10 Underrated Thriller Movies You Must Watch

Personally, I love thriller movies. They keep the audience on the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. From Psycho to Memento and from Taxi Driver to Fight Club, we have seen some of the best mysteries unravel.

However we might have overlooked some of these gems for various reasons, be it not-so-popular casts or a bad marketing campaign. But these movies definitely deserve put on a case to be included in some of the top lists.

DIRECTOR:

Paul McGuigan

WRITER:

Jason Smilovic

STARS:

Josh Hartnett, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman

PLOT SUMMARY:

In an airport waiting room, a man in a wheelchair tells a stranger a story about a fixed horse race in 1979 that resulted in a family's deaths. In Manhattan, two bookies and the son of a Mob boss die. A young man just out of the shower answers the door to a neighbour woman and explains that he's visiting, has had a bad week, including being mugged, and doesn't know where his pal, who lives there, is. The neighbour is chatty; she's a coroner. Two thugs arrive and, believing the visitor to be the guy who lives there, take him to see the boss with the dead son, who tells him to kill the son of his Mob rival. Mistaken identity? What connects the threads? Cops are watching.

DIRECTOR:

Christopher Smith

WRITER:

Christopher Smith

STARS:

Melissa George, Joshua McIvor, Jack Taylor

PLOT SUMMARY:

When Jess sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong. Her suspicions are realised when the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner to get to safety, a ship Jess is convinced she's been on before. The ship appears deserted, the clock on board has stopped, but they are not alone... Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.

DIRECTOR:

Roger Donaldson

WRITER:

Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer

STARS:

Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan

PLOT SUMMARY:

In an era when the country's first line of defence, intelligence, is more important than ever, this story opens the CIA's infamous closed doors and gives an insider's view into the Agency: how trainees are recruited, how they are prepared for the spy game, and what they learn to survive. James Clayton might not have the attitude of a typical recruit, but he is one of the smartest graduating seniors in the country - and he's just the person that Walter Burke wants in the Agency. James regards the CIA's mission as an intriguing alternative to an ordinary life, but before he becomes an Ops Officer, James has to survive the Agency's secret training ground, where green recruits are meld into seasoned veterans. As Burke teaches him the ropes and the rules of the game, James quickly rises through the ranks and falls for Layla, one of his fellow recruits. But just when James starts to question his role and his cat-and-mouse relationship with his mentor, Burke taps him for a special assignment to root out a mole. As the suspense builds toward a gripping climax, it soon becomes clear that the CIA's old maxims are true: "trust no one" and "nothing is what it seems."

DIRECTOR:

Brad Anderson

WRITER:

Brad Anderson, Will Conroy

STARS:

Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley

PLOT SUMMARY:

Americans abroad. Roy and Jessie finished a volunteer stint in China. He loves trains, so they go home via the Trans-Siberia Express. There are strains in the relationship, including her past. They meet Carlos, a Spaniard, traveling with Abby, a young American. Carlos keeps close to Jessie, and when Roy is left behind and waits a day for the next train so he can catch up, Jessie and Carlos take a trip into the dead of winter to photograph a ruined church. Carlos may be running drugs, so, later, when Roy catches up and introduces Jessie to his new pal, an English speaking Russian narcotics detective, he's the last person Jessie wants to see. Will the Siberian desolation be their undoing?

DIRECTOR:

D.J. Caruso

WRITER:

Christopher Landon, Carl Ellsworth

STARS:

Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Carrie-Anne Moss

PLOT SUMMARY:

After the death of his father in a car accident, Kale Brecht becomes a troublemaker and aggressive teenager. When he punches his Spanish teacher at school, he is sentenced to three months of house-arrest during his vacations. Kale snoops his neighbours with a binoculars and video camera for killing time, and becomes a voyeur of his next door neighbour Ashley Carlson. When Ashley sees Kale and his friend Ronnie at the window, he tells out of the blue that their neighbor Robert Turner seems to be a wanted serial killer from Austin, Texas. The trio sneaks around his house, and Kale begins to suspect that Mr. Turner might really be the murderer.

DIRECTOR:

David Fincher

WRITER:

John Brancato, Michael Ferris

STARS:

Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Penn

PLOT SUMMARY:

Nicholas Van Orton is a very wealthy San Francisco banker, but he is an absolute loner, even spending his birthday alone. In the year of his 48th birthday (the age his father committed suicide) his brother Conrad, who has gone long ago and surrendered to addictions of all kinds, suddenly returns and gives Nicholas a card giving him entry to unusual entertainment provided by something called Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Giving in to curiosity, Nicholas visits CRS and all kinds of weird and bad things start to happen to him.

DIRECTOR:

Renny Harlin

WRITER:

Wayne Kramer, Kevin Brodbin

STARS:

Val Kilmer, LL Cool J, Christian Slater

PLOT SUMMARY:

On a remote island, the FBI has a training program for their psychological profiling division, called "Mindhunters", used to track down serial killers. The training goes horribly wrong, however, when a group of seven young agents discover that one of them is a serial killer, and is setting about slaying the others. Can the few that are left figure out who the killer is in time?

DIRECTOR:

Gregory Hoblit

WRITER:

William Diehl, Steve Shagan, Ann Biderman

STARS:

Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton

PLOT SUMMARY:

When a young man, Aaron, is charged with the horrific murder of Archbishop Rushman, hot-shot Chicago lawyer Martin Vail takes on his defence at no charge. Aaron was a homeless street kid before he was taken in by the Archbishop. He's shy and speaks with a stammer. Vail is convinced that Aaron is innocent but after discovering a video that shows Aaron may have had good reason to want the Archbishop dead, he begins to question that conclusion. When Aaron lashes out at the psychologist examining him another personality, Roy, is revealed. With the trial already underway, Vail cannot change Aaron plea and so has to find a way to introduce his client's condition. Aaron has something of a surprise for him as well.

DIRECTOR:

David Nerlich, Andrew Traucki

WRITER:

Andrew Traucki, David Nerlich

STARS:

Diana Glenn, Maeve Dermody, Andy Rodoreda

PLOT SUMMARY:

While on vacation on Northern Australia, Gracie, her husband Adam and her younger sister Lee decide to take the Blackwater Barry tour in the swamp for fishing. Their guide Jim uses a small motor boat and takes the tourist along the river to a remote spot. When they stop, they are attacked by a huge crocodile that capsizes their boat and immediately kills Jim. The three survivors climb a tree and when they realise that help would never come to rescue them, they decide to try to find a way out of their sheltered location. However, in the muddy water, their boat is flipped and the crocodile stalks the trio under the water.

DIRECTOR:

Iain Softley

WRITER:

Ehren Kruger

STARS:

Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, Joy Bryant

PLOT SUMMARY:

Caroline is a twenty-five-year-old hospice worker who cares for the ailing and the elderly, a job designed to atone for her own mistake for ignoring her dying father in the past, when she had been a rock 'n' roll manager. After her latest charge passes away, Caroline takes a job in Louisiana, caring for Ben, a stroke-victim who is bed-ridden and cannot speak. But Caroline becomes suspicious of the house, and Ben's cold wife, Violet only adds to the creepy atmosphere. After acquiring a skeleton key, Caroline makes her way into a secret room within the attic where she discovers hair, blood, bones, spells, and other instruments for practicing hoodoo. Violet says she has never been in the secret room, but that the items probably belonged to the original owners' two houseworkers, who practiced black magic and were lynched as a result. Noting that Ben had his stroke in the attic after entering the room, Caroline is determined to unlock the secrets of the house, and rescue Ben from the horrors that hold him captive within.