Collider has published a ranked list of the ten most thrilling documentaries ever made, arguing that while documentaries need not always aim to entertain in the manner of a feature film, certain subjects lend themselves to a fast-paced, engrossing approach. Writer Jeremy Urquhart contends that, in the right hands, even weighty material can be made compelling without seeming disrespectful, and that the films selected stand out for being unpredictable and consistently interesting to watch.

The entries tend to cover the sorts of subjects usually found in drama and thriller films, with several blurring the line between documentary and feature filmmaking. At number ten is Touching the Void (2003), a mountaineering survival story about Joe Simpson and Simon Yates nearly dying in the Peruvian Andes after climbing Siula Grande, which uses dramatisations to function almost as a drama. At number nine is Shirkers (2018), a Netflix film about an unfinished independent thriller shot in the early 1990s whose footage disappeared with the man holding it, only to resurface years later along with the story behind its loss and recovery.