60 Greatest Suspense Movies of All Time

In this psychological crime thriller, veteran detective William Somerset takes one final case with young colleague David Mills, who is set to replace him, in an attempt to trace the steps of a serial killer who is targeting victims representing seven deadly sins. But, William and David only get themselves embroiled into the twisted plan of the diabolical assailant.

Counted as one of Alfred Hitchcock's best movies, Rear Window is a mystery psychological thriller that follows the observations of a wheelchair-bound man who suspects that a neighbor has murdered his wife and is disposing off the evidence. The movie was ranked no. 42 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list. 

Memento is a psychological thriller that finds the perfect way to tell its story. The story is told back-to-front to give audience a sense of amnesia. The film is about Ex-insurance investigator Leonard Shelby suffers from short-term memory loss caused by a head injury sustained while trying to stop his wife's murderer. He is determined to track down the culprit, who he suspects is someone named John G, and desperately attempts to retain information by taking copious notes, Polaroid photos, and by etching tattoos over his body.

Based on Boileau-Narcejac's 1954 novel D'entre les morts, the movie follows a former cop - John Scottie Ferguson - who suffers from acrophobia and vertigo. Gavin Elster believes that his wife Madeleine is possessed and assigns Scottie the task of following her. Scottie saves her and the two fall in love. However, Madeleine, soon commits suicide leaving Scottie devastated.

Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Shutter Island is  a cult-classic. The story revolves around U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who has personal reasons to investigate Ashecliffe Hospital, an institution for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. He is assigned the case of a strange disappearance of a woman from a locked room. As he digs deeper into the sinister operations of the asylum, he begins to lose his grasp of reality.

The Secret in Their Eyes is a crime suspense thriller which tells the story of a judiciary employee and his boss, who is a law clerk, as they together investigate a rape and murder case in 1974. Their investigation eventually leads them to various shocking truths.

Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe sees an opportunity to redeem himself after he meets his new patient Cole Sear, who exhibits similar symptoms to one of his former patients whom he had failed to treat. Despite doubting Sear's claims at first, Crowe gradually discovers that he might actually be able to see dead people, unaware of their death.

Prisoners is a gripping suspense thriller that focuses on the search of a father, Keller Dover, brilliantly portrayed by Hugh Jackman, for his little daughter and her friend who suddenly disappear after Thanksgiving dinner. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the part of a detective who uncovers gruesome hidden truths while trying to solve the case.

Adrian Dora is a young successful businessman who wakes up locked in a hotel room, along with the body of his dead lover. He is soon arrested for murder. Eventually, he hires a prestigious lawyer to defend him, and over the course of a single night, he and his lawyer needs to come up with a impenetrable defense.

Dave, a blue-collar worker who was abducted and sexually abused as a child 25 years earlier, is the prime suspect after the daughter of his neighborhood friend, ex-con Jimmy, is found dead. While their childhood friend Sean, now a homicide detective, investigating the crime, Jimmy takes law in his own hand by launching a separate investigation.

Respected Chicago surgeon Richard Kimble is wrongly convicted of killing his wife, but escapes from captivity while being transported to death row. Now, with veteran U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard's team on his trail, he must avoid a nation-wide manhunt to clear his name and expose his wife's actual killer, a one-armed man.

Loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s 1954 short story, the movie is set in 2054 Washington where specialised police arrests murderers before they actually kill someone. Helping the police are three psychics or precogs who can predict these murders. John Anderton works for this special police force but when one day, he is identified as a future killer, he is forced to escape to prove his innocence.

Chris is an African-American man who reluctantly agrees to meet the family of his Caucasian girlfriend Rose. Later, at their house, Chris starts to witness strange behavior from their servants. It soon seems that there is something terribly wrong with the family.  

The Game is a psychological suspense thriller focusing on a lonely investment banker who is gifted a voucher for a unique game by his estranged brother that ends up wreaking havoc in his life. Starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn as the two brothers, this film sees Douglas lose all his money in this game that becomes intrinsically connected to his real life.

In a remote country house, Grace Stewart awaits the return of her husband from WWII while bringing up her two photosensitive children with strict discipline. Her peaceful life is shattered when a trio of new servants join in. Strange thing begin to happen and her daughter starts interacting with an unknown boy. Grace must overcome her fears and find the truth.

Source Code is a sci-fi action psychological thriller, revolving around Captain Colter Stevens of the US Army, who finds himself in a computed reality, and is given a mission to find a train bomber.

Roger and Carolyn Perron move into their new home in Harrisville, Rhode Island, along with their daughters. Within a short time, they start to experience paranormal events. Fearing that there is a dark presence lurking in the house, they decide to call Ed and Lorraine Warren, two paranormal investigators, to find out what’s going on.

Hunted by blind creatures extremely sensitive to sound, a family has survived silently in an isolated farm for a year in a post-apocalyptic Earth. However, their quiet paradise has recently been located by the predators, and the couple, Evelyn and Lee Abbott, must take drastic measures to ensure the survival of their three children.

The Lighthouse is a psychological horror drama film which revolves around Ephraim, who arrives at a remote island to work as a lighthouse keeper. He begins to assist his supervisor Thomas. However, over the days, he tries to maintain his sanity as he is haunted by strange and mysterious visions.

The life of people in an otherwise peaceful Californian town goes awry when a masked killer goes around claiming victims. Sidney Prescott, a high school student whose mother was murdered just a year before, becomes the next target but escapes. A reporter and the town’s deputy sheriff investigate the case to figure out the real killer who appears obsessed with horror films trivia.

Jin-seok, a young man witnesses his brother Yoo-seok being kidnapped from near their home. Nineteen days pass and Yoo-seok returns all of a sudden, with no memory of the last nineteen days. However, Jin-seok starts noticing odd behavior in his brother as well as their parents ever since his brother returned.

David Dunn miraculously comes out unhurt in a train accident in which no one else survives. Elijah Price, a comic book store owner with brittle bone disease believes that David is Unbreakable – people with exceptional courage and tolerance to pain and an extraordinary sense of dangerous people and devastating happenings. David must figure out if the theory is indeed true.

The first movie in the Now You See Me series, sees an FBI agent Dylan Rhodes and an Interpol detective Alma Dray pursue a team of four magician or the Four Horsemen as they carry out bank robberies while performing and then distribute the cash amongst audience. The duo seek the help of illusionists Thaddeus Bradley; however it is difficult to differentiate between truth and illusion.

Following a car accident, Michelle finds herself locked in the underground bunker of a man named Howard who tells her that the outside world is unbreathable due to an unknown chemical attack. Emmett, the only other person living in the bunker, dismisses her concerns about being abducted, but she can't help looking for ways to escape captivity.

A ghostwriter, The Ghost, is assigned to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang, who is charged with war-crimes and human rights scandals. As he starts working, he realizes that probably his predecessor McAra had unearthed some dark secrets about Lang which had cost him his life. The Ghost goes after the truth knowing the risks to his life.

In this remake of a Japanese horror film Ring, which itself was based on Koji Suzuki’s novel, anyone who watches a mysterious videotape dies one week later. Amongst those who die is the niece of Rachel Keller, a journalist, who now watches the video and has precisely a week to unravel the mystery before she too faces the same fate as others.

Congressman Stephen Collins is leading an investigation into PointCorp, a private defense contractor. But when his mistress Sonia Baker, also a researcher on his staff is murdered, he calls his old friend journalist Cal McAffrey for help. What follows is a trail of betrayals that hide a much deeper conspiracy. 

Martin Bishop, who runs a company that tests security systems, is blackmailed by government agents into getting a black box from its inventor. Bishop’s ex-girlfriend and his team of experts, who retrieve the device, discover that it can decode any encryption code. As Bishop realizes that those men were criminals and not government officers, they incriminate him in the murder of the inventor.

The Invisible Man is a sci-fi horror film, which tells the story of a woman Cecilia who has an abusive boyfriend.  After she leaves him, he seemingly commits suicide. However, Cecilia soon starts believing that he is still alive, and has become invisible to stalk and hunt her.   

At the once-popular but now-deserted hotel El Royale of Lake Tahoe, six strangers, and the hotel manager, meet on a fateful night. They may not be what they appear to be, but have their own secrets which are disclosed over the course of night. As their stories intertwined, the hotel too reveals its own dark secrets - together, everything leads to wild twists and turns. 

Kate and John adopt a nine-year-old Russian girl, Esther, after the loss of their third child. Esther mingles well with the family but Kate realises that there is something strange about the girl. John disagrees with his wife but Kate soon discovers Esther’s real identity and her horrid past. She now has to protect her family, but is it too late?

San Francisco police detective Nick Curran is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of rock-star Johnny Boz. A manipulative crime novelist and Boz’s girlfriend, Catherine Tramell, is the prime suspect; however, there is no evidence against her. Curran gets drawn to her and soon he is totally involved with the novelist. This complicates the investigation and also, puts his life in danger. 

Cardiothoracic surgeon Steven Murphy leads a happy life with his wife Annie, teenage daughter Kim, and younger son Bob. When Steven introduces teenager Martin to the family, one by one everyone in Steven’s family starts falling ill and nearing death. As Martin’s connection to Steven’s past is revealed, things take a much darker turn. 

William and Katherine lives a devout Christian life, near an impassable wilderness, along with their five kids. However, their lives turn upside down when their newborn son disappears all of a sudden, and their crops start failing. Soon, the family members start turning on one another, as if a sinister force has begun haunting them.

Following the weird experiences of a 16-year-old boy who gets mysteriously transported to the middle of an intricate maze along with many other boys, The Maze Runner is an exciting science fiction film based on James Dashner's 2009 novel of the same name. 

Josh and Renai move to a new house, looking forward to a fresh start. However, their lives turn upside down when their son falls into a coma mysteriously, and they start experiencing paranormal events in their house. Soon, it seems that there might be evil spirits lurking in the house, who wants to take their son away from them.

The Client is a 1994 legal thriller film, which tells the story of a young boy who witnesses the suicide of a lawyer, and also has information regarding the disappearance of a politician. He hires a lawyer for protection when the District Attorney tries to use him to take down the mobsters. 

John H. Watson meets Sherlock Holmes at school and they become friends. While they write their first semester, a series of inexplicable delusions occur to people leading to their deaths. Holmes along with Watson decides to investigate. They stumble on a strange cult with a penchant for human sacrifice but the key question is- how will it stop?

After a young boy named Justin Whitter is kidnapped while riding his bicycle through a park, Greg Harper is made the lead detective in the case. Harper himself is going through personal problems, and things get worse as mysterious occurrences begin plaguing his house, as he continues his investigation.

The Guest is a mystery thriller suspense film which tells the story of a soldier named David, who introduces himself to the Peterson family as a friend of their son Caleb, who was killed in action. They welcome him to their home, but soon a series of accidental deaths start occurring in the town, which seem to be connected to him.

Chloe is a teen girl dependent on a wheelchair, whose mother is quite overprotective. She is not allowed to check the mail, and she is kept isolated inside her house. Eventually, she begins to suspect that her mother might be hiding some terrible secrets from her, and decides to investigate the matter herself.

Fear Street: 1978 is a horror drama mystery film which revolves around a group of teenagers in a camp named Camp Nightwing who are forced to unite and fight for survival, when one of the counselors get possessed with an uncontrollable urge to kill.  

A mystery suspense thriller that explores the events that unfold after a Harvard University professor is suspected of a grisly and unusual murder, The Da Vinci Code is a fast-paced drama with a surprise ending. 

The movie employs storytelling from multiple perspectives where the different viewpoints of witnesses are used to unravel a plot on U.S. President Henry Ashton’s life. Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes must not only uncover the plot but get the President back after he ends up being kidnapped. 

James Clayton is recruited by Senior CIA instructor Walter Burke to be trained at the Farm, the CIA training facility. Unfortunately, he is let go after failing an exercise. Later, Burke tells him that he actually passed and recruits him as an undercover agent. But nothing is what it seems.  

The Invitation is a psychological horror thriller film which tells the story of Will and his girlfriend Kira, who is invited for a dinner party, by Will’s ex-wife Eden and her new husband David. Soon, Will starts to believe that there is an ulterior motive behind why she invited him and Kira.

After their daughter leaves for college, the seemingly perfect marriage of scientist Norman Spencer and housewife Claire is rocked by the strange visions the latter begins to see. While Norman initially dismisses her visions as delusions, Claire delves deeper into the mystery to uncover a terrifying secret her husband has been hiding from her.

Law student, Darby Shaw, writes a brief with a theory as to why two Supreme Court justices were killed and she herself becomes the target of the assassin. As she is forced to go on the run, she reaches out to reporter Gray Grantham for help and uncovers a conspiracy involving senior Government officials. 

Hotel manager, Lisa Reisert, finds herself entrapped in an assassination plot on Charles Keefe, the United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. The assassin, Jackson Rippner is seated next to her on a flight and has kidnapped her father to ensure her compliance and she must find a way out. 

 A billionaire, diagnosed with terminal cancer, undergoes a radical medical procedure, which transfers his consciousness into the body of a healthy young man. He is told that the body is artificially grown and that he must take his medicines regularly in order to prevent hallucination. Mystery begins to deepen when one day he forgets to take his medicine and hallucinate about a woman and child. 

Libby Parsons is framed for the murder of her husband Nick, by Nick himself for insurance money and sent to prison. Libby earns her parole with the intent of killing Nick with impunity under the Double Jeopardy Clause in the U.S. Constitution and rescuing her son Matty. But parole officer Travis Lehman refuses to believe her. 

Under the Silver Lake is a mystery thriller film which tells the story of a young man named Sam, who finds a mysterious woman named Sarah, in his apartment’s swimming pool. However, she mysteriously vanishes the next morning. He sets out on a quest to find her and learn the secret behind her disappearance, and it leads him to a conspiracy far bigger than he can imagine.

American aviation engineer Kyle Pratt is on her way back to the U.S. with her husband’s body and her daughter Julia. However, Julia disappears from the flight and Kyle uncovers a conspiracy by flight attendant Stephanie and sky marshal Carson to hijack the plane for ransom. 

Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon is sent to Los Angeles for a quick evidence-gathering assignment. However, he gets involved in the search for a serial killer who has been terrorizing the city, and joins forces with Sergeant Jim Baxter.

A former detective reinvestigates her daughter's death after her friend, a former FBI agent, finds some new clues thirteen years later. The American thriller-suspense-mystery is a remake of a 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both of which are based on a novel.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made me Do It is a horror suspense drama film which revolves around paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Wayne, who begin to investigate a murder that might be linked to a demonic possession. This eventually leads to the first time in history, where a murder suspect claims demonic possession as defense.  

Fear Street: 1994 is a horror suspense film which revolves around a group of teen friends who accidentally encounter an ancient evil force that has been responsible for many brutal killings in their town for over 3 centuries. They decide to take on the evil force on their own, and put an end to the murders.  

Adrienne Saunders leads a blissful life with her art dealer husband, Jack. When the local museum curator is mysteriously murdered, Jack is suspected to have sold forged treasures to museums. Adrienne is crestfallen when Jack suddenly dies in a car crash. She tries to uncover peculiar developments related to her husband's past and learns about her husband's double life and possible illegal activities. She soon realizes that she had been deceived and how!

In a small town, a young woman is trying to find her missing child. Meanwhile, the town seems to be haunted by a mysterious killer. A detective tries to unravel the mystery and piece together several clues in order to find the identity of the killer.

This 1995 suspense thriller tells the story of Angela Bennett, a computer programmer, who stumbles upon government secrets, after which she finds herself on the run from an unknown enemy who intends to completely destroy her.