I see dead people.
– In your dreams
? When you are awake
, do you see dead people in tombs and coffins
? – Like normal people. They don’t see each other, they only see what they want to see, they don’t know they are dead.
– Do you see them often
– Every day, they are everywhere. You won’t tell anyone my secret, will you
»
Searching
‘Searching’ is the story of a disappearance. David Kim, the protagonist, embarks on the search for his 16-year-old daughter after notifying the police and finding no clues. A plot that develops closely linked to new technologies.
The 2018 psychological thriller is directed by Aneesh Chaganty and features a screenplay by Chaganty and Adam Sidman. In the cast stand out: John Cho and Debra Messing.
The name of the rose
The thriller and drama film is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and based on the 1980 novel of the same name by Umberto Eco. Among the main actors that appear in the film are: Sean Connery, Valentina Vargas, F. Murray Abraham, Christian Slater, Feodor Chaliapin Jr, Ron Perlman, William Hickey, and Michael Lonsdale.
The plot is set in the 14th century and deals with the story of Fray Guillermo de Baskerville, a Franciscan monk and former inquisitor. Together with Adso de Melk, a novice, they try to clarify the death of Adelmo de Otranto. A film focused on the mysterious stay of both in a Benedictine abbey.
«Having reached the end of my life of sin, with my head gray, I prepare to leave on this parchment, my testimony of the wonderful and terrible deeds that I saw in my youth, towards the end of the year of Our Lord. May God give me the wisdom and the grace to be a faithful chronicler of the events that occurred in a remote abbey in the gloomy north of Italy.»
Shutter Island
A 2010 thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Laeta Kalogridis. The production is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane published in 2003.
The story of ‘Shutter Island’ focuses on the summer of 1954, when two judicial officers investigate the disappearance of a dangerous murderess. Both are assigned to an island to visit the psychiatric hospital where the murderer was confined.
It has such relevant actors as: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson or Michelle Williams.
“This place makes me wonder which would be worse: live like a monster or die like a good man.
”
Rear Window
Framed in the intrigue genre, ‘Rear Window’ is about a photojournalist who remains at rest because of a plastered leg. He has the company of his girlfriend and his nurse. The reporter is dedicated to observing from the window, discovering a series of strange circumstances.
It is a 1954 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with a script by John Michael Hayes and produced by the same director together with James C. Katz. It has leading actors such as: James Stewart, Wendell Corey, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr or Thelma Ritter.
“We should stop being so onlookers and instead of looking so much outward, dedicate ourselves to looking more inside.”
memento
A thriller from the year 2000 that features actors like Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss or Joe Pantoliano. It is based on a 2001 story titled ‘Memento mori’ written by Jonathan Nolan.
‘Memento’ is directed by Christopher Nolan, who also wrote the screenplay, and produced by Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd. The film recounts the investigation of a murder. Leonard tries to avenge the murder of his wife, during which he suffered a serious blow to the head that affects his memory.
“I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning…even when I can’t remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world is still there.”
The glow
This 1980 film belongs to the psychological horror subgenre. It is directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick and has a script written by Kubrick with Diane Johnson. It is based on the novel by the American writer Stephen King published in 1977.
It is about paranormal phenomena that happen when Jack Torrance, his wife and his son move to the Overlook Hotel for work. There, his son begins to suffer from personality disorders and various strange events occur.
We can see Jack Nicholson, Danny Lloyd, Shelley Duvall or Scatman Crothers in the cast.
“I remember that when I was a child, my grandmother and I spoke without opening our lips. She called it her radiance and I believed for a long time that only she and I had it. Surely you thought you were the only one. But there is more although most do not know or do not believe it. Since when do you have it
? Don’t you want to talk about it?
Protege
Night
Shyamalan directs this film, also taking part in its production and creating the script. It is a thriller and superhero film from the year 2000 that features actors such as: Bruce Willis, Robin Wright Penn, Samuel L. Jackson, Spencer Treat Clark or Charlayne Woodard.
In the plot we can see a comic story adapted to real life. In it, a security guard is the only survivor of a train accident. After the accident, he finds an address that leads him to meet Elijah, who has a degenerative disease and cannot move. A friendship is born between the two that triggers a series of tragic events.
“I have studied the form of comics thoroughly and have spent a third of my life in hospital beds with nothing to do but read. I think the comics may be related to a way of conveying the story.
The Egyptians drew on the walls, there are countries that still transmit the knowledge of pictorial forms. I think comics can be a form of history that someone felt or experienced wherever they went. So that experience and that story was gobbled up by the commercial machine and embellished and updated for sale.”
Origin
‘Origin’ is a 2010 film directed and scripted by Christopher Nolan. Framed between the genre of suspense and science fiction, it tells the story of Dom Cobb, who appropriates the secrets of the other’s subconscious during sleep.
A coveted man and a fugitive because of his skill. In order to change his life, Cobb has to do the opposite of what he always does: implant an idea in the subconscious instead of removing it. A complicated plan to carry out.
The film features actors such as: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Tom Berenger, Tom Hardy, Cilian Murphy, Michael Caine, Miranda Nolan, Talulah Riley, Pete Postlethwaite, Lukas Haas or Dileep Rao. .
“An idea is like a virus. Resistant. Highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define you or destroy you. The smallest idea like: Your world is not real. A simple and small thought that changes everything.»
argus
The film is set in Iran in the year 1979. A film based on real events that tells of a covert operation with the aim of rescuing several Americans during the Iranian hostage crisis.
It is directed by Ben Affleck, who also participates in the production along with Grant Heslov and George Clooney. ‘Argo’, with a script by Chris Terrio, is a 2012 thriller film that features actors such as: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman or Alan Arkin.
“If we wanted applause we would have joined the circus.”
Interstellar
An epic 2014 science fiction thriller film. Directed by Christopher Nolan, produced by Nolan with Emma Thomas and Lynda Obst and written by Nolan with his brother Jonathan.
In it we can see relevant actors such as: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Bill Irwin, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon or Michael Caine.
The story focuses on a mission to save the human race. A group of explorers undertake this mission to find a planet that can guarantee the future of the human race, since life on Earth is ending.
«Quantum physics does not explain to us the mysteries that the universe keeps, but it encourages us to take responsibility for ourselves; until now, we live conditioned by the idea of not having any control over reality, but on the other hand science tells us that what happens inside us will create what happens in the world. The real is conditioned by and for us. »
Signals
A 2002 science fiction thriller starring Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Abigail Breslin and Rory Culkin. It is directed by Night Shyamalan, who writes the script and also participates in its production along with Sam Mercer and Frank Marshall.
The film tells the story of a Protestant pastor who lives with his two sons and his brother, a former baseball star. The pastor, Graham, loses faith after losing his wife in a traffic accident. But the discovery that his children make in the field will be very significant in his life.
“The world has two types of people, and when something lucky happens, those in the first group consider it more than luck, more than chance, they consider it a sign. A proof that there is someone up there taking care of the human being.
Other people consider it pure luck, a happy twist of chance. Surely the people in the second group are watching those fourteen lights with suspicion. For them, the situation is half and half. It could go wrong… or right. But deep down they feel that, no matter what happens, they are alone, and that fills them with fear.
Yes, that’s what they think. But then there are a lot of people in the first group that when they look at those lights, they are seeing a miracle. And deep down they feel that no matter what happens, there will be someone up there to help them. And that fills them with hope.
What you should ask yourself is what group are you in? Are you one of those who see signs
, one of those who see miracles
, or do you believe that people’s luck is random
? Or, consider it this way: is it possible that coincidences do not exist?
»
More interesting suspense movies
I am not a serial killer (Billy O’Brien, 2016)
The Oxford Murders (Alex de la Iglesia, 2008)
A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018)
Night of the Wolves (Jeremy Saulnier, 2018)
Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
The Final Trick (Christopher Nolan, 2006)
Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003)
The Wave (Dennis Gansel, 2008)
One of Us (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
The Forest (Night Shyamalan , 2004)
The Angel (Luis Ortega, 2018)
The Revenant (Alejandro G. Inarritu, 2015)
The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006)
Legacy in the Bones (Fernando Gonzalez Molina, 2019)
Daggers in the Back (Rian Johnson, 2019)
Don’t Breathe (Fede Alvarez, 2016)
The Others (Alejandro Amenabar, 2001)
The Lighthouse ( Robert Eggers, 2019)
Cam (Daniel Goldhaber, 2018)
Home (Alex Pastor and David Pastor, 2020)
Diamonds in the Rough (Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie, 2019)
The Hole (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2019)
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007 )
Your son (Miguel Angel Vivas, 2018)
Cell 211 (Daniel Monzon, 2008)
Lost(David Fincher, 2014)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)
The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar, 2011)
Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992)
No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
Perfection (Richard Shepard , 2018)
Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003)
The practitioner (Carles Torras, 2020)