12 Thriller Movies That Prove

“Blood Is Thicker Than Water”

     There is no stronger bond in this world than family, and a caring, loving parent will do just about anything to keep his or her loved ones safe. Dive into a lake to save a drowning child, or step in front of a train to rescue a toddler who’s fallen onto the tracks. Go up against a gang of human traffickers, escape from an abusive spouse, track down a band of ruthless kidnappers.

     As a mystery and thriller writer I’ve always been drawn to stories in which an innocent person encounters some sort of evil entity or force that causes him or her to risk life and limb in order to rescue a daughter or son, husband or wife. In my new novel Beyond All Doubt, a grieving widower/single stumbles onto a secret that exposes a dark secret about the recent death of his wife and places him and his young daughter in the middle of a deadly criminal enterprise. While I’d like to believe the story emerged as whole cloth from my creative mind, I’d be foolish not to admit that countless family-oriented suspense novels and movies dripped elements of suspense, tension, plot, and character onto each printed page.

     With that in mind, here are 12 thriller films—some better, some worse—that I recently wrote about in Crime Reads. All of these undoubtedly contributed to my love of this sub-sub-genre, and I will never tire of watching them.

Forget Martinis And Gadgets: These

Are The 25 Best Spy Films Of All Time

     Mention spy movies and most people will think of Sean Connery ordering a Vespers martini while playing baccarat, or Tom Cruise hurling himself off something very high and dangerous. However, some of the best espionage films run the gamut from moody procedurals to high-adrenaline actions stories to wrenching character studies. As Entertainment Weekly noted last week, many of the most carefully wrought pictures in this genre detail the outright unglamorous lives of those secret agent types who choose covert surveillance and duty-bound betrayal over personal happiness.

     Take the 1977 thriller Julia, which chronicles the life of writer Lillian Hellman, who travels to wartime Europe in search of her childhood friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) whose own intellectual journey has turned her into an anti-fascist crusader. Or 1998’s Ronin, in which Robert De Niro plays a mercenary recruited to an international team by a mysterious Irish woman (Natascha McElhone) to track down and retrieve a specific metal attaché case. Then there’s the 1974 classic The Conversation, starring Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert hired to record a couple’s hushed conversation amidst a noisy crowd in San Francisco’s Union Square.

Any ranked list is open to debate, and with that in mind, here’s EW’s take on the 25 best spy movies ever made.

Ten Weird, Esoteric, Fascinating

Crime Movies You Need To See

     In real life, crime is often baffling and messy, with no clear motivation or solution. Just as often, actual crime is completely ridiculous, committed by people who have no idea what they’re doing and just stumble into something dangerous. That may not always be comforting, but it’s worthy fodder for crime fiction, just as valid as tidy plots that are wrapped up by the end thanks to the deductions of an astute detective. Consider The Big Lebowski, for instance: As Josh Bell recently wrote in Novel Suspects, “the Coen brothers’ cult classic stoner comedy is also an homage to The Big Sleep, and it features a similarly labyrinthine plot that is mostly secondary to the enjoyment of the movie.

     Then there’s Klute, which Bell describes as “a conspiracy-laced mystery in which Donald Sutherland plays a private detective opposite Jane Fonda, in one of her best performances as a prostitute who initially is suspected in the disappearance of a corporate executive, but she soon becomes Klute’s ally as they uncover the real reasons he was hired for the case.” By contrast, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive “is more like a fever dream than a mystery, [starting] with a somewhat traditional set-up, as a disoriented woman emerges from a car accident with memory lapses and an unexplained bag full of money."

     With all this in mind, here are ten weird, funny, fascinating and esoteric films to check out.

DNA COLD CASE

Suspect Identified In Killing Of NC

Student 45 Years After Her Death

     Police in North Carolina say that they’ve solved the cold case of an East Carolina University student who was kidnapped and killed nearly 45 years ago. At a press conference last Thursday, the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office identified Gary Lane Laframboise as the individual responsible for the death of 20-year-old Tammy Sue Aldridge, who was reported missing June 30, 1979 when she did not return home from a run. Three days after her disappearance, her remains were discovered in the middle of a highway in Graham, North Carolina; her ankles were tied with rope, and investigators found evidence that her neck and hands had also been bound. Her body was still warm and her clothes were put on backward, which indicated that the victim was dressed after her death.

     The identification of Laframboise came after a different suspect was found not guilty in the case, leaving it unsolved. When authorities reopened it in 2020, detectives obtained a DNA sample from the family member of a person of interest, and this led investigators to name Laframboise as their suspect. He actually was arrested in an unrelated kidnapping just three months after Aldridge disappeared; he pleaded guilty and served prison time from 1980 to 1982. He died in 2020.

Charles Dickens Was Part Of A

Paranormal Investigation Society

     Charles Dickens is known for a good ghost story, and some of his most famous works—including the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol—revolve almost entirely around the supernatural. The English author’s interest in spirits even extended beyond the written word, as he was an original member of the Ghost Club in London, an exclusive group interested in dissecting all things otherworldly.

     As noted in History Facts, the Ghost Club claims to be the oldest society of its kind, having been formally founded in 1862, although its roots date back to informal gatherings of Cambridge University academics in the mid-1850s. Along with Dickens, the group has counted such literary luminaries as W.B. Yeats, Siegfried Sassoon, and Arthur Conan Doyle among its members. Spiritualism was a hot topic in Victorian-era England, and physicists, philosophers, biologists, and others were among the organizations early members.

     Dickens, for all his obvious spiritual inclinations—including dabbling in hypnosis—was also healthily skeptical. “All such narratives must be received with the greatest circumspection, and sifted with the utmost care,” he wrote in an 1853 article about haunted houses. “Nothing in them must be taken for granted, and every detail proved by direct and clear evidence, before it can be received.” Dickens died in 1870 and the Ghost Club later disbanded, although not for long. It was revived in 1882, and despite fluctuations in activity, the club has endured, and remains an active organization today.

Now Available!

Beyond All Doubt

[Reed Bunzel writing as Hilton Reed]

“Beyond All Doubt is an edge-of-your-seat fast-moving thrill-ride, kicked off by the reappearance of a dead man and propelling the reader along to the final bullet—and beyond.”— S.J. Rozan, best-selling author of The Mayors of New York

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“Beyond All Doubt is a taut, smart, and emotionally rich thriller. Reed has a sharp eye for character and a screenwriter's feel for action. This tale is sleek as a mink and fast as a bullet.”— T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Rescue

“Beyond All Doubt is not a 'who done it,' but a twisty, compelling 'who did what.' Cameron Kane is a sympathetic, yet unrelenting bulldog in his pursuit of the truth about his wife's death. Intriguing and intense, Beyond All Doubt is a winner!”—Matt Coyle, bestselling author of the Rick Cahill crime novels

“In this action-packed and engrossing thriller, Reed masterfully balances between a husband’s drive to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and a father’s instinct to protect his family at all costs. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down!”— Matthew Farrell, bestselling author of The Woman at Number 6

“Beyond All Doubt has plenty of thrills—deadly snipers, false identities, shocking deaths—but at its heart, this book is about a grieving single father whose desperation propels the plot like a speeding car with its brake lines cut.”— Cayce Osborne, author of I Know What You Did