Thriller & Mystery
Trust few and fear all in a collection of films packed with suspense, paranoia and conspiracy – some dark, some brooding, others bordering the experimental.
Explore erotic thrillers, racial politics, espionage, fake news, queer characters and femmes fatales in our selection of nail-biting and disturbing films. Plenty of deception, and in some cases death, lies ahead. From the pulse-racing to the hair raising, these thrillers will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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The Night of the 12th
Detective Yohan Vivès (Bastien Bouillon) has only just taken over as head of the detective bureau of the local police department when he is assigned to the chilling murder of a young woman in her quiet mountain village. But what starts as a meticulous investigation into the victim’s life soon tur...
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Evil under the Sun
Peter Ustinov stars as Agatha Christie's immortal detective, Hercule Poirot, in this star-studded murder-mystery. Poirot is tying up some loose ends on a shimmeringly beautiful Adriatic island when he's dragged into the case of an actress' strangling. In typical Christie style, everyone on the be...
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Out of the Darkness
Shot on location around Derbyshire, this atmospheric and entertaining ghost story - which sees the dispossessed spirit of a young plague victim making contact with modern kids - is one of the highlights of the latter days of the Children's Film Foundation. Past intrudes on present with increasing...
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The Third Man
One of the greatest British films, Carol Reed's classic very consciously emphasises its time and place - post-war Vienna - yet its resonant themes around loss of innocence and a fall from grace render it timeless. Joseph Cotten plays the writer searching the Austrian capital for his missing frien...
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Silent Scream
1963: When Larry Winters violently murders a Soho barman in cold blood he is sentenced to life imprisonment. Within ten years he is addicted to prescription drugs and feared as Scotland's most violent inmate. After being transferred to the experimental Barlinnie Special Unit, Winters finds new an...
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Flight to Berlin
‘They asked me the wrong question’ says murder suspect Susannah after being interrogated by the police. She was found in the apartment of a known criminal but this turns out to be the least of her problems as her past begins to catch up with her. Brooding acting and stunning location shooting mak...
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Melancholia
The sole directorial credit by the German-born founder of distributor Artificial Eye, Andi Engel, is a cerebral thriller about an art critic drawn into an assassination plot. Jeroen Krabbe plays the German ex-pat who reconnects with his radical past when he's asked to assist with the hit of a Chi...
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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Legendary Hollywood director Sidney Lumet’s final film is as blistering as any young director’s. In desperate need of money, brothers Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke rob a ‘mom and pop’ jewelry store – only it belongs to their own mom and pop. Murder and time-tripping editing ensue; and Al...
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Magic
A productive collaboration with William Goldman as writer and Anthony Hopkins as actor results in an unusually small-canvas story - a thriller on the theme of the ventriloquist whose dummy becomes a lethal alter ego. Director Richard Attenborough described it as ‘A game of creating characters and...
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Open Your Eyes
Alejandro Amenabar weaves together a complex sci-fi romance with this audacious drama. Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) is a handsome and successful man, but feels completely different once he meets Sofia (Penelope Cruz), who captivates him with her beauty and sensibility. However, just at the beginning o...
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Love Rites
When Hugo (Mathieu Carriere) meets the enigmatic Myriam (Marina Pierro) on the Paris Metro, he finds himself becoming increasingly obsessed with her. Following her back to her flat, Hugo sleeps with her, but finds that his obsession has grown until Myriam seems to have total control over his body...
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Elite Squad
Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura), a BOPE (Special Police Operation Battalion) officer, is tasked with clearing the drug gangs in the slums of Rio de Janeiro before a visit from the Pope. Meanwhile, desperate to take on a safer job so that he can be closer to his pregnant wife, he trains up two y...
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Stranger by the Lake
Alain Guiraudie’s acclaimed mystery-thriller is set in a gay cruising ground in Southern France. The appearance of a handsome stranger stirs the passions of a young man, whose obsession continues even after the new arrival appears to have committed a violent crime. It’s a fascinating mix of thril...