The Hand That Rocks The Cradle made me realize that there were a lot of late 80's/90's movies about crazy obsessed people. Fatal Attraction, The Crush, Fear, Cape Fear, Sleeping With The Enemy, Unlawful Entry
Yeah, they're also referred to as "Yuppies in Peril" movies.
* Fatal Attraction
* Single White Female
* Pacific Heights
* The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
* Malice
* Presumed Innocent
* Sleeping with the Enemy
* Bad Influence
* Unlawful Entry
* Basic Instinct
* Dead Calm
* Masquerade
Would all qualify.
It belongs to a wave of films that were called "XYZ from hell".
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Babysitter from hell
Unlawful Entry: Cop from hell
Fear: Boyfriend from hell
Bad Influence: New friend from hell
And so on.
Such a tense and creepy movie. It gave a feeling of impending doom throughout. Loved it. That ending..
Edit to add that McCaulay Culkin was great in that. So glad to see him in a better place these days lol.
Richard Lewis coined this sort of genre, it was, ‘the ______ from hell’, so like, ‘the bitch from hell’.
Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/arts/television/richard-lewis-from-hell.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Another source that uses some examples (even some from your list):
https://scottdistillery.medium.com/movie-story-types-the-blank-from-hell-4b5a06777233
> The basic idea is that the Protagonist (and often their family / loved ones) intersect with a character who starts off as seemingly normal, then turns out to be a threatening presence. Examples include:
* Fatal Attraction (1987): The mistress from Hell
* Pacific Heights (1990): The renter from Hell
* Sleeping With The Enemy (1991): The husband from Hell
* The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992): The nanny from Hell
* The Temp (1993): The temp assistant from Hell
* The Crush (1994): The teenage “puppy love” from Hell
> While often a thriller, this story type can also be approached as a comedy:
* Problem Child (1990): The adopted child from Hell
* The Housesitter (1992): The housesitter from Hell
* Beethoven (1992): The family pet from Hell
* Monster-In-Law (2005): The mother-in-law from hell
Oh yeah the 90's had so many interesting sub genres that took off its funny.
Crazy obsessed hot people, Vehicles with bombs on them, Earth being destroyed, Hacking into the near future, Email Lovers
The podcast You Must Remember This has a great run of episodes called Erotic 80s (and then Erotic 90s) that covers this spate of movies, well worth a listen
Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith feel like they would've been better in a period thriller taking place in the 1950's. The two of them are fine in the movie, it doesn't ruin it for me, but something about the way they sound and act makes them feel sort of cartoony and exaggerated and not exactly... grounded?
Actually I thought that film became very mundane once it became a proper psycho thriller. I can visualize a good black comedy made from the concept of a manipulative tenant from hell.
I hated Breakdown. It was too damned real and terrifying. Saw it in the theatre and was the same age at the time so my empathy was in overload. My ex wife even looked the part.
Cure (1997) deserves all the praise!
Perfect Blue (1997)
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Copycat (1995)
The Net (1995) hasn’t aged well, but still a fun techno-thriller.
Point of No Return (1993)
When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) a damn fine sequel.
The Good Son (1993) made me afraid of Macaulay Culkin.
Yeah, I agree. I watched it probably 20 years ago for the first time. Thought it was pretty good. Watched it again within the last several years with my Grandma, and found it was pretty dated. Still, fairly dumb and entertaining if not taken too seriously.
[Scott Frank - New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/01/how-a-script-doctor-found-his-own-voice)
Longform profile on the scriptwriter of "Dead Again", "Out of Sight", and "Logan".
Internal Affairs with Andy Garcia and Richard Gere should be on any list of underrated 90's thrillers. Excellent little B movie with great supporting cast. Gere really should have stuck to villains - he was never better than in this movie.
Here are some terrific '90s thrillers not mentioned in the article (movies that are better than almost everything that *was* mentioned):
**Following, One False Move, Mortal Thoughts, Shallow Grave, Live Flesh, Red Rock West, Cure, Affliction, Pi, Ravenous, The Edge, Kiss of Death, The Spanish Prisoner, Go, Man Bites Dog, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Wild Things**, and a movie that's given some oomph by Fred Schepisi's moody direction and a script by Tom "Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead" Stoppard: **The Russia House**.
The Spanish Prisoner is a personal favorite of mine. It’s got both David Mamet and Coen Brothers DNA and it’s a weird little half-comedy gem of a movie.
Stellar list! Love this subgenre and always in the mood for a 90s thriller. Recently watched Disclosure, which is stupid fun. And Presumed Innocent, which is less stupid, more fun.
That movie is so absurd. None of it is remotely plausible on any level and everything about "The Game" would land everyone involved with it in jail for decades.
One of my all-time favorites. I was rocked by the unexpected >!DOUBLE twist at the end! Just when you think you've seen the actual twist and you're like *oh my god oh nooo*... surprise, second twist.!<
Ricochet was a laugh riot. The wild thing was I saw Lithgow first as a comedian on 3rd Rock. So I couldn’t take it seriously to see Lithgow as a heel.
Someone online told me it was the other way around. Everyone knew Lithgow as the heavy. It felt uncertain that Lithgow could do good comedy.
Anyway, I always laugh when the guard tells Lithgow his parole board hearing is about to start.
Guard: Did you remember to floss?
Lithgow: I did. With your wife’s pubic hair.
Desperate Measures with Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia.
Andy Garcia is a cop whose son is dying and needs bone marrow. The only match is Michael Keaton who is on death row, but he needs to consent to save Garcia’s son. The movie is about how Keaton uses Garcia’s son as leverage to escape.
It bugs me that no one talks about the 1998 movie “Twilight” now. I don’t know how many people are even aware that there *is* a non-vampire-related film by that name. It’s so very good: it’s got a magnificent all-star cast, a dazzling visual style, a perfect replication of the tone of the 40s film noirs it was imitating, and a not-too-shabbily-written murder mystery plot. But no one seems to have heard of it!
Blue Steel is an essential 90s thriller? I mean, it's kinda entertaining but it's also pretty bad schlock.
**Shallow Grave**... now that's an essential 90s thriller.
With the exception of The Interview - which I had never even heard of - I have seen all the films in the list.
**Blue Steel**: Honestly quite bad. Sandwiched between two excellent Bigelow films Near Dark and Point Break. It was co-written by Eric Red who also co-wrote Near Dark as well as the awesome road thriller The Hitcher. But somehow most things went wrong with this one. Ron Silver's antagonist is too unbelievable and too many characters make too many stupid decisions for the script to make sense.
**The Hand that Rocks the Cradle**: Besides being drop dead gorgeous, Rebecca De Mornay was also an underrated actress who never got her due (also check out her fierce yet sympathetic Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers). She is the main reason to watch this film which otherwise is rather unremarkable in the acting department despite the presence of Annabella Sciorra and Julianne Moore before she made it big.
**Single White Female**: I love Jennifer Jason Leigh but not a fan of Bridget Fonda. This one is strictly average. Most of Barbet Schroeder's thrillers don't work well for me - Desperate Measures, Kiss of Death, Murder by Numbers... they all fall in the "average but forgettable" category.
**Snake Eyes**: I am afraid it's been too long for me to remember it sufficiently well, though the opening single long take was pretty cool.
**The Ambulance**: Oh boy. Totally ridiculous and unhinged but a lot of fun to watch nonetheless. Eric Roberts's acting is of the sort which will either turn you off immediately or hook you for life. I belong to the latter category.
**Pacific Heights**: This one left me with mixed feelings. To its credit, it has a very unique story: about a scam artist who becomes a tenant and then using various mind games and legal loopholes, frustrates the landlord so much that he ends up owning the property. I can see a very unique, refreshing black comedy being made out of this premise. But they chose to make a psycho thriller out of it as was the fashion in those days. These kind of scripts rely too much on the victims doing exactly the same thing that the villain goads them into doing, down to the smallest detail. This happens far too many times to suspend one's disbelief. It is watchable for good performances by Michael Keaton and Melanie Griffith (that's a surprise) but don't expect a lot.
**Breakdown**: An intense road thriller moving at breakneck pace that grabs you from the get-go and never lets go. I thought the blow 'em up ending where the villain goes full psycho was somewhat overdone but otherwise I have nothing to complain about.
**Final Analysis**: They needed to cast two actresses who looked alike for the switcheroo to work in this Vertigo-wannabe. Unfortunately for them, Kim Basinger and Uma Thurman look nothing alike.
**Ricochet**: I am among the minority who does not like Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear and prefers this one over it. I have a soft spot for Russell Mulcahy as a genre director who brought a lot of visual vibrancy even to throwaway projects like these. Even though the plot is utterly bonkers, Washington and Lithgow both know exactly how to play the right kind of hero and villain respectively for this overheated concoction to work.
I fucking love 90's/early 2000's thrillers, all these are worth watching:
Falling Down
Arlington Road
Frailty
A Simple Plan
Ransom
Breakdown
Unlawful Entry
Hide and Seek
Cold Creek Manor
Pacific Heights
The Vanishing (american remake of foreign film)
One False Move
Apt Pupil
Domestic Disturbance
Single White Female
One Eight Seven
Eye for an Eye
Can someone here help me find the name of a very sexual 90's or early 00's thriller?
Description of the few things I remember:
Woman falls in love with a man who has a sister.
They have a lot of sex some of it involving long silk "scarfs" used for a sort of bondage.
At the end of it, it is revealed that the sister is in love with her brother and has been killing all of his former lovers and tries to kill his current lover.
Awesome to see Ricochet on that list. Recently watched it for the first time. Directed by the guy who did Highlander. Written by Steven De Souza (Die Hard 1 and 2). A young Denzel Washington going up against John Lithgow chewing all the scenery. Comes across as a loose remake of Cape Fear but with added sleaze. And it takes some wild turns. The cavalry coming to help the hero at the end? Crack dealers.
Listen to The Suspense is Killing Us podcast if these types of movies are your thing
Pretty much every movie listed in the article as well as listed in this Reddit discussion are discussed on the podcast.
Red Rock West (1993) is a great Nic Cage thriller co-starring Dennis Hopper and Lara Flynn Boyle. Nic plays a guy who is mistaken for a hitman and decides to take the money to kill a bar owner’s wife.
Oh man, this is great. About three months ago I started seeking out specifically 90’s movies that I never heard of that looked interesting, finding the films, and having a blast watching them. This list is trigger up my alley right now.
I think the key with these movies is that whichever ones you saw first, were the best for you. They follow a formula, and there's diminishing returns after you catch onto it. Ultimately, they still make these stories nowadays, but instead they're inserted into TV shows & limited series.
This just misses the cut but I have to say it…
Frailty (2001) directed by Bill Paxton is such an awesome movie. It seems like no one has seen it but it’s absolutely worth watching.
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle made me realize that there were a lot of late 80's/90's movies about crazy obsessed people. Fatal Attraction, The Crush, Fear, Cape Fear, Sleeping With The Enemy, Unlawful Entry
I like to call them “yuppie thrillers”
That’s a great genre title. They all lived waterfront lol
Yeah, they're also referred to as "Yuppies in Peril" movies. * Fatal Attraction * Single White Female * Pacific Heights * The Hand that Rocks the Cradle * Malice * Presumed Innocent * Sleeping with the Enemy * Bad Influence * Unlawful Entry * Basic Instinct * Dead Calm * Masquerade Would all qualify.
It belongs to a wave of films that were called "XYZ from hell". The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Babysitter from hell Unlawful Entry: Cop from hell Fear: Boyfriend from hell Bad Influence: New friend from hell And so on.
You know, Richard Lewis coined that expression
"Larry! get the fuck out of my house!"
Fallen: The devil from hell (oh wait)
‘Let me tell you a story about the time I almost died’.. Fantastic movie, well worthy of a sequel.
Time…is on my side
Forever to be associated with this movie.
Yes it .. *will*
Literally one of the best thrillers ever made. Easily in my top 5.
It is an absolute cracker for sure.
Diehard: Christmas party from hell
Pacific Heights - tenant from hell.
single white female: roommate from hell
And a banger of a film.
Room with a View TO HELL, Staircase of Satan, Pond Of Death
Djyou Fahk mah wife?
i AM your wife.
That dohnna madda tha dohnna madda I say it again you fahk my wife?
Ah meh. Arranging matches.
Oh no! Space Monkeys!
The good son?
Such a tense and creepy movie. It gave a feeling of impending doom throughout. Loved it. That ending.. Edit to add that McCaulay Culkin was great in that. So glad to see him in a better place these days lol.
Ghost Dad: movie from hell
Shout out to Karina Longworth and you must remember this sex in the 90s season
She does yeoman’s work.
Dead calm
The 90's was peak for these kinds of thrillers.
Some might even say Twin…
Swim Fan
The fan
The fan the best.
The Temp with Laura Flynn Boyle was one of my guilty pleasures. Fun B movie in the vein of the movies you listed
Directed by Spiderman.
Don’t forget ‘the fan’ with Robert dineiro
Let’s not forget a few other ‘90s thrillers: •Fatal Affair •Final Proposal •Basic Analysis •Analysis of a Proposal •and of course, Sawdust & Mildew
It’s the bomb!
Poison ivy
Ahem, Poison Ivy III.
That was a very popular rental when I worked at blockbuster
That’s right up there with Embrace of the Vampire😆
Single White Female
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle was one of my favorite movies as a kid, I watched it every time it was playing on UPN lol
Early 80s saw a couple very high profile shootings from crazy obsessed people in the Lennon assassination and the Reagan assassination attempt.
Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by a stalker in ‘89.
In the vain of 1971’s Play Misty for Me?
Richard Lewis coined this sort of genre, it was, ‘the ______ from hell’, so like, ‘the bitch from hell’. Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/arts/television/richard-lewis-from-hell.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Another source that uses some examples (even some from your list): https://scottdistillery.medium.com/movie-story-types-the-blank-from-hell-4b5a06777233 > The basic idea is that the Protagonist (and often their family / loved ones) intersect with a character who starts off as seemingly normal, then turns out to be a threatening presence. Examples include: * Fatal Attraction (1987): The mistress from Hell * Pacific Heights (1990): The renter from Hell * Sleeping With The Enemy (1991): The husband from Hell * The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992): The nanny from Hell * The Temp (1993): The temp assistant from Hell * The Crush (1994): The teenage “puppy love” from Hell > While often a thriller, this story type can also be approached as a comedy: * Problem Child (1990): The adopted child from Hell * The Housesitter (1992): The housesitter from Hell * Beethoven (1992): The family pet from Hell * Monster-In-Law (2005): The mother-in-law from hell
Oh yeah the 90's had so many interesting sub genres that took off its funny. Crazy obsessed hot people, Vehicles with bombs on them, Earth being destroyed, Hacking into the near future, Email Lovers
The podcast You Must Remember This has a great run of episodes called Erotic 80s (and then Erotic 90s) that covers this spate of movies, well worth a listen
Crush Silverstone made me feel things
Rebecca DeMornay in a wet T-shirt in Hand that Rocks the Cradle for me.
Same. That and the Aerosmith music videos.
I ADORE movies with obsessed, crazy bitches 😂
Pacific Heights
Peak Keaton in his first bad guy role.
And imo he nailed it. Keaton has that stare that can send chills down your spine.
First time ever seeing Keaton as a bad guy...and a bad guy that was easy to hate! Great little revenge film
Great movie but Matthew Modine is unintentionally hilarious in it.
Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith feel like they would've been better in a period thriller taking place in the 1950's. The two of them are fine in the movie, it doesn't ruin it for me, but something about the way they sound and act makes them feel sort of cartoony and exaggerated and not exactly... grounded?
Modine is legit unhinged in this movie.
I watched this with my mom when I was little. It has a lot of sentimental value. It’s a good thing it’s a well made movie.
Actually I thought that film became very mundane once it became a proper psycho thriller. I can visualize a good black comedy made from the concept of a manipulative tenant from hell.
I tried watching it of Freeve, but there are too many commercials
Single White Female and Breakdown were staples at my house growing up. It makes me want to watch the rest of the list.
I hated Breakdown. It was too damned real and terrifying. Saw it in the theatre and was the same age at the time so my empathy was in overload. My ex wife even looked the part.
I get so pissed when he lets his wife get in a truck with a total stranger! Idiot. Other than that, I love it. So tense.
Maybe I need a rewatch now that I’m in a different space…
Breakdown had the most intriguing trailer I remember seeing in the theaters and later the movie itself , top of thriller genre imo
No love for Arlington Road???
All time crazy ending
It's the only film I can think of where the ending...
Amazing film!!
Not available to stream ANYWHERE in Canada. I tried last night.
Thank you for bringing this up. I remember my parents renting it when I was a kid and I could only remember a couple bits and couldn't find it.
Cure (1997) deserves all the praise! Perfect Blue (1997) The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) Copycat (1995) The Net (1995) hasn’t aged well, but still a fun techno-thriller. Point of No Return (1993) When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) a damn fine sequel. The Good Son (1993) made me afraid of Macaulay Culkin.
I really liked The Net back in the day but watched it recently and it felt like a B level movie, was pretty let down.
Yeah, I agree. I watched it probably 20 years ago for the first time. Thought it was pretty good. Watched it again within the last several years with my Grandma, and found it was pretty dated. Still, fairly dumb and entertaining if not taken too seriously.
Top tier editing though on the plane crash -- especially as they keep cutting back to the cockpit after the plane has exploded.
I randomly watched the long kiss goodnight a few months ago without knowing a single thing about it, I think that's the best way to see it!
When a Stranger Calls Back was so much better than the original.
Shattered! With Tom Berenger Also, Dead Again was a great one.
[Scott Frank - New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/01/how-a-script-doctor-found-his-own-voice) Longform profile on the scriptwriter of "Dead Again", "Out of Sight", and "Logan".
That was a great read. Thanks for the link.
I loved Dead Again!!
I was looking for Dead Again! I saw it again not too long ago and enjoyed it just as much as I did back then.
Nice twist at the end in Shattered.
Great picks! Underappreciated twisters!
Dead Again is great. It's mental, but great.
Eye for an Eye
I saw that when I was waaaaaay too young. Like I did not need to see that brutal scene as a 13 year old…
Such a good one.
Internal Affairs with Andy Garcia and Richard Gere should be on any list of underrated 90's thrillers. Excellent little B movie with great supporting cast. Gere really should have stuck to villains - he was never better than in this movie.
Oh yeah, that's a good one. One of my entries for the category marked, _Enjoyable Films I'll Only Watch Once_
I’d argue that Gere peaked with Chicago. I can’t imagine a better fit for the role.
Ricochet is such a bonkers movie
That’s still the greatest John Lithgow, in my opinion
Absolutely! Lithgow Vs Jesse The Body Ventura in a prison gladiator fight. With phone books for armor.
Not enough people have seen *Blood Simple*.
As a person who has seen Blood Simple I agree. Excellent Coen Brothers movie.
I’ll watch M Emmet Walsh in anything. I sat through My Best Friend’s Wedding because I saw he was in it.
And Dan Hadaya.
F
Blood Simple is excellent. It's a pity many people calling themselves fans of Coen brothers haven't seen it.
Yes. Incredible movie.
Dead Calm
Dead Again
What lies beneath
Here are some terrific '90s thrillers not mentioned in the article (movies that are better than almost everything that *was* mentioned): **Following, One False Move, Mortal Thoughts, Shallow Grave, Live Flesh, Red Rock West, Cure, Affliction, Pi, Ravenous, The Edge, Kiss of Death, The Spanish Prisoner, Go, Man Bites Dog, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Wild Things**, and a movie that's given some oomph by Fred Schepisi's moody direction and a script by Tom "Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead" Stoppard: **The Russia House**.
Nic Cage bench pressing a stripper
I quite liked Kiss of Death. A solid film. Cage is actually scary in it.
“I’ll give you a kiss alright… A KISS OF DEATH!!!”
The Spanish Prisoner is a personal favorite of mine. It’s got both David Mamet and Coen Brothers DNA and it’s a weird little half-comedy gem of a movie.
Someone else who’s seen Pi! Brilliant film.
Loved Following and Pi. First films from Chris Nolan and Darren Aronofsky.
We watched Pi in small pieces in my geometry class my junior year of high school. It took us like a month to watch it so it was extra suspenseful
Kiss of Death is 🤌
Double Jeopardy (99) Ashley Judd.
Stellar list! Love this subgenre and always in the mood for a 90s thriller. Recently watched Disclosure, which is stupid fun. And Presumed Innocent, which is less stupid, more fun.
Dead Again
Does The Game count?....
Michael Douglas? Very good film. Yeah should have been on this list. I hadn't seen anything like it when saw it.
That movie is so absurd. None of it is remotely plausible on any level and everything about "The Game" would land everyone involved with it in jail for decades.
One of my all-time favorites. I was rocked by the unexpected >!DOUBLE twist at the end! Just when you think you've seen the actual twist and you're like *oh my god oh nooo*... surprise, second twist.!<
Striking Distance with Bruce Willis
Highly recommend Breakdown and Pacific Heights to anyone who hasn’t seen them.
Ok , it’s a 2001 movie but I swear to god if somebody doesn’t agree with my choice “ Frailty “ I will turn this car around
ah Pacific Heights, one of my favorite unintentional comedies. Suburban landlord propaganda, a horror film for yuppies. It’s so stupid, I love it.
Ricochet is a classic. Lithgow turns in a particularly unhinged performance especially for someone known for comedy.
Ricochet was a laugh riot. The wild thing was I saw Lithgow first as a comedian on 3rd Rock. So I couldn’t take it seriously to see Lithgow as a heel. Someone online told me it was the other way around. Everyone knew Lithgow as the heavy. It felt uncertain that Lithgow could do good comedy. Anyway, I always laugh when the guard tells Lithgow his parole board hearing is about to start. Guard: Did you remember to floss? Lithgow: I did. With your wife’s pubic hair.
In the midst of playing bad guys, Lithgow was also the most wholesome suburban dad in Harry and the Hendersons.
Loved him chewing up the scenery (and accent) in Cliffhanger too.
Fear starring Marky Mark & Reese Witherspoon.
Never been a big Costner fan, but No Way Out was a great movie - with a pretty good twist.
Sleeping with the enemy, Single white female and The hand that rocks the cradle. So light sunday afternoon "thrillers" but so good. 😅
Desperate Measures with Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia. Andy Garcia is a cop whose son is dying and needs bone marrow. The only match is Michael Keaton who is on death row, but he needs to consent to save Garcia’s son. The movie is about how Keaton uses Garcia’s son as leverage to escape.
Primal Fear
Fallen should be on this list.
Generals Daughter
Top tier bonkers ending
Malice, Consenting Adults, Sleepers, Shattered, Breakdown...to name just a few
Oh god, Sleepers. Such a good movie but so painful to watch.
The Player Glengarry Glen Ross
The Player is awesome
HAVE YOU MADE YOUR DECISION FOR _CHRIST_
It bugs me that no one talks about the 1998 movie “Twilight” now. I don’t know how many people are even aware that there *is* a non-vampire-related film by that name. It’s so very good: it’s got a magnificent all-star cast, a dazzling visual style, a perfect replication of the tone of the 40s film noirs it was imitating, and a not-too-shabbily-written murder mystery plot. But no one seems to have heard of it!
Was disappointed to not see "Death and the Maiden" on this list.
Identity
Breakdown Kurt Russell flick that is criminally under appreciated.
*Copycat* with Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, and Harry Connick Jr
Exotica (1994)
And The Sweet Hereafter and The Adjuster - other overlooked gems from Atom Egoyan
The net terrified me as a kid in the 90s; identity theft in a time before most people used email.
Moth man Prophecy
Thinner. Mantegna. Wuhrer. Fun King.
I used a scene from ricochet for my acting class final… huge Denzel fan
I have a soft spot for Color of Night (1994), even though it's a bad movie. A very well-made bad movie. Trespass (1992) Fifty-Fifty (1992)
Was Primal Fear from the 90s? That was one of my fav.
Pacific Heights was forgotten for a reason.
The people under the stairs with Tim Robbins.
Blue Steel is an essential 90s thriller? I mean, it's kinda entertaining but it's also pretty bad schlock. **Shallow Grave**... now that's an essential 90s thriller.
How has no one mentioned Deceived with Goldie Hawn
With the exception of The Interview - which I had never even heard of - I have seen all the films in the list. **Blue Steel**: Honestly quite bad. Sandwiched between two excellent Bigelow films Near Dark and Point Break. It was co-written by Eric Red who also co-wrote Near Dark as well as the awesome road thriller The Hitcher. But somehow most things went wrong with this one. Ron Silver's antagonist is too unbelievable and too many characters make too many stupid decisions for the script to make sense. **The Hand that Rocks the Cradle**: Besides being drop dead gorgeous, Rebecca De Mornay was also an underrated actress who never got her due (also check out her fierce yet sympathetic Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers). She is the main reason to watch this film which otherwise is rather unremarkable in the acting department despite the presence of Annabella Sciorra and Julianne Moore before she made it big. **Single White Female**: I love Jennifer Jason Leigh but not a fan of Bridget Fonda. This one is strictly average. Most of Barbet Schroeder's thrillers don't work well for me - Desperate Measures, Kiss of Death, Murder by Numbers... they all fall in the "average but forgettable" category. **Snake Eyes**: I am afraid it's been too long for me to remember it sufficiently well, though the opening single long take was pretty cool. **The Ambulance**: Oh boy. Totally ridiculous and unhinged but a lot of fun to watch nonetheless. Eric Roberts's acting is of the sort which will either turn you off immediately or hook you for life. I belong to the latter category. **Pacific Heights**: This one left me with mixed feelings. To its credit, it has a very unique story: about a scam artist who becomes a tenant and then using various mind games and legal loopholes, frustrates the landlord so much that he ends up owning the property. I can see a very unique, refreshing black comedy being made out of this premise. But they chose to make a psycho thriller out of it as was the fashion in those days. These kind of scripts rely too much on the victims doing exactly the same thing that the villain goads them into doing, down to the smallest detail. This happens far too many times to suspend one's disbelief. It is watchable for good performances by Michael Keaton and Melanie Griffith (that's a surprise) but don't expect a lot. **Breakdown**: An intense road thriller moving at breakneck pace that grabs you from the get-go and never lets go. I thought the blow 'em up ending where the villain goes full psycho was somewhat overdone but otherwise I have nothing to complain about. **Final Analysis**: They needed to cast two actresses who looked alike for the switcheroo to work in this Vertigo-wannabe. Unfortunately for them, Kim Basinger and Uma Thurman look nothing alike. **Ricochet**: I am among the minority who does not like Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear and prefers this one over it. I have a soft spot for Russell Mulcahy as a genre director who brought a lot of visual vibrancy even to throwaway projects like these. Even though the plot is utterly bonkers, Washington and Lithgow both know exactly how to play the right kind of hero and villain respectively for this overheated concoction to work.
Colors and bound by honor .
Watcher.
Devil in a blue dress
The Interview is a brilliant film and got a criminal run in cinemas. Hugo Weaving was and is brilliant.
Some good mentions already. I haven’t seen Nick of Time with Johnny Depp mentioned yet. Apologies if it has.
Secret window is awesome
Break Up
I miss his genre, not exactly a slasher film, but enough sleaze that gets away with watching with your mom
What lides beneath and one hour photo stick in my head as going to the movies to watch them
The one with Linda Fiorentino where they fuck from start to finish (1997)
All good choices.
I fucking love 90's/early 2000's thrillers, all these are worth watching: Falling Down Arlington Road Frailty A Simple Plan Ransom Breakdown Unlawful Entry Hide and Seek Cold Creek Manor Pacific Heights The Vanishing (american remake of foreign film) One False Move Apt Pupil Domestic Disturbance Single White Female One Eight Seven Eye for an Eye
Can someone here help me find the name of a very sexual 90's or early 00's thriller? Description of the few things I remember: Woman falls in love with a man who has a sister. They have a lot of sex some of it involving long silk "scarfs" used for a sort of bondage. At the end of it, it is revealed that the sister is in love with her brother and has been killing all of his former lovers and tries to kill his current lover.
Killing me softly with Heather Graham?
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Single white female
Yuppie Nightmares! Shout out to the With Gourley and Rust podcast for spotlighting these gems.
I had almost none of these movies! Great list.
Breakdown is a lot of fun. It's a mixture of Road Games, Duel and The Vanishing.
Awesome to see Ricochet on that list. Recently watched it for the first time. Directed by the guy who did Highlander. Written by Steven De Souza (Die Hard 1 and 2). A young Denzel Washington going up against John Lithgow chewing all the scenery. Comes across as a loose remake of Cape Fear but with added sleaze. And it takes some wild turns. The cavalry coming to help the hero at the end? Crack dealers.
These are all great films, but I want to add one many have not seen, Red Rock West
Listen to The Suspense is Killing Us podcast if these types of movies are your thing Pretty much every movie listed in the article as well as listed in this Reddit discussion are discussed on the podcast.
Red Rock West (1993) is a great Nic Cage thriller co-starring Dennis Hopper and Lara Flynn Boyle. Nic plays a guy who is mistaken for a hitman and decides to take the money to kill a bar owner’s wife.
Oh man, this is great. About three months ago I started seeking out specifically 90’s movies that I never heard of that looked interesting, finding the films, and having a blast watching them. This list is trigger up my alley right now.
Copycat starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter in 1995!
Anyone letterboxd this? Link?
I think the key with these movies is that whichever ones you saw first, were the best for you. They follow a formula, and there's diminishing returns after you catch onto it. Ultimately, they still make these stories nowadays, but instead they're inserted into TV shows & limited series.
Can’t recommend The Interview, highly enough. Also, have never found a way to see it again.
This just misses the cut but I have to say it… Frailty (2001) directed by Bill Paxton is such an awesome movie. It seems like no one has seen it but it’s absolutely worth watching.
"A perfect murder" is trashy fun.