MOVIEPIQ CURATED LIST
Thriller Movies When You Cant Sleep That Will Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat
THRILLER · WHEN YOU CAN'T SLEEPThe small hours have a different quality to them and some films suit them exactly. The right film can shift everything. This list was put together for that specific occasion.
The best thrillers generate dread not from what happens but from what might. Every film here was chosen with that standard in mind.
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The Handmaiden
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sook-hee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domine...
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Memento
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form ...
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Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and the social order it p...
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The Usual Suspects
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners int...
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The Departed
To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop curries favor with the...
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Sky...
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Vertigo
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
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Bound by Honor
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East...
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Joker
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
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Reservoir Dogs
A botched robbery indicates a police informant, and the pressure mounts in the aftermath at a warehouse. Crime begets violence as the survivors -- veteran Mr. White, newcomer Mr. Orange, psychopathic ...
The films that hold you tightest are the ones where you understand exactly what's at stake.
Sustained tension across a full runtime is one of cinema's most difficult achievements. These pull it off. Thrillers that hold up are built on character as much as plot. Every film here has both.