By Ashna Mishra:
As the title goes, this list constitutes the best of all thriller movies. The numbering of movies, however, has nothing to do with the ranking of these films.
2. Seven : Seven is a 1995 American thriller coupled with the elements of horror, written by Andrew Kevin Walker and directed by David Fincher. The plot revolves around two detectives, Detective William R. Somerset and his partner Detective David Mills who find themselves trapped in the vicious circle of a serial killer (who uses seven deadly sins to choose the victims). The performance by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman is really commendable.
3. The Sixth Sense : A 1999 film, The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan was nominated for six Academy Awards. The movie shows Dr. Malcolme Crowe (Bruce Willis) as a child psychologist whose new six year old patient, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) claims to see the spirits of dead people all around him. It is a chilling psychological thriller which is very exciting with a surprising twist in the twist.
4. Black Swan : It is a psychological thriller set in the New York City. Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina, who is a featured ballerina obsessed with becoming the lead dancer for which she has to compete a new comer. When the two compete for the parts, Nina discovers a dark side seeing weird things. Everything, from the script to the performance by Natalie is amazingly chilling and makes it stand out as a master piece.
5. The Game : The 1997 psychological thriller film won accolades from all over including the famous critics. Michael Douglas and Sean Penn starrer, The Game was directed by David Fincher. This is an outstanding movie with a brilliant end and will manage to envelope you throughout.
6. The Taxi Driver : The Taxi Driver is a 1976 American psychological thriller film which was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 1994 (Source- Wikipedia). This movie is about an insomniac taxi driver who sets out only at night. The film truly helped Robert De Niro prove his versatility. In all, it has a powerful haunting storyline.
7. Gumnaam : The 1965 box office hit, Gumnaam is a suspense thriller film, based on Agatha Christie’s novel “And Then There Were None”, directed by Raja Nawathe and starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran, Helen and Mehmood. The plot begins with five men and two women winning a free holiday who end up getting caught up on an island along with a co-pilot. The eight of them reach a mansion in search of shelter and meet a butler there who claims to already know them. Then begins the mysterious killing of those people one by one, thus providing momentum to the storyline.
8. Manorama Six Feet Under : For those who haven’t seen Chinatown, Manorama Six Feet Under, directed by Navdeep Singh is a perfect, strong and a well-executed thriller. The acting by all Raima Sen, Abhay Deol, Gul Panag and Vinay Pathak is really credible coupled with a convincing story-line.
9. A Wednesday : Directed by Neeraj Pandey, the 2008 Bollywood thriller movie features Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah in the lead roles. The film is set between a particular time slot on a Wednesday and thus goes the name, A Wednesday. The movie was a box office hit and received positive critical claim. The actors have played their part really well and Neeraj Pandey has indeed been successful.
10. Omkara : An adaption of Shakespeare’s Othello, Omkara, a 2006 film, is directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. The movie has a rural background, set-up in Meerut, a city in Uttar Pradesh but is still Shakespearean to the core. It is a work of cinematic vividness, translating and transforming the characters of Shakespeare’s book into the Indian setting with much conviction.