Looking For A Cheap Thrill (er)?

I got 10, what you got?

I love thrillers.  Not the horror stuff that seems to have been rising to the top of my Netflix queue lately, but quality thrillers with intrigue and psychology and all that good stuff.  So I made a list of the ten I like the best and wrote about them.  You can find them my 10 Favorite Thrillers List  right here on Movie Rewind, in the Articles section.  That’s right, you have to follow the link to find out what they are.  That’s right, I’m blatantly pimping my own article in my blog.  But along with the pimping I’m going to tell you a little bit…about what you won’t find on that list.

You will not find any of that hand-held camera, no-script, too-dark-to-see, faux-documentary Blair Witch Project crap.  At best that’s horror, not thriller.  At worst, it isn’t even good horror.  Aside from some jump scares it doesn’t offer anything coherent.  Unfortunately it spawned an entire genre of no budget knock-offs.  Paranormal Activity is probably the best of the bunch, and it’s scary – but it’s no thriller.

You will not find the name M. Night Shyamalan.  Anywhere.  The Sixth Sense is a pretty good movie (even though someone on The Daily Show gave away the ending before I saw it – shame on you Jon Stewart!).  Not great, but that twist is nicely played.  I didn’t hate either Unbreakable or Signs.  But everything since has completely and totally sucked.   Shyamalan is a one trick pony and his trick has gotten stale.

You won’t find horror trying to pass as thriller.  I know – the distinction may be only in my head.  But when I see a high quality thriller, the plotting, characters and setting take precedence over the overt gore.  The Ring and its Japanese horror rip-off brethren may be scary, but they are too simplistic and formulaic to make decent thrillers.  I don’t insist that a good thriller can’t have aspects of the supernatural, but if the ending is “creepy dead girl with black hair haunts someone out of revenge” it’s not going on my 10 favorites lists.

Go on, I dare you!

So go on over and see what did make my list.  Then come back here and tell me that I’m brilliant and chose impeccably or that I suck and should never write another word.  Hopefully you will choose something between those two extremes.  Hopefully you will take me up on a dare.  I dare you to find me a thriller for my list.  Something that I did not include that you think has a rightful place.  I will watch it if I haven’t seen it and carefully evaluate each and every suggestion.  Then I will pick one of yours and bump off one of mine.  You have the power to change my list, people!  So bring it on, let’s see what you’ve got!

Oh, and just in case you missed it, here’s a link to my article:  GO HERE!

Sue Millinocket

Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills  She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.