A good thriller is a tricky thing. Thrillers have to be engaging and mysterious, while being digestible to diverse audiences at the same time. They have to be frightening, but not enough to be horror, exciting, but not enough to be an action movie, and cerebral, but not too complicated that audiences can't understand. In short: thrillers are hard to make, and even harder to make good. But, if you're looking for a good thriller to fill your days, you might be in luck. There are 11 thrillers out this fall and winter that are hitting theaters, each of which has every intention of being your new favorite.
None of the thrillers out this fall and winter are uniquely thrillers. Like most movies, they each appear to belong to multiple genres. There's some horror thrillers, some action thrillers, political thrillers, and even a Brad Pitt thriller coming your way. The 11 thrillers still to come in 2016 are a mix of popcorn fun, foreign film, and even Oscar bait, but will they be any good? Well, that's for you to judge. Luckily, the remaining thrillers of 2016 are pretty evenly spread out over the next two months, letting audiences get their fair share of thrilling movie rides. However, December is a thriller desert. So, keep that in mind when planning your movie schedule — you might want to save some thrillers for that end of year month.
1. The Girl On The Train — Oct. 7
Obviously, The Girl on the Train is the thriller everyone has been waiting for.
2. The Accountant — Oct. 14
Ben Affleck is a criminal accountant so, that's pretty thrilling.
3. Desierto — Oct. 14
A political thriller about a white man, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who takes it upon himself to hunt down immigrants hoping to cross the US-Mexico border.
4. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back — Oct. 21
Did the world really need a sequel to Tom Cruise's action thriller Jack Reacher? I'm not sure, but we're getting one anyways.
5. American Pastoral — Oct. 21
American Pastoral is probably more of a drama than a thriller, but Ewan McGregor's directorial debut sure looks tense.
6. Inferno — Oct. 28
The Dan Brown saga continues with a new thriller, Inferno.
7. Arrival — Nov. 11
Arrival, the new simmering thriller from director Denis Villeneuve, is already getting Oscar buzz. And, damn, it looks good.
8. Shut In — Nov. 11
Half horror movie, half thriller, Shut In tells the story of a mother (Naomi Watts) who takes in a strange little boy (Jacob Tremblay) just before a snow storm.
9. Elle — Nov. 11
A woman goes after her attacker in this French thriller from the director of Basic Instinct.
10. Nocturnal Animals — Nov. 18
Nocturnal Animals, another film getting Oscar buzz, pits Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams against one another as exes who share a tumultuous past and a potential dangerous future.
11. Allied — Nov. 25
Allied, the WWII spy thriller starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, will likely be the talk of the town when it hits theaters.
If you want your heart racing this fall and winter, check out the thrillers above, but don't say I didn't warn you.
Images: Paramount Pictures; Giphy (5); mypapawinchester/tumblr; jynerso/tumblr; 12graphics/tumblr; shutinmovie/tumblr; petrasvonkant/tumblr; colonel-flag/tumblr;
