This Collider feature counts down what its writer considers the ten most intense films of the 21st century, arguing that intensity isn't the same as extremity or big budgets, but rather a matter of content, tone or execution. The author notes that bigger-budget remakes, such as those of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, often fall flat compared with grittier originals, while smaller, more visceral films succeed at putting audiences through genuine anxiety and discomfort.

The list opens at number ten with Good Time (2017), the Safdie brothers' anxiety-inducing crime thriller starring Robert Pattinson as a small-time criminal spiralling through one bad decision after another, compared favourably to Al Pacino's performance in Dog Day Afternoon. Number nine is The Strangers (2008), a home-invasion horror starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, praised for channelling the nihilistic dread of 1970s horror classics. The article text provided is incomplete, so it does not detail entries eight through one.