The Most Criminally Overlooked Thriller Movies of All Time

Hollywood loves a good thriller. It’s one of those genres that can easily pair with all kinds of stories and is a guaranteed win on paper. Tension and suspense sell like no other. Unfortunately, though, most mainstream thrillers tend to follow a structure that only gets more predictable. There’s no denying that these are high-concept, fast-paced stories, but they barely take any risks, and where’s the fun in that?

Every so often, though, the audience is treated with a thriller that refuses to follow the template. Unfortunately, a lot of these riskier stories are overshadowed by flashier releases, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be appreciated. Here is a list of six of the greatest thriller movies everyone has been sleeping on.

1 ‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’ (2007)

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is Sidney Lumet’s final film, and it is quite the note to go out on. The film opens with a simple premise, but it slowly spirals into a family drama like no other. The story follows brothers Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), who are both struggling with their own demons, and decide to rob their parents’ jewelry store. They are convinced that it’s a victimless crime because insurance will cover it. However, the film wastes no time in proving them dead wrong. The robbery goes catastrophically wrong, and from there, the film becomes less about the crime and more about the fallout. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead tells this story in a nonlinear structure through different perspectives.

However, that format never feels confusing because each return to the event adds new context that completely reframes the whole thing. Hoffman is the star of the show with the volatility he brings to his character, who slowly realizes that he is losing control of his plan and his family. His dynamic with Hank is messy and complex, but deeply human at the same time. What hits the audience the hardest, though, is when the emotional center of the film shifts to their father Charles (Albert Finney), whose suspicion takes a cold and calculating turn that no one sees coming. Despite all the twists and revelations, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead remains grounded in real consequences, and that makes the film gripping until the very end.

2 ‘Fracture’ (2007)

Fracture is an underrated crime thriller that only gets better with time. The film, directed by Gregory Hoblit, follows Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), a wealthy engineer who shoots his unfaithful wife and then confesses to the crime. Though what looks like an open-and-shut case is far from it. The file is assigned to assistant district attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), who sees it as one last easy win before moving on to a prestigious private law job that’s waiting for him. However, things start to unravel almost immediately. Turns out that the gun doesn’t match the evidence, and the confession is thrown out the window.

That leads to a courtroom procedural that feels like a slow chess match where people are always trying to outwit each other. Hopkins delivers a chilling performance and brings an eerie playfulness to his character. He toys with Beachum in open court and behaves as though he already knows the outcome of the trial. Don’t be fooled, though, because Gosling definitely holds his own and his character evolves as the story progresses. Fracture is fast-paced and filled with clever twists that leave the viewers scratching their heads. It’s a thriller that feels both chaotic and controlled, and is exactly the kind of film that deserves to be rediscovered.

3 ‘Copycat’ (1995)

Copycat arrived at a time when The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en had already revolutionized the serial killer genre. However, on its own, the film is genuinely one of the most under-appreciated thrillers of the '90s. Copycat, directed by Jon Amiel, follows Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver), a renowned criminal psychologist who specializes in profiling serial killers. However, there are layers to her characters. She has survived a brutal attack by one of her subjects, an experience that leaves her with severe agoraphobia. She responds by locking herself inside her apartment and living through computer screens.

However, when a new killer begins carefully recreating murders inspired by Helen’s infamous subjects, she is forced to team up with Inspector M.J. Monahan (Holly Hunter) to solve the case. For starters, the film does a great job of showing an evolving partnership between two women navigating violence in a male-dominated space. Both women are layered, fully realized characters, and Copycat never glamorizes the violence its narrative revolves around. The film shifts the focus back to the victims and the psychological toll on those hunting the murderer down. Copycat had the potential to become an era-defining thriller that broke the norms, and it definitely deserves all the praise it can get.

4 ‘The Invisible Man’ (2020)

The Invisible Man is a modern take on the 1993 sci-fi horror classic of the same name. The film, written and directed by Leigh Whannell, stars Elisabeth Moss as Cecelia Kass, a woman who attempts to escape her relationship with the controlling and violent tech genius, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who has spent years manipulating her. The story begins with Cecelia drugging her boyfriend and sneaking out of his high-security home in the dead of the night. When news breaks that Adrian has apparently committed suicide and left Cecelia $5 million, she finally believes that she is free. However, that’s when strange things start happening around her house.

Things go missing, appliances turn on by themselves, and Cecelia begins to suspect that Adrian isn’t really dead, but has used his optics expertise to become invisible and torment her as revenge. What makes The Invisible Man work is the film’s constant weaponization of doubt. Cecelia insists that someone is there, but everyone around her thinks something is wrong with her. When the violence ramps up, though, there is barely any time to process what’s going on. It’s interesting how The Invisible Man essentially turns gaslighting into a very real monster. The film escalates cleverly and sticks the landing perfectly. As far as horror thrillers go, this is one that people definitely shouldn’t have slept on.

5 ‘Emily The Criminal’ (2022)

Emily The Criminal is written and directed by John Patton Ford in his feature debut and stars Audrey Plaza as Emily Benetto, a young woman in Los Angeles drowning in student loans and unable to find employment because of a past felony conviction. A co-worker tips her off about a dummy shopper gig that promises $200 for an hour’s work, and that becomes Emily’s entry into crime. Soon enough, she starts working with Youcef (Theo Rossi), who runs a credit card fraud operation and teaches her how to clone cards to move stolen goods. Emily the Criminal doesn’t feature flashy heist sequences, but the film sure knows how to deliver a blow.

The moment a car dealership employee catches on to Emily, the story starts feeling like a fight for survival. Ford keeps the pace of the film relentless, and the camerawork mirrors Emily’s anxiety. Plaza delivers one of her career’s finest performances, and no matter what her character does, the audience still wants to sympathize with her. The best part about Emily the Criminal is that it doesn’t deliver any moral lectures or punish Emily specifically because she chose this path. In fact, the film actually ends on a pretty happy note as it continues to ask the question of what happens when the only doors open to success are illegal ones.

6 ‘Memories of Murder’ (2003)

The world knows Bong Joon Ho for Parasite, but Memories of Murder is one of his most underrated works. The film is set in 1896 and opens in a seemingly peaceful rural field where children are playing. However, that illusion is shattered when a young woman’s body is discovered in a drainage culvert. That kicks off a high-stakes investigation led by Detective Park Doo-man (Song Kang-ho). However, the catch is that the police force is completely unprepared for what they are dealing with. Now, Park claims that he can identify suspects by looking into their eyes. However, that plan is derailed when more women turn up dead. The murderer here follows a pattern. These women are found on rainy nights, often wearing red, and the crime scenes are always contaminated by reporters and curious villagers before any evidence can be secured.

That’s when Seo Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung), a detective from Seoul, arrives to help with the case. Unlike Park, he believes in paperwork and studying patterns to find the culprit, which leads to the discovery that the local force’s reliance on intimidation is only complicating the case. The contrasting dynamic of these two detectives propels the story forward, and the real focus is on their unraveling as they just cannot find the answers they are looking for. The final scene of the film still feels as hard-hitting as ever, and serves as a reminder of how evil doesn’t always look the part.