With this thriller about married empty-nesters (Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford) living in a haunted house, director Robert Zemeckis was accused of aping suspense master Alfred Hitchcock, but he’s really reinvigorated the genre by giving it a modern twist. After the couple’s daughter leaves for college, she’s replaced by a ghost who’s trying to avenge

A first-rate thriller from director David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) about a single mother (Jodie Foster) whose cavernous New York brownstone is invaded by three men. There’s a streak of feminism beneath Fincher’s fancy camera work, making Panic Room a guys’ movie fueled by girl power.

Blue Velvet sent a shock wave through the film world in 1986, just when Hollywood was in another one of its factory-production heydays. While most pictures were being engineered by studio marketing departments, here was a movie that seeped directly from its maker’s consciousness (a crazy consciousness at that). Blue Velvet opens in a satirically

Basic may set a record for plot twists, and the movie seems to think that’s a good thing. Simply having surprises is only half the battle, however. It helps tremendously if they’re clever. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson star – Jackson plays an elite Army commander who disappears with some of his men in

Evidence that serial killers are still dull, derivative cliches even when they’re played by Keanu Reeves. James Spader’s burnt-out FBI man (is there any other kind?) chases Reeves’ killer through Chicago’s gritty streets. There’s hardly a scene without the el in the background, which should give you an idea of the level of creativity at

If you ever wondered what was going through the head of Mary Kay Letourneau when the teacher started an affair with her seventh-grade student, Birth offers a possible answer. The movie stars Nicole Kidman as a grieving widow who meets a 10-year-old claiming to be her reincarnated husband. That’s good enough for her, and before

If you’re a fan of the last-minute switcheroos in The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, this latest genre reworking from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan may initially seem underwhelming – the revelation comes not during a dramatic twist of the plot, but during a quiet change in its hero’s heart. That would be Graham Hess (Mel Gibson),

Despite the tabloid reports, there’s no proof of romance here between stars Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe, which makes this silly thriller – about a hostage negotiator (Crowe) who falls for the wife (Ryan) of a kidnapping victim – a lifeless, chemistry-free affair. If they were trying to hide something on the set, they took

Numbskulls is more like it. Joshua Jackson (television’s “Dawson’s Creek”) plays an Ivy League student who joins a Firm-like secret society. This is a suspense thriller without an inkling of suspense, largely because every move Jackson makes is governed only by the obvious demands of a flimsy script.