Who doesn’t love a good thriller? They keep you on the edge of your seat, make you sweat as you worry about the characters, and even scare you from time to time. It’s a popular genre with a massive catalog of movies to check out, with a lot of great ones coming out of the 1990s. From Stephen King adaptations to other classics like The Sixth Sense, the ‘90s offers a lot of suspenseful flicks that have stood the test of time and still thrill today.
Something about the environment of the ‘90s makes the thrillers from the decade feel that much better. Maybe it’s the lack of technology like we have today, or simply just a difference in filmmaking styles. Whatever it is, these are six of the best thrillers from the 1990s.
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6 Basic Instinct (1992)
TriStar Pictures
Basic Instinct is a romantic thriller about a detective (Michael Douglas) who is investigating a murder and gets involved in a very intense relationship with his primary suspect (Sharon Stone). Since its release in 1992, Basic Instinct has come under fire for being overtly sexually violent and has received quite a bit of controversy. A lot of people have a hard time looking past the loads of sex scenes in the movie — and there is quite a bit going on — but beyond that there’s a well-developed, thrilling plot.
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Basic Instinct really takes the concept of a classic “whodunnit” to the next level. It’s packed with suspense, has you second-guessing everyone and everything, and will leave you breathless until the very end. Despite all the controversy surrounding the movie, it’s still good if you can look beyond its flaws and is iconic in its own right, both for the performances from Stone and Douglas and the overall writing. There was a sequel several years later titled Basic Instinct 2, and while it featured Stone again, it didn’t do nearly as well as the original.
5 The Game (1997)
PolyGram Films
The Game is a twisty thriller about a wealthy investment banker (Michael Douglas) who receives a voucher to participate in a strange game for his birthday from his brother (Sean Penn). When he shows up to the Consumer Recreation Services facility to get registered for the game, he has to undergo extensive psychological and physical examinations to participate and ends up finding out his application got denied. But when he arrives home later, there’s a wooden clown on his porch with a hidden camera inside, and several other strange events begin to happen. Douglas’s character starts to get paranoid that the game is an elaborate conspiracy to destroy his livelihood, especially as pieces of his life and his relationships start to crumble around him.
The Game is very suspenseful. Throughout the bulk of the movie, it’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen, and at a lot of points it’s hard to tell if it’s just a twisted game or something more sinister. Directed by David Fincher (Gone Girl), The Game is a great example of how to expertly tell a thrilling story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Plus, it offered up another great performance from Douglas, who is really quite the versatile actor.
4 Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Columbia Pictures
Stephen King had a lot of his novels adapted for the big screen in the ’80s and ’90s and Dolores Claiborne is one of them. Premiering in 1995, it’s about a strained mother-daughter relationship between Dolores (Kathy Bates) and her daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh), that is mostly told through flashbacks. Dolores becomes the focal point of a murder investigation after the elderly woman she was caring for dies in a freak accident. Selena comes home to her remote town in Maine for the investigation, which further emphasizes the strain and tension between her and her mother.
Dolores Claiborne was the second King adaptation to star Kathy Bates in the lead, after Misery in 1990. Dolores Claiborne is a psychological thriller, packed with drama and feminist undertones. It’s unique to King’s other works and tells a different kind of horror story that doesn’t rely on monsters or the supernatural. Dolores Claiborne generally received positive reviews and features a powerful, standout performance from Bates.
3 The Sixth Sense (1999)
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Most people are likely familiar with M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, which premiered in 1999. It’s about a child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who has a patient (Haley Joel Osmet) that claims he can communicate with the dead. This is where the classic, “I see dead people,” line comes from. It’s a psychological horror/thriller with powerful performances, vivid imagery, and a shocking twist ending — in true Shyamalan fashion.
The Sixth Sense is generally a really good movie. It has both thrills and chills and really grips you from start to finish. To put it plainly, it’s a ghost story, but it’s told with such a unique approach that it really doesn’t feel like you’re typical ghost movie. Following its release, the movie went on to receive several awards and nominations, and the screenplay ranked on the Writers Guild of America’s list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.
2 Cape Fear (1991)
Universal Pictures
Cape Fear premiered in 1991 and is about a violent convicted criminal named Max (Robert De Niro) who is released from prison after a 14-year sentence and is out for revenge on the public defender Sam (Nick Nolte) that he blames for his sentence because Sam purposely botched the defense to get Max behind bars. At the time of his conviction, Max was illiterate and had no understanding of the legal process. But during his time in prison he learned to read and educated himself on the law, and has since become a psychopath hell-bent on revenge. He begins terrorizing Sam and his family, killing their dog, stalking their property, and even trying to start an inappropriate relationship with Sam’s teenage daughter.
De Niro gives a horrifying performance in the movie that is, at times, hard to stomach. It’s an extremely violent movie and deals with themes that can be hard to watch, but it’s so suspenseful and such a well-told story that it had to make the list. Martin Scorsese’s 1991 Cape Fear was actually a remake of the original from 1962 that starred Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in the lead roles and was based on the 1957 novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. It’s a disturbing, intense thriller with a genuine element of fear that almost makes it feel like a horror movie.
1 Misery (1990)
Misery is arguably one of Kathy Bates’ best performances, if not the best. Based on Stephen King’s 1987 novel of the same name, Misery is about an obsessive fan (Bates) who holds her favorite author (James Caan) captive to force him to rewrite the finale of his book series. Misery is heavy on the suspense and horror, and Bates is genuinely disturbing and believable as the film’s villain. In fact, her performance won her the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 63rd award ceremony.
There is a vast catalog of Stephen King movie adaptations, but Misery is certainly one of the best. It has excellent pacing and cinematography. On top of the impressive production value and storytelling, Caan and Bates are excellent together on screen and create scenes of real fear and suspense as Bates is so unpredictable and Caan’s character is completely helpless. Misery definitely tops the list of the best thrillers to come out of the 1990s, and there were certainly plenty to choose from. It’s also a must-watch, not only for fans of the genre, but for Stephen King fans, too.
