This Collider feature rounds up ten classic thriller films the outlet rates as perfect, 10/10 masterpieces, arguing that these earlier works laid the groundwork for the thrillers being made today. The list spans decades and subgenres, from Southern Gothic psychological terror to neo-noir crime drama to pioneering European sound cinema, highlighting how each film's craftsmanship, characters and twists left a lasting mark on the genre.

Featured titles include Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of Cape Fear, starring Robert De Niro as a vengeful ex-convict terrorising Nick Nolte's family; Roman Polanski's Chinatown, with Jack Nicholson as a private eye uncovering municipal corruption in 1930s Los Angeles; and Fritz Lang's 1931 German classic M, starring Peter Lorre as a child killer hunted by both police and the criminal underworld. The article credits these films with shaping modern crime and psychological thrillers through their moral complexity, technical innovation and refusal of easy, happy endings.