Thrillers are all about suspense, excitement, and sky-high stakes, keeping you on the edge of your seat. A genre that doesn’t often blend with thrillers, but can result in absolute masterpieces when it does is fantasy. These stories of magic, fictional worlds, and mythological creatures can provide plenty of room for filmmakers to generate tension and excitement purely through the allure of the unknown, which has led to some of the greatest fantasy films and greatest thrillers the world has ever seen.
Thrillers often rely on fast pacing, while fantasy movies rely on meticulous worldbuilding; thus, when a filmmaker like Tim Burton or David Lynch manages to strike the perfect balance between both, it’s a real spectacle to behold. Fantasy thrillers may not be all that common, but when they do occur and are done right, they can be utterly unforgettable cinematic experiences without equal.
7
‘Sleepy Hollow’ (1999)
Tim Burton is one of the modern kings of Gothic horror and dark fantasy, and though his filmography has been somewhat hit-or-miss throughout the years, when a movie of his hits, it hits hard. Case in point: the exceptional Sleepy Hollow, one of the best folk horror movies ever, which began development in 1993 as a low-budget slasher until Burton transformed it into something far bigger—and better.
Many Burton films can be rightfully criticized for favoring style over substance, but Sleepy Hollow is a perfect example of how exceptional a balance the auteur can strike between the two. Marrying Burton’s signature macabre aesthetic with an absorbing atmosphere and the timeless murder mystery of Washington Irving‘s original short story, Sleepy Hollow is near the peak of what Hollywood fantasy thrillers have to offer.
6
‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ (2020)
Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons in I’m Thinking of Ending ThingsImage via Netflix
For the longest time, Charlie Kaufman limited himself to doing what he does best: being the greatest screenwriter currently working in the American film industry. It was in 2008, however, that he decided to make his big splash with a directing debut. I’m Thinking of Ending Things, based on Iain Reid‘s debut novel, was Kaufman’s third film as a director, and the first one that he was attached to direct from the very inception of the project.
Greatly benefiting from one of Jesse Plemons‘and Jessie Buckley‘s best-ever performances, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is every bit as quirkily surreal and absurdly mind-bending as one would expect from any Kaufman movie. This time, though, the auteur blends that with character-driven fantasy and intense psychological thriller elements, which results in one of the most singular films of Kaufman’s whole body of work.
5
‘Ghost’ (1990)
Sam Wheat, played by actor Patrick Swayze, and Molly Jensen, played by actor Demi Moore, kissing against a black background in Ghost.Image via Paramount Pictures
After a hugely successful run making some of Hollywood’s funniest comedies of the ’80s, Jerry Zucker made the supernatural romance Ghost. It was one of those box office smashes that no one expected, outperforming many of the year’s biggest blockbusters. Nominated for five Academy Awards (including Best Picture), it’s still widely remembered as one of the best and most iconic Hollywood romance films of the 1990s.
What makes Ghost so special, though, is that it’s not just a romance drama, but rather a genre-hopping gem that’s technically also a dark fantasy thriller. Anchored by Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore‘s chemistry, a scene-stealing, Oscar-winning turn from Whoopi Goldberg, and Bruce Joel Rubin‘s sensual, romantic, sweet, and even occasionally amusing script, Ghost is a true classic that’s fully deserving of its reputation. Tear-jerking melodramas don’t really get much more magical.
4
‘Inland Empire’ (2006)
Image via StudioCanal
After Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí brought surrealism to the movies, it would take a few years for another auteur of their stature to revolutionize cinematic surrealism the way they did. That man who did it was David Lynch. Throughout his incredible career, Lynch made several of the most mind-bending, wonderfully idiosyncratic, and delectably intelligent surrealist masterpieces that the big screen has ever seen. His final feature film was Inland Empire, a three-hour-long deconstruction of human identity that’s just as magnificent as you would expect the swan song of an auteur like Lynch to be.
Indeed, Inland Empire is one of the scariest surreal horror movies ever, a thematically profound and deeply affecting fantasy horror thriller bolstered by the best performance of Laura Dern‘s entire career. Shot without a finished screenplay and on low-resolution digital, it’s the sort of movie that sounds like a guaranteed disaster on paper, but works flawlessly purely because it was made by a genius of Lynch’s stature. It’s a radical, absolutely uncompromising deep dive into the dreamlike unconscious mind, thus serving as a perfect way of giving Lynch’s career as a feature filmmaker closure.
3
‘The Crow’ (1994)
Image via Miramax Films
Nowadays, Alex Proyas‘ The Crowis undoubtedly best-known for Brandon Lee‘s death on set due to a prop gun malfunction while filming. It’s a disservice to Lee’s memory, however, to forget that it is genuinely one of the greatest fantasy thrillers in the genre’s history. Dark, stylish, visually dazzling, and featuring a truly exceptional performance by the huge star that was Lee, it’s a must-see for all those who love gritty, anti-establishment, Goth-rock cinema.
It’s also one of the most intense fantasy movies ever made, full of breathtaking action sequences that strike the perfect balance between being emotionally effective and visually stunning. It’s a marvelously-paced hard-boiled revenge thriller through and through, and its elements of fantasy are as essential as its unforgettable soundtrack in making the narrative pack as much of a punch as it does. The Crow is just as timeless as the love of its protagonist for his fiancée.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
2
‘The Devil’s Backbone’ (2001)
A close-up of the ghost of Santi in The Devil’s Backbone.Image via Sony Pictures Classics
Guillermo del Toro has been the master of dark fantasy for years, and he has certainly dabbled in thrillers—namely, The Devil’s Backbone. It’s one of the best supernatural thrillers of the last 50 years, a Gothic horror thriller and a deeply haunting ghost story that feels unlike anything else in its director’s filmography, while still serving as a wonderful companion piece to Pan’s Labyrinth. It’s also an immensely powerful political allegory set during the Spanish Civil War, diving deep into the timeless scars of fascism.
Terrifying yet tenderly emotional, and creepily atmospheric without ever losing its intellectual edge, it has been described by many over the years as one of the saddest horror movies ever made. Its ability to transcend standard genre tropes in service of its thematically profound narrative is to be admired, and the production values that make the 1939 Spain setting come to life are still incredibly impressive today. “Humans are the real monsters, not the monsters themselves,” is a common trope across all of del Toro’s filmography, but rarely does it work better than here.
1
‘The Lighthouse’ (2019)
Willem Dafoe in ‘The Lighthouse’Image via A24
Ever since he made his debut not too long ago, Robert Eggers has consistently established and re-established himself as one of the most exciting voices working in Hollywood horror today. All of his films so far have been absolutely phenomenal, but only one stands tall as his magnum opus: The Lighthouse, one of the most perfect movies of the last 10 years. Starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe at their very best, it’s far and away one of the greatest horror films in A24’s catalog.
What makes The Lighthouse so incredible is that it works so well on so many different levels. It’s part psychological fantasy thriller, part surrealist horror film, part cosmic horror, and even part homoerotic dark comedy. Eggers’ direction is so outstanding that all of these elements merge together beautifully to craft one of the most atmospheric, tonally complex, and absolutely fascinating indie movies in recent memory. There are no fantasy thrillers better than The Lighthouse.
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