10 Pretty Much Perfect Supernatural Thrillers (original) (raw)
Published Sep 11, 2024, 6:30 PM EDT
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If a thriller has supernatural elements, then it can be considered a supernatural thriller. If ghosts or otherworldly beings play a part in a movie, and that movie unfolds in a way that focuses on building suspense, it can count as a supernatural thriller. The subgenre, for present purposes, is defined broadly, which means that some of the soon-to-be-mentioned movies also qualify as supernatural horror movies. That can be admitted, and what do you know, it just has been.
Not every horror movie is necessarily a thriller at the same time, though many are. If a great supernatural-themed movie isn't here, it’s probably because Letterboxd – the source for all these – didn’t list “horror” as a genre (sorry, The Exorcist). The following films are – on top of being near-perfect or genuinely perfect – all ones that deal with the supernatural, and have, at the very least, some elements that also enable them to qualify as thrillers.
10 'Pulse' (2001)
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
A man looking at some kind of shadow or figure on a wall in Pulse
Image via Toho
Pulse keeps things methodical and perhaps even a little slow, but not in a way that’s boring, by any means. It’s also hard to summarize what it’s about without giving too much away… but, on the other hand, there are mysteries within Pulse that aren’t entirely answered, with certain ambiguities making the whole film more unnerving, increasing its chances of haunting viewers long after it’s over.
"Haunting" is a good word to use here, with the supernatural elements in Pulse not being well-defined, but still undoubtedly being there in some capacity. It’s a movie that combines ghostly horror with the mysteries of the internet, and Pulse also feels forward-thinking in what it explores thematically, delving into a technology that can bring people together or isolate them further, depending on how it’s used.
Release Date
February 3, 2001
Runtime
119 Minutes
Director
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Main Genre
9 'Lake Mungo' (2008)
Director: Joel Anderson
Image from 'Lake Mungo' of a family standing in front of their house.
Image via Arclight Films.
Though it might not be as well-known as some of the soon-to-be-mentioned classic supernatural thrillers, Lake Mungo is nevertheless one of the most underrated films within this subgenre of the 21st century so far. It uses a mockumentary style to explore what is, at its core, a relatively straightforward narrative about a grieving family experiencing various alarming – and possibly supernatural – occurrences following a teenage girl’s death.
The horror is usually subtle in Lake Mungo, but the dread is persistent and deeply troubling, which is what contributes to the feeling of it also being something of a thriller. Revelations have the impact they need to, and the presentation does an expert job of keeping things frighteningly authentic. There’s a sense of things being distressingly real in Lake Mungo, both when it comes to horror and heartbreak, and it’s a pretty impressive filmmaking achievement overall.
8 'The Devil's Backbone' (2001)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
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A close-up of a young boy with white faice and horror makeup in The Devil's Backbone
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
Guillermo del Toro’s peak was still to come in 2001, but that year did see the release of one of his best films, The Devil’s Backbone. It’s a film that feels subdued at times, but does nonetheless move forward at a decent pace, telling a story set at the end of the Spanish Civil War about a young boy’s strange experiences after arriving at an orphanage.
There are recognizable del Toro traits and touches on offer here, but the story of The Devil’s Backbone is arguably grimmer and more haunting than many of his other films (which themselves can get fairly disturbing). It’s the sort of well-received movie that still feels a bit underrated, because The Devil’s Backbone is one of the best supernatural-themed movies of the 2000s.
7 'The Omen' (1976)
Director: Richard Donner
Gregory Peck looking intently at a baby he's about to adopt in The Omen (1976)
Image via 20th Century-Fox
Forget about the remake; 1976’s The Omen is where it’s at, if you're looking for a great religious horror movie that also doubles as a supernatural thriller. It’s about a childless couple who adopt a baby who ends up being a rather unusual boy; one who inspires fear around some, and may even be responsible for certain grisly “accidents” that happen around him.
The central revelation to be found in The Omen probably isn't a secret at this point, but on the off chance anyone’s unfamiliar with the original film and the series it began, it’s best to keep a plot summary limited to that. The Omen succeeds in making the supernatural feel grounded and efficiently chilling, and very little about it has aged in the decades since it first came out.
Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?
6 'Noroi: The Curse' (2005)
Director: Koji Shiraishi
Image from Noroi: The Curse of a figure wearing a mask and robes with their arms outstretched.
Image Via Cathay-Keris Films.
Among fans of Japanese horror movies, Noroi: The Curse is well recognized for being one of the greatest found footage horror/thriller films ever made but, more broadly speaking, it feels a little underrated. It’s about a documentary filmmaker exploring various supernatural occurrences that might be linked, with each event appearing to be a little more intense and potentially dangerous than the last.
Noroi: The Curse starts modest yet never ceases ratcheting up the tension, ensuring that even when it’s not being outwardly scary, it always manages to feel at least a little unnerving. It’s an example of how best to use found footage tropes and conventions properly, and in a way that doesn’t feel cheap or lazy. Just about everything within Noroi: The Curse works wonders, and it’s a must-watch for anyone who thinks they’ve seen it all when it comes to supernatural-themed movies.
Release Date
August 20, 2005
Runtime
115 minutes
Director
Kôji Shiraishi
5 'The Crow' (1994)
Director: Alex Proyas
Brandon Lee as Eric Draven catching a knife in The Crow
Image via Dimension Films
Here’s a film that’s a little unsettling, owing to its supernatural elements, but can’t be called a horror movie: The Crow. It’s certainly dark and violent, and revolves around a man being brought back from the dead to seek vengeance, but it takes these elements to become something of an action/fantasy/thriller movie, rather than being about the supernatural and focusing on horror.
It’s a super stylish and endlessly atmospheric movie, with a great soundtrack and a very memorable lead performance by Brandon Lee, whose death during the film’s production casts an additional shadow over The Crow. It’s a film of great angst and sadness, but not in a way that’s 100% miserable to watch. The Crow is extremely well-balanced overall, for a film trying to do so many things genre-wise, and as a result, it’s more than earned its status as one of the best cult classics of the 1990s.
Release Date
May 11, 1994
Runtime
102 Minutes
Director
4 'The Sixth Sense' (1999)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Malcolm and Cole look the same direction in 'The Sixth Sense'.
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Say what you want about M. Night Shyamalan’s thrillingly diverse filmography, but it’s hard to deny The Sixth Sense’s greatness. This is the one Shyamalan film that, more than any of his others, is regarded far and wide as something truly great, with its premise focusing on a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who’s troubled by visions of ghosts. He, you know, sees dead people.
A child psychologist played by Bruce Willis enters the picture to help the boy, and from there, things unfold in a daring fashion, the patient pacing eventually delivering some shocks that are, by now, fairly well-known. Still, The Sixth Sense remains engaging because of the quality filmmaking, interesting screenplay, and strong performances that are all on show, and it’s certainly an all-timer as far as supernatural thrillers are concerned.
3 'Hereditary' (2018)
Director: Ari Aster
Toni Collette as Annie staring in horror in Hereditary
Image via A24
After directing a handful of very strange short films, Ari Aster came out swinging with his feature film debut, Hereditary. It’s as much a psychological horror/thriller movie as it is a supernatural horror/thriller movie, both working in tandem to make Hereditary frightening and distressing in equal measure. It’s non-stop, really. There is always something upsetting to look at or think about.
It’s a film that tackles grief and generational trauma in a brutally effective way, starting off somber, becoming tragic, and then shifting into full-blown horror, all the while proving hard to look away from. Hereditary is not a fun movie in the traditional sense, but it is undoubtedly powerful and captivating, more than deservedly earning its reputation for being one of the best films to be distributed by A24 thus far.
Release Date
June 8, 2018
Runtime
2h 7m
Director
2 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968)
Director: Roman Polanski
Mia Farrow as Rosemary, holding up a piece of jewelry, in 'Rosemary's Baby'
Image via Paramount Pictures
Rosemary's Baby, as far as thrillers go, unfolds pretty slowly; the building of dread here is emphasized above all else. This also means that, as far as horror movies go, Rosemary’s Baby has somewhat infrequent scares, but this becomes a feature, rather than a bug (to use a term that was not around in 1968). Because of the film’s restraint, those more horrific moments have all the more impact.
The narrative here concerns a pregnant woman having some suspicions about her neighbors after moving into a new apartment complex with her partner. It’s seemingly a psychological horror/thriller film for a while, but then the supernatural gets involved, and things kind of go from bad to worse. Without a doubt, Rosemary’s Baby is still an admirably unsettling film more than half a century on from its release, which is not something that can be said about many comparable films from the 1960s.
Release Date
June 12, 1968
Runtime
137 minutes
Director
Roman Polanski
1 'The Shining' (1980)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Throughout the course of a filmmaking career that spanned almost 50 years, Stanley Kubrick perfected various genres, seemingly able to take on any kind of movie out there and make it work. He demonstrated his knack for horror/thriller movies with The Shining, which is intimate, epic, over-the-top, subtle, familiar, and unpredictable, somehow all at once (and as a result of playing fast and loose with the source material).
Like some aforementioned movies, The Shining benefits from combining psychological unease with supernatural terror, and the slow unraveling of the film’s central character is what contributes to the film being something of a thriller. If anything, the supernatural elements are downplayed in favor of the psychological horror/thriller elements for much of the film’s runtime but, by the end, there are at least some moments that are hard – if not impossible – to explain without ghosts of some sort being a reality within the film’s world.
Release Date
June 13, 1980
Runtime
144 minutes
Director
Stanley Kubrick