15 Gripping Thrillers Around 90 Minutes That Waste No Time
Thrillers often improve when there is no room to wander. The films here use compact runtimes to keep pressure high, whether the danger comes from a phone call, a locked room, a missing person or one terrible decision.
- 01
The Guilty
2018View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA Danish emergency dispatcher tries to manage a crisis using only a telephone and what he can infer from the caller.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 85 min · Danish.
- 02
Locke
2013WHY IT FITSOne car journey and a sequence of calls turn a seemingly ordinary drive into a life-changing pressure cooker.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 85 min · Minimalist.
- 03
Run Lola Run
1998View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA breathless Berlin race against time where tiny choices repeatedly reshape the outcome.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 80 min · Energetic.
- 04
Phone Booth
2002WHY IT FITSA man answers a ringing public phone and discovers that walking away may be deadly.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 81 min · High concept.
- 05
Red Eye
2005View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA routine flight becomes a tight two-person battle once a passenger learns why the stranger beside her chose that seat.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 85 min · Airplane thriller.
- 06
Creep
2014View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA videographer accepts a strange one-day job and gradually realises that the client is much harder to read than expected.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 77 min · Uncomfortable.
- 07
Searching
2018View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA father searches his daughter's digital life after she disappears, with the investigation unfolding through screens and online traces.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 102 min · Mystery.
- 08
Coherence
2013WHY IT FITSA dinner party becomes increasingly impossible after a comet passes overhead and small inconsistencies begin to multiply.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 89 min · Mind-bending.
- 09
Blue Ruin
2013WHY IT FITSA revenge story stripped of glamour, following an ordinary man whose plan is far less controlled than he imagines.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 90 min · Revenge.
- 10
Calibre
2018View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA hunting trip in the Scottish Highlands turns into a moral nightmare after one irreversible mistake.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 101 min · British.
- 11
Buried
2010View movie detailsWHY IT FITSOne man wakes inside a coffin with a phone, limited air and almost no information.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 95 min · Claustrophobic.
- 12
Green Room
2015WHY IT FITSA touring punk band becomes trapped backstage after witnessing something they were never meant to see.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 95 min · Violent.
- 13
The Invitation
2015WHY IT FITSA dinner with old friends grows steadily more unsettling as politeness fights with instinct.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 100 min · Slow burn.
- 14
Hush
2016View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA deaf writer living alone is forced into a brutal game of survival when an intruder appears outside.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 81 min · Home invasion.
- 15
Wheelman
2017View movie detailsWHY IT FITSA getaway driver receives conflicting instructions while a robbery unravels around him.
THE VIEWING BRIEFThis belongs on your list when the brief is: 82 min · Crime.
