11 Mind-Boggling Mystery Thrillers

Looking for stimuli to intrigue your mind or to trigger your inquisitive thinking? Look no further, you have reached the right place.

After a busy or should I say great first month on Medium, I thought of giving myself a ‘break’. I was of the view that it would be great if I logged off for a couple of days to refresh my ‘system’ and reconfigure my creative processes. After all, there was no harm in slowing down a bit or taking a few days off. However, as I woke up to this mail today, I couldn’t resist myself from hitting that ‘New story’ button.

Being a movie-geek and a self-proclaimed movie critic, it wasn’t an ordinary thing to get this recognition from Medium. So, I had to ditch my ‘break’ to write some worth-reading content for you guys.

At first, I wasn’t sure about what to write. I had already written a couple of pieces on Netflix so, I didn’t want to address the same topic. Luckily, a bit of brainstorming worked for me as I decided to list some of my favorite mystery movies in this piece.

For those who don’t know, my favorite genres of movies are mystery, crime and drama. And of these three genres, the mystery movies never fail to amaze me because of their tortuous plots and their engaging screenplays. Thus, this piece is especially for those who are still new to this genre and are looking for some unique and meandering mystery thrillers.

Hopefully, these mystery thrillers will serve your ever-curious cognitions and will help you in distracting your mind from all this chaos.

11. Primal Fear:

If you are a fan of Edward Norton then you must have already seen this movie. However, if you haven’t, let me assure you that you’re in for a treat.

This movie looks into the case of an altar boy, who is accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago. A veteran defense attorney takes the case, only to find himself struggling with finding the truth, buried beneath layers.

Oscar-worthy performance from Edward Norton(he didn’t win though!), Steve Shagan’s flawless screenplay and some gritty direction from Gregory Hoblit, Primal Fear is an impeccable Mystery/Crime thriller, right there waiting for you.

10. Prisoners:

Yeah, I’m a big fan of Hugh Jackman and Jack Gyllenhaal but Prisoners being on this list has nothing to do with my fan-love for these two.

Prisoners was not only a crowd-puller but it also impressed the critics as they heaped great praise for this crime/drama-mystery thriller. A few even stated that ‘this is a thriller with real thrills, both the kind that make you jump and the kind that make you think.’ So, it wasn’t even an option for me to not include this one on the list.

It tells the story of a father who takes every possible measure to find his lost daughter. And in his pursuit to find his lost girl, he ends up falling prey to his desperation. Coupled with violence and drama, this movie beautifully portrays the love of a father for his child and also teaches us a very important lesson that our desperation often leads us to mal-adaptive behaviors.

9. The Sixth Sense:

This movie ended up winning six Oscar nominations, which says a lot about the quality of this particular mystery thriller.

Director and writer M. Night Shyamalan perfectly put together a very twisted plot, which involves the young Cole Sear(Haley Joel Osment), who is haunted by a dark secret and visited by ghosts. He then tells about his anguish to the psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis, which results in unfavorable circumstances for both the patient and the psychologist.

Revolving around the client-therapist relationship between Cole Sear and Dr. Malcolm Crowe, The Sixth Sense doesn’t leave the viewer with an explainable conclusion, rather it leaves it to the viewers to conceive their own ending.

In short, a true and worth-watching mystery thriller, indeed.

8. Memento:

Memento was just the second movie of Christopher Nolan but even then Nolan had a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Memento showed us how great of a writer and director Nolan would be in the coming years. Therefore, Memento, in many ways, was the birth of the legend of Christopher Nolan.

In Memento, Nolan manifested his uncanny skill of distorting the reality and manipulating it for getting the undivided attention of his viewers. The movie maps the journey of Leonard, who tries to track down the man who raped and murdered his wife. However, Leonard’s inability to retrieve data from his memory because of a rare form of memory loss hinders his quest for the truth.

This movie plot is certainly at the top of the pile when it comes to mystery movies and it also won Nolan an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.

So, do not miss out on this one.

7. Black Swan:

Black Swan is on this list primarily because of two reasons; the way Natalie Portman portrayed the character of Nina and the way movie embodies Nina’s struggle for achieving balance between her reality and her self-created deception.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan revolves around the life of ballet dancer, Nina(Natalie Portman) and her competitor Lily. The fierce competition for playing the role of ‘Black Swan’ led Nina to lose her grip on reality and pushed her into the ocean of deception before she finally succeeded in perceiving the reality and ended up (Spoiler Ahead!) playing the part of ‘Black Swan’.

Black Swan is considered to be one of the best psychological thrillers and the movie rightly deserves all that praise. The screenplay was written by the trio of Mark Heyman, John McLaughlin, and Andres Heinz and all the actors including the Natalie, Vincent and Kunis did justice to their roles.

Thus, put it on your watch-list, if you have not watched it already.

6. Zodiac:

This list wouldn’t be complete and honest without David Fincher’s movies. David Fincher, with his very unique camera work, has this great ability to structure the truth with a remarkable coherence. And we can witness this magic in Zodiac.

Zodiac is centered on the story of fear that gripped San Francisco in the late 1960s and 1970s as a serial killer, called Zodiac, stalked its residents. Investigators and reporters became obsessed with finding the true identity of the killer but could not achieve any success while the killer kept claiming its victims and kept taunting the authorities through different means.

Zodiac is a piercing experience as the movie remains with the viewer for a very long time, making him question the true identity of the killer.

Doesn’t matter how many times you see it, this mystery thriller never ceases to amaze.

5. The Usual Suspects:

Whenever I think of the greatest movie lines, the one which strikes my mind is the most obvious one:

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

The Usual Suspect in not your usual/average mystery thriller, rather it will make you feel both compelled and entertained at the same time.

It revolves around the story of Kint(Kevin Spacey), who attempts to convince the feds that the mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists but is also responsible for drawing Kint and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist which ended with an explosion in San Pedro Harbor.

The feds try to get words out of Kint who somehow…well, you gotta watch the movie yourself otherwise it would not be fair to ruin it for you.

4. Shutter Island:

From the very beginning till the last scene, Shutter Island is the epitome of a true cinematic masterpiece.

Created by my favorite director, Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island starred the very likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley. Leonardo DiCaprio played the role of the US Marshal Edward Daniels and Mark Ruffalo tagged along as his partner.

The movie is built on some sort of investigation, conducted in a psychiatric facility, and it keeps the viewers engaged with the help of twisty-turvey story line. It also attempts to highlight (Spoiler Ahead!) the unconventional treatment of a patient, who seems to be suffering from peculiar psychological issues.

There is no denying that Shutter Island is one of the best movies of Martin Scorsese but at the very same time, DiCaprio and Ruffalo also deserve the equal credit for giving us such a great and re-watchable mystery thriller.

3. Inception:

As you may have noticed, this list includes three movies of Christopher Nolan. Excluding my admiration for Nolan’s work, there are still some ‘obvious reasons’ for listing multiple movies of Christopher Nolan on this list. First off, Nolan is the master of telling simple things in the most engaging or should I say, the most sinuous manner and secondly, the screenplay of all Nolan’s movies, especially Inception, perfectly conveys the underlying essence of his movies.

The movie revolves around professional thieves, a group led by Cobb (DiCaprio), who steal information by playing with human subconscious. In addition, Cobb has several problems with his own subconscious, which helps the movie to grow and engage the audience. However, the plot of the movie gets more tortuous as the movies progresses and even the very last scene gives audience a lot to think about as Nolan, like most of his movies, leaves it to the audience to conceive the ending.

The star-studded cast of the movie included Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Martin Cotillard, Tom Hardy and Michael Caine and the movie ended up bagging four Academy Awards.

2. Seven:

A story from the creative and dark universe of David Fincher, coupled with the legend of Morgan Freeman and the aura of Brad Pitt, Seven is a perfect combination of crime, mystery and drama.

The movie tells the story of David Mills(Brad Pitt), who chases down a serial killer with the help of his partner, William Somerset(Morgan Freeman).

Seven correlates the personal and professional life of the detective Mills and even the ending of the movie is believed to be the manifestation of this particular theory.

David Fincher made perfect use of his ‘vintage dark’ style and the on-screen chemistry of Pitt and Freeman perfectly complemented the dark theme of the movie. Thus, Seven is a treat for those, who love dark cinema.

1. The Prestige:

I already gave you guys some hint in the earlier paragraphs about my biases towards Nolan’s movies. So, it was just a matter of time before I could list my favorite mystery thriller, which also happened to be written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

To be honest with you, the first mystery movies I ever watched was The Prestige and even today, I believe that this cinematic showpiece from Christopher Nolan is still the best mystery movie out there.

One may disagree but in my opinion The Prestige, which follows the fierce competition, hatred and jealousy between two rival stage magicians, is a perfect buffet of mystery, thriller and drama.

Two stage magicians, Robert Angier(Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden(Christian Bale), in their effort to create the best illusion, indulged themselves in a rivalry and scarified everything to outsmart each other. However, the plot is not as simple as it sounds as it has a lot of trickery in it which makes The Prestige a treat to watch.

The director, writer and the cast, all deserve the credit for producing such a grandiose mystery thriller and even after watching it multiple times, the crisp screenplay and great cinematography of the movie still gives me a wonderful experience.

So, that’s all. These 11 mystery thrillers will help you in quenching your cinema-thirst for at-least a week, if not more.

However, if you want more, don’t hesitate. Tell me. I’ll try to write another piece for you guys.

Honorable Mentions:

The Identity, Gone Baby Gone, Gone Girl, Mulholland Drive