Image via Artisan Entertainment
Published Apr 28, 2026, 5:42 AM EDT
A New York native, Joe graduated from an avant-garde theater school upstate, where he was obsessed with sketch comedy. There, he and his lunatic friends founded The Sketchies — which still lives on at Skidmore College today. Living in New York City, a screenwriter friend of his then taught him how to write for film. This awakened a new passion in Joe. Since then his scripts have garnered over 200 festival selections, nominations, and wins all over the globe (including the BlueCat Best Feature award). Several of his screenplays have been made into feature films — some of them not that bad! Overall, he loves to create unique, hilarious, touching, and bizarre stories.
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All around the world, people loved to be thrilled. When skydiving or bungee jumping isn’t an option, the next best thing, of course, is watching a thriller. Regardless of political climates or social structures, all the countries represented in this list have something in common: they’ve produced rip-roarin’ thrillers of some nature — and all these movies all have sublime, unforgettable endings.
The filmic term “thriller” does a lot of heavy-lifting, as this robust genre can feature films that are full of action and adventure or more cerebral, slow-paced, and psychological in nature. Whichever sub-category they fit into, each of these international classics conclude in a way that makes them stand out from the rest of their countries’ contemporaries.
10 ‘Amores perros’ (2000) — Mexico
Image via Nu VisionAlejandro G. Iñárritu’s howlingly heart-pounding Amorres perros is a remarkable movie that subverts expectations at almost every turn. The film follows three main stories, connected by a car crash — all with the inherent theme of dogs. Each of these chapters results in some degree of tragedy (hey, the translation of the title is “Love’s a bitch”). It may be Iñárritu’s way of articulating that no matter your social or economic status in Mexico City, everyone lives like a dog in some form or another.
The three basic tales are these: a guy (Gael García Bernal as Octavio) in love with his sister-in-law who uses his dog in illegal fights to raise money for an escape, an old homeless hit man (Emilio Echevarría as El Chivo) in love with his new rescue, and a fancy model (Goya Toledo as Valeria) who pampers her pooch a bit excessively — which gets trapped under the floor after she becomes incapacitated from the car accident. Each story is rife with tragic elements throughout, but they coalesce into a mostly depressing tapestry in the end. Octavio loses everything, Valeria loses everything — including her leg, but…El Chivo is left with his dog, Negro, and they stroll off together in search of his estranged daughter and a new, non-violent life. It’s a heartbreaking work of wagging genius.
9 ‘Deep Red’ (1975) — Italy
Image via CinerizThe prolific Italian director Dario Argento finds himself all over “best film” lists, often in the context of horrors and thrillers. With arguably one of his greatest movies in general, centered around a musician (David Hemmings as Marcus Daly) who witnesses a murder, Deep Red (Profondo Rosso) is a masterfully made mystery, bursting with vibrant colors (especially…reds) and even more brilliant characters.
The grand finale of this film is heralded as one of the best in the giallo series of films (a particularly gruesome style of Italian cinema, often thought to be the precursor of the “slasher”) for several reasons. First, the mystery is solved by Marcus in a very organic, highly digestible manner. Next, the way it illustrates one of the key themes of memory distortion is very cool (for instance, an observed “painting” was really a reflection in a mirror). And finally, it contains one of the most creative ways to terminate someone in cinematic history (and this was only the 70s, mind you). Marcus learns that his friend’s mother, Martha (a disturbingly amped-up Clara Calamai), is the killer. She attempts to dispatch him, he evades her, and she falls, getting her necklace trapped in the gate of an elevator. The button is pushed, and she is painfully decapitated. Testa persa!
8 ‘Funny Games’ (1997) — Austria
Image via Madman EntertainmentHappy endings? That’s just for boring, anesthetized audiences. Perhaps that’s how Michael Haneke feels, as his oeuvre includes a bevy of satirical, tragic films. Right up there among them is Funny Games (which he thought needed an even wider audience, and remade it in 2007 with English-speaking actors). Yet, the original remains the creepiest in his collection.
Funny Games is a highly divisive, extraordinarily dark film. All throughout, the watcher desperately waits for some semblance of hope, as a couple is harassed and taken hostage in their home by a pair of murderous little punks. Unfortunately, when hope appears to finally come for the protagonists, Georg (Ulrich Mühe) and Anna (Susanne Lothar), it’s quickly “reversed.” In a seldom-used technique, Haneke breaks the “fourth wall,” and has one of his dastardly antagonists, Paul (Arno Frisch), use a remote control to “rewind” the action and prevent their escape. After Georg and Anna are savagely murdered, Paul and his equally devious minion Peter (Frank Giering) move on to their next targets: another unsuspecting, happy couple. It’s chilling as all heck, and reinforces the bleak theme that no one is ever really safe…
7 ‘Open Your Eyes’ (1997) — Spain
Image via Artisan EntertainmentThe title of the original version of this film in Spanish, Abre sus ojos, is arguably a better one than the Cameron Crowe-directed English version of this movie, Vanilla Sky. It’s a message that the lead character really should have taken to heart earlier in his life's journey. In Open Your Eyes, director Alejandro Amenábar mixes a touch of sci-fi with regular thriller components. It’s definitely a head-trip punctuated with heartbreaking moments and heart-racing moments, in equal measure. Basically, the protagonist is a wealthy, handsome guy, César (Eduardo Noriega), who takes things for granted. He gets into a car wreck and loses his good looks, seemingly forever. Right before his accident, though, he met a girl, Sofía, that he instantly fell in love with (obviously, genuine love-at-first-sight is on the table when you’re dealing with Penélope Cruz).
César spends the majority of the film trying to find a way to fix his outward appearance and win Sofía back; but really, it’s all about the internal character transformation that he is undergoing. To grow, César needs to experience the first real moments of pain and true frustration in his life. In any event, César accidentally “kills” Sofía, and is imprisoned. Eventually, he wakes up and realizes it’s all been a hallucination — he’s in a cryogenic state, and has been “lucid” dreaming. He now has the option to wake up in reality (150 years into the future) or go back into the dream-like (Matrix-esque) state. He flings himself off the roof of a building, ironically, choosing life.
6 ‘Dogs Don’t Wear Pants’ (2019) — Finland
Image via SF Film FinlandSome films do their best to not be pinned down by any specific genre. The Finnish masterpiece Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is precisely one of those films. It premiered at Cannes in 2019, to wildly mixed audience reactions. At times, Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää’s film is heart-wrenching, others revolting, others hilarious, and ultimately, redemptive.
The story focuses on a grieving doctor, Juha (Pekka Strang, giving the performance of a lifetime), who just isn’t able to emotionally connect with his peers or daughter, Elli (Ilona Huhta), after the unexpected loss of his wife. By accident, he is introduced to the world of sadomasochism by Mona, a latex-clad dominatrix (the stunning and insanely intense Krista Kosonen), and seemingly can’t get enough of it (the film's title is a reference to a wry directive that Mona gives him). However, it’s finally revealed that Juha really wants to push himself to the brink of asphyxiation because his goal is to actually die. Mona refuses to participate, leaving Juha even more devastated. But then, Juha has a moment of internal reckoning. He shows up at the sex club, where he’d previously been rejected from entering, now wearing the correct gear. He spots Mona, but he really is just there for the vibe now; she wordlessly acknowledges this with a sly grin. Juha bobs his head to the pulsing electronic music, and, for the first time in the entire film it seems, he smiles.
5 ‘Parasite’ (2019) — Korea
Image via CJ EntertainmentBefore the brilliant Bong Joon Ho directed the Oscar-winning Parasite, he was fairly entrenched in a variety of genres, including supernatural and horror movies. His film The Host had a very different perspective on the massive monster creature-feature genre. The humongous chimera in this production was not evil, simply living its life. The way he depicted humans in Parasite was not nearly as kind…
Parasite obviously broke a lot of records (highest-grossing Korean film in history) and introduced Korean cinema into the American mainstream. The whole movie is a complex examination of the caste-like societal structures a lot of people are compelled to live in, and how greed and money can corrupt in unparalleled measure. The basic story is about a poor family hiding under a rich family’s home. Under the cover of darkness, they enjoy the spoils of their unwitting hosts' wealth (this, of course, eventually corrupts them as well). The final sequence sees Ki Taek (Song Kang-ho), the patriarch of the destitute family, forced to perform a demeaning task at one of the kids’ birthday parties (dressed as a Native American — so there’s that whole can of symbolic worms to unpack as well). In a frenzy of violence, he kills the financially buoyant dad, Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun), and chaos ensues. Ki Taek hides in the basement once again, and after the legal repercussions of the event are doled out, his son Ki Woo (Choi Woo-sik) devises a plan to become rich himself, and buy the house from the new (also rich) owners. The final image is of Ki Woo back in their original, soggy basement apartment; it’s never going to happen, and the cycle of the upper-crust dominating the hoi polloi continues.
4 ‘Persona’ (1966) - Sweden
Image via AtlusRegarded as one of the best films to ever come out of Europe, Swedish cinematic provocateur Ingmar Bergman’s classic Persona fires on every possible intellectual and metaphorical cylinder. It’s a highly cerebral work, exploring Jungian themes of identity, repressed sexuality and trauma, and a host of other heady topics. What makes the film truly succeed, though, is Bergman’s usage of double-imagery, highly innovative, stylish camerawork, and the mind-blowing, fully committed performances from the intimate cast.
The story revolves around an actress, Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), who loses her ability to speak, and then is cared for by a nurse, Alma (Bibi Andersson). The two women’s personalities begin to blend and mysteriously merge, to the point where even Elisabet’s husband has difficulty distinguishing them (or so he claims, after he has sex with Alma…). After a trippy 80-plus minutes of psycho-sexual hijinks, the movie comes to a close with Alma finally busting out of the seaside house of confusion and catching a bus, Elisabet (utterly broken) being filmed by a camera crew, and then a little tyke pawing at a projected moving picture on a screen (a callback from the very opening) and a film projector spooling the end of a reel. There’s a lot left open for interpretation there, but no matter how one slices it, it’s profoundly impactful imagery.
3 ‘Old Boy’ (2003) — Korea
Image via FilmDistrictThe veritably twisted action thriller Old Boy is a high-octane, ultra-engaging tilt-a-whirl ride from start to finish. It’s the ending, though, that made it absolutely unforgettable (even if the viewer desperately wanted to erase the final plot point from their mind). Director Park Chan-wook keeps the pedal to the metal for the duration of this film, which is really about the lengths one will go to when they want to find the truth. Dae-su Oh (the indomitable Choi Min-sik), after being held captive for 15 years, is finally freed — but he only has five days to find the person who imprisoned him, or else...
Dae-su endures countless tortures and tribulations throughout the whole story. However, none as vile and horrific as the simple nugget of truth bestowed upon him at the end: the girl he’s now fallen for, Mido (Kang Hye-jeong), who he consummated his relationship with…is actually his long-lost daughter. Oops. It’s basically Oedipus Rex, with the gender roles flipped. The whole reason his captor, Lee Woo-jin (Yoo Ji-tae), snatched him up in the first place was because he allegedly started a school-hood rumor about Lee and his sister having an inappropriate relationship. Keeping in the spirit of Greek tragedy, after the revelation about Mido, Dae-su cuts out his own tongue. He finds a hypnotist in the hopes that he can erase the incestuous memory from his mind forever. In the final shot, he smiles. Perhaps it worked? Perhaps, it didn’t…
2 ‘Les Diaboliques’ (1955) — France
Image via CinédisOo-la-la, this is a zesty one. Henri-Georges Clouzot’s examination of marital infidelity, wickedly conceived deception, and pernicious premeditated murder is a tale that will make any thriller fan squeal, “Mon Dieu!” Without getting too mired in the devilish details, Les Diaboliques involves an incredibly complicated murder plot that employs the use of a faux specter, a misplaced corpse, and various other tools of mental duplicity.
The basic story is that an infirm, but wealthy woman, Christina Delassalle (Véra Clouzot), owns a boarding school and is married to a real louche slug of a guy, Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse), who runs it. He also has a mistress, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). The thing is, though, Nicole and Christina are friends, who commiserate about how much Michel is a real bâtard. Eventually, Nicole convinces Christina to devise a plan to kill Michel. It seems to go off without a hitch…until hints and visions of Michel start to pop up all over the place. Ultimately, it turns out that Nicole and Michel actually conspired to kill the weak-hearted Christina. Their devious plan works, but, alas, justice prevails as a detective figures it all out. Now, what makes this ending so revered, is the final scene. One of the little students mentions that he recently encountered Christina. Annoyed, as only a French child could be, he quips, “I did see her. I know I saw her.” The ambiguity is great; she’s either still alive (like Michel was) or is a ghost. We’ll never know. C’est magnifique.
1 ‘Layer Cake’ (2004) — England
Image via Everett CollectionMatthew Vaughn’s first feature, Layer Cake, is an incredibly well-paced, sublimely acted, coolly-constructed film — with an awesome soundtrack to match. Daniel Craig is at his best as “XXXX,” along with a supporting cast of who’s-who of early 2000s British cinema, including Michael Gambon, Tom Hardy, and Sally Hawkins. The plot is centered around an intentionally anonymous, high-up drug dealer who just wants to finish one last score, and then be out of the business for good.
As with most stories of this nature, that job is never as easy to pull off as it seems. As XXXX delves deeper and deeper into the layered cake that is organized crime and drug running, things just seem to get more and more complicated and dangerous. Yet, XXXX is super savvy; he’s been at this game for a long time. He finds a way to snatch the loot that he believes is owed to him, walk away with the girl, Tammy (a breathtakingly fun Sienna Miller), and live a scot-free life. Naturally, this is all undone in the final moments of the film. Just as XXXX (speaking in voice over about all these things that he so ingenuously accomplished) saunters away with Tammy, his little cousin, Sidney (Ben Whishaw), who he incidentally stole Tammy from, pops up out of nowhere and fatally shoots XXXX. He lies there on the ground, bleeding out. As the camera booms high, the Joe Cocker rendition of “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood,” plays, and it’s really the most perfect ending ever. See kids…crime doesn’t pay — and it’s definitely not a piece of cake.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.
ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?
AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.
AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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Layer Cake
Release Date September 30, 2004
Runtime 105 minutes
Director Matthew Vaughn
Writers J.J. Connolly
English (US) ·