Movies in the Thriller genre

There are reasons why Hollywood rarely backs a murder mystery.  With its various narrative complexities, double dealings, and mandatory twists, the genre is generally unsuited for the constrictions demanded by a two-hour timeslot. As the PBS ...

If Knock at the Cabin was an episode of the old TV series “The Outer Limits,” it would be regarded as middling and forgettable. Such descriptors seem kind, however, when applied to a 100-minute production that requires an admission fee. A medi...

Knowing is a classic case of a movie that is crammed with interesting ideas but is unable to conceptualize them in a compelling fashion. Knowing doesn't fail because of a lack of ambition or scope but because of flaws in execution. The movie trie...

Crooked cops. The mystery and allure of Hollywood in the '50s. Death, double-crossing, and secret alliances. Paparazzi waiting to get that one breakthrough picture. These are just some of the elements that make Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confiden...

Lady Vengeance is the conclusion of South Korean director Park Chan-wook's "Revenge Trilogy." (The other two episodes: 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and 2003's Oldboy.) Over the span of three films, Chan-wook has examined many aspects of the co...

The Ladykillers is an interesting concoction - a faithful update of the original Ealing comedy cooked in vat of Coen Brothers' seasoning. Even though this is based on the 1955 British film of the same name, those unfamiliar with The Ladykillers' p...

Robert Frost famously wrote, "Good fences make good neighbors," and that's one of the first phrases that comes to mind while watching Lakeview Terrace, the latest thriller from Neil LaBute. LaBute began his filmmaking career with the scathing In...

Last Breath has epic potential but opts instead to present its gritty survival story with as little fat as possible – so little, in fact, that it cuts too close to the bone at times. Based on a true story, it tracks its documentary source materi...

The difficulty with making a thriller based on actual events is that aspects of the film are often at cross-purposes. There’s a little of this going on in Eduardo Mendoza’s 2017 feature, The Last Hour, but, on balance, the historical elemen...

In a graphic example of how creatively bankrupt Hollywood has become, it's no longer good enough merely to remake older films - now the studios have begun to remake remakes. 1972's The Last House on the Left, the first feature effort of Wes Craven...