02 Thrillers & Suspense | 12 Mystery & Detective
Film list 12 : Mystery & Detection
Playlists of films I’ve enjoyed that get involve mystery and detection.
You might have noticed there’s a separate list for Thrillers and Suspense. Are they connected? Do they overlap? Yeah. Without getting too geeky here…
…Mysteries focus on the mystery. There’s something to solve, something that is unknown to us and probably the protagonist. There’s probably more focus on the mental, because the story probably involves something that’s already happened, as opposed to some big event that’s going to happen.
…Thrillers lean on excitement to keep our attention. There may be elements of mystery, but there’s a heavy focus catching a villain or stopping something bad from happening. A good thriller has skillful plotting that keeps us apprehensive and exhilarated. And there’s probably a lot of action.
…Suspense is about something around the corner, something waiting to happen. It’s slightly different than a thriller in that there may be danger, but not as much action.
So, with that being said…here are some favorites.
The A-list : classic murder mysteries
Brick (2005)
Charade
Chinatown
Fargo
Gone Girl
Knives Out
Lone Star
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Memento
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Presumed Innocent (1990)
Rear Window
Se7en
The Third Man
Wind River
Witness (1985)
haven’t seen
Bad Times at the El Royale
The Clovehitch Killer
Dead Again (1991)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Lovebirds (2020)
Mother (2009 Bong Joon-ho, not the Jennifer Lawrence one)
The Red Riding trilogy
Pretty good : other decent murder mysteries
Along Came a Spider
Death on the Nile (2022)
Game Night
Happy Death Day
Klute
Transsiberian (2008)
Zodiac (2007)
Dark and bleak
Brick (2005)
Chinatown
Fargo
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Gone Girl
L.A. Confidential
The Pledge
Se7en
Zodiac
Funny, humorous, or light-hearted
Clue (1985)
Fletch (1985)
The Nice Guys
The Pink Panther
The Pink Panther 2
Mystery-horror/thriller
Frailty
The Game
Scream
Side Effects
Supernatural
Angel Heart
(haven’t yet seen)
coming soon
Sci-fi
Blade Runner 2049
Ridiculous : mediocre, terrible, not worth your time
coming soon
Ridiculous : mediocre or terrible, but still enjoyed :)
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Bizarre or difficult to categorize
Blue Velvet
Mulholland Drive
Haven’t seen, but excited to do so soon
Memories of Murder (2003, Bong Joon-ho pre-Parasite)
Lawlessness
Bonnie & Clyde
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
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