The Best Thriller Movies for Each Season of the Year

I love a good horror movie during the Fall, but for my money, horror thrillers are where the real action hides.

For horror thrillers, suspense alone is not enough. The suspense must also be deeply unsettling and terrifying.

While many point to Get Out as Jordan Peele’s masterpiece, I prefer his second directorial effort if I’m looking for a spooky season horror thriller.

The menacing notion of essentially being tormented by yourself adds a terrifying component to the already thrilling jump scares. Plus, it is a great conversation piece no matter how many times you’ve seen it, because you always notice something new.

If you have an older movie fan in your life who tries to make you watch movies from 15 years before you were born: listen to them.

Don’t Look Now is a chilling and unsettling look at grief in which two parents, consumed by grief from the loss of their daughter, cross paths with a set of psychic sisters in Venice.

Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are at their absolute best, and the setting offers the spookiest of vibes.

While the previous two installments torment your mind by making you ask yourself tough questions, Hush gets right to the point. It is a terrifying 80 minutes of survival in which we follow a deaf writer on a solo-trip to the woods where she attempts to complete a novel.

It makes chilling and creative use of the isolated house in the woods setting that is incredibly prevalent in horror thrillers!

The Strangers is like a roller coaster that only goes down—and does it at the speed of light. Press play and hang on.

We follow a young couple who plan for a relaxing stay in a cozy cabin, only for their vacation to be derailed as a group of masked intruders torment them (and us) in ways that cut right to the core.

There’s something about the claustrophobia of staying inside during winter that makes crime thrillers an exhilarating experience. These four crime thrillers will have you on the edge of your seat and leaving the porch lights on overnight!

I hope every great director gets to make a movie as good as this for their last one like Sidney Lumet did here!

This is the story of two brothers with money problems who decide to execute a fool proof heist. We all know how those go.

The twist happens early, but it's as sinister a twist as there could be. The ensuing spiral is both enthralling and uncomfortable.

There are twists and then there are twists. Primal Fear is a perfect example of the latter.

Richard Gere gives a phenomenal performance as a know-it-all defense attorney, but it is a young Edward Norton, on trial for murder, who steals the show. This is my favorite type of thriller because it will have you rooting for a certain outcome the entire time just to pull the rug out from under you.

Jeremy Saulnier came into the picture (for me at least) when I saw 2015’s Green Room. 2013’s Blue Ruin is the superior of the two, however.

This is especially true if you love vengeance-driven plots where the protagonist is motivated by something much deeper than just the normal money or their own survival. In the movie, we see a young man flung into a harrowing revenge plot after returning to his hometown.

One day I’m going to make a list of movies called “Why Did My Parents Let Me Watch This So Young.” One Hour Photo will be one of the first titles I list.

Not only was it quite jarring to see Robin Williams portray such a creep, but it also hit a little close to home due to how obsessed my mom and her friends were with taking pictures. One Hour Photo is one of those films that seemed so plausible that it was genuinely upsetting, and it is a great thriller—perfect for a cold, dark night!

By the time spring rolls around, it’s time to cleanse our palates a little bit. The romantic feeling of flowers blooming, spending more time outdoors, and summer being on the horizon fills us with hope and serotonin.

To me, this is the perfect time to fire up a romantic or erotic thriller to add a little excitement and anxiety to the mix.

Emily Browning should definitely be a much bigger star than she is. Sleeping Beauty, written and directed by Julia Leigh, is exhibit A.

Featuring a beautiful cast in a beautiful setting, Sleeping Beauty is like a serene body of water with some dangerous monsters lurking beneath the surface. Browning plays a college student who accepts an unorthodox position catering to the whims of rich old dudes.

Like all good thrillers, things quickly get weird.

A young Kevin Costner in a white dinner jacket would be enough to make any movie worth watching, but that’s just icing on the cake in this tightly woven political conspiracy. Gene Hackman is diabolical as a politician trying to hide a huge secret, while Costner is equally relentless in trying to uncover the truth.

Body Heat was a weird experience for me. I saw it more than two decades after it came out after having already been introduced to its leads, already into their late 40’s or early 50’s.

It was baffling figuring out that “older” actors were once younger and attractive. That being said, Body Heat is a great look at what people will do for money and in the throes of a forbidden romance.

William Hurt as the shady lawyer archetype is perfect.

What Micheal Douglas did for the erotic thriller genre is talked about to death, but I would argue Sharon Stone has done as much, if not more.

Some may argue Sliver left much to be desired, but Stone carries this film to a level it had no business going. She is incredibly charming and badass in her role at the center of a love triangle, in which nothing is as it seems.

For some, summer is a time to relax on the beach and have a drink. For cinematic thrill seekers, it's a time for action thrillers with big chases, huge explosions, and intricate fight choreography.

Stunts and set pieces loud enough to drown out the hum of the air conditioner, with human stories and characters that we care about, are the hallmark of a great summer action thriller. Here are some of the best.

If there is a way for me to get John Wick: Chapter 4 on a list, I’m going to do it.

It feels like a throwback to Jean-Claude Van Damme action films of the 80s and 90s, combined with the spectacle of movies like Die Hard and The Terminator, all set in a world as well built as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Make yourself a mojito and watch John Wick: Chapter 4 on the hottest night of July every year. You will not regret it.

There’s something about the impending destruction of the earth that adds an extra layer of tension and drama to the subplots of this film.

A love story where the woman’s father doesn’t approve of the man? We’ve seen that a million times.

A love story where the woman’s father doesn’t approve of the man, but it also may not matter because an asteroid is about to wipe out the planet? Sign me up.

Set yourself a reminder for July 4th, 2025 at noon so you can remember to grab a cherry water ice and fire up Independence Day.

Independence Day completely nails the perfect action movie formula. They give us just enough backstory for our main characters to make us care, but not so much that the run-time exceeds the bloated three hour mark of many modern action thrillers.

Is there anything better than revenge plots? Gladiator could’ve simply put Russell Crowe in some armor and let his arms and fighting carry the movie, but it didn’t.

Ridley Scott did that for us. Watching Gladiator is as crucial to a good summer as ice cream and lemonade.

There’s also no better time than now to watch this, as a refresher or for the first time, with the sequel coming out this Fall.