Five Thrillers to Watch Instead of 'A Quiet Place 2'

With John Krasinski's horror-thriller sequel postponed from cinemas indefinitely, here's five less-widely seen chillers to watch this week instead

Emily Blunt taking a stroll in 'A Quiet Place 2' (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

by Jack Linsdell

This week was meant to see the release of the John Krasinski-directed horror sequel A Quiet Place 2, starring his wife Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy. The follow-up to the 2018 surprise smash-hit chiller, which became the biggest grossing original movie since Christopher Nolan's Interstellar in 2014, A Quiet Place 2 was the last of all the biggest movies this season to be pushed back or postponed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But, unlike No Time To Die and Fast & Furious 9, A Quiet Place 2 is still without a new release date.

However, for those of you who were planning on seeing the John Krasinski flick this week in cinemas, I decided to give you five equally terrific, yet less known/seen, thrillers to watch from the comfort of your own home. So, without further ado...

Happy Death Day (2017)

Jessica Rothe in 'Happy Death Day' (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Christopher Landon's Happy Death Day is perhaps the most widely seen of these releases, due to being a Jason Blum-produced flick that earned a respectable $125 million worldwide on a mere $7 million budget. This "Groundhog Day meets Halloween" slasher-thriller follows Jessica Rothe's self-centred college student Tree as she relives the day she gets murdered over and over again. Without spoiling anything, I will say that you are in for one hell of a ride. Writer/director Christopher Landon manages to craft one immensely tense and entertaining thriller, that keeps you guessing throughout, and sometimes hiding behind the nearest cushion. Although, it gains respect for hardly being gory or excessively violent, using it's plot twists and character flaws to build tension instead, which makes it more family-orientated than some slasher flicks. Furthermore, it's strong female lead gives women a "strong but vulnerable" realistic depiction of their sex on-screen, something that shows young girls that you can be a strong women by having vulnerabilities. Added to this, Landon's impressive screenplay is full of well-sketched and layered characters, and relatable beats which hit the correct emotions, something you certainly don't expect from a genre flick. If I'm overselling a Friday night thriller movie, then that's it's greatest recommendation. Rothe has charm and nuance in her performance, clearly relishing having fun in a genre exercise, whilst a compelling romance subplot adds something other than tension to this thriller. Overall, Happy Death Day is more than just an original thriller from the biggest horror studio in Hollywood. It's actually a perfect combination of tension, character and story. And, if that's not the definition of a thriller, I don't know what is. 

Curve (2015)

Julianne Hough in 'Curve' (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Julianne Hough is famous because of her dancing career, especially with the show Dancing with the Stars in America. However, she's had quite a small but impressive Hollywood career as an actress too, with leads in several severely underseen and utterly brilliant movies, all of which showcase her powerhouse acting abilities. She's conquered the dance classics (Footloose), the musical (Rock of Ages), the comedy (Dirty Grandpa) and now the thriller with Ian Softely's Curve. Another Blum Productions flick, this time only released on VOD (not playing in cinemas is probably why you've never seen it), Curve follows a soon bride-to-be Mallory as she drives to Denver for her wedding rehearsal. When her car breaks down and his then fixed by the apparent kindness of a total stranger (played by Teddy Sears), out of guilt she gives him a ride to say thank you. When he starts acting inappropriately and pulls a knife on Mallory, she crashes the car in an attempt to kill him, only to find herself trapped in the wreckage and at his mercy. What happens from here is quite the joyride, coming off as part survivalist-thriller (think 127 Hours) but with the twist that her fate is not just down to nature, but to a psychotic man too. This original hook is very well served, and results in an 86-minute nail-bitter, that uses it's low-budget and therefore its self-contained setting to it's advantage to maximise tension. It's clever, yet also another example of putting two interesting and flawed characters together for an hour and a half and seeing what happens. Considering Hough has hardly anyone to act off, or anything to act with, she does extremely well, almost making the film. The final act climax is bigger and full of action like you want (and expect) and finale to have, and it's subversion of audience expectations is a constant delight. A severely underseen thriller, worthy of your time. 

Greta (2019)

Chloe Grace Moretz and Isabelle Huppert in 'Greta' (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

No, this wasn't an intentional Universal Pictures plug-in, it just so happens they've distributed several excellent and underseen thrillers within the last five years. Anyway, as a regular readers know, not only have I championed this movie ever since it's release in April last year, but I'm also the biggest fan of Chloe Grace Moretz around (fight me!). Neil Jordan's clever and stylish thriller is the type of old-school movie Hollywood never makes anymore, with emphasis on an original concept ("a young women returns a lost bag she found on the train, only to become emotionally manipulated and kidnapped by the owner") and the star power of its two leads (Moretz and Huppert). Furthermore, unlike most modern movies, the thrills of this one come from a well-written screenplay, whose twists, turns and interesting characters provide all the "fun". Apart from one, brief moment, there's hardly any gore/violence, and the film actually becomes a more tense thriller because it's all mental/emotional i.e. what can't be shown but felt. Added to that, it's dominance of female characters, especially well-rounded ones, and no spoilers but a climax that puts women first, makes this a landmark movie for the genre. I wish more people had seen this one, but if you haven't now is your chance. With excellent music, production values and costume design (whoever fitted Moretz in this movie deserves their own line), Greta is a quality thriller. 

Unsane (2018)

Claire Foy in 'Unsane' (CREDIT: 20th Century Pictures)

Steven Soderbergh's Unsane is quite a unique thriller, both in how it was filmed and the topicality of it's premise. Starring the ever-talented Claire Foy, whose 2018 was quite a year with First Man and The Girl With The Spider's Web hitting theatres alongside this one too, Unsane follows a women named Sawyer who is confined to a mental institution (wrongly?) after she is pursued by a stalker. Although this flick is the "heaviest" of all my recommendations, it's explorations regarding mental health, asylums and the sexual power of men in society makes this a very topical, relatable and impactful psychological-thriller for modern day audiences. The mood of the feel isn't particularly pleasant, that's not criticising the movie because that's what they want you to feel whilst watching it, but if you can navigate through it's 98-minute runtime it makes for a gripping and very powerful watch. It's production values are limited, which only adds to the sense of realism and claustrophobia, and Foy's performance helps ground the tension into something we really believe in, resulting in us spending the entire film worried for her character's safety. It helps that Soderbergh shot this one completely on an iPhone 7, which makes Unsane feel that much more unique and different than any other "thriller set in psychological hospital" pitch. Some may call it a gimmick, which like they did to Gemini Man's 3D-filming format, however much like that movie, I think it makes Unsane even more that worth a watch. 

The Negotiator (aka Beirut) (2018)

Jon Hamm and Rosmund Pike in 'The Negotiator (aka Beirut)' (CREDIT: Bleecker Street)

When we think of classic thrillers, writer-turned-director Tony Gilroy is perhaps the best example Hollywood has of Alfred Hitchcock. His work on Michael Clayton, Duplicity and the Bourne series (The Bourne Legacy he directed too) has given the world several well-loved and high-quality thrillers, in the shape and form of how Hollywood used to make the genre. His latest film, The Negotiator, or as its known in America Beirut, was a political-thriller script he wrote about the CIA in the Israeli city about 30 years ago, that was found by producer Mark Webber recently. After a quick polish (fun fact, the middle-east has changed a lot in three decades), Gilroy handed over the old-school political thriller to director Brad Anderson to shoot, who hired top-notch actors including Jon Hamm, Rosmund Pike and Shea Wigham to bring it to life. The result is impressive, if only because it serves as a trip down memory lane. The trio of Hamm, Pike and Whigham is excellent, and they more than chew the fat with Gilroy's sharp dialogue, adding a sense of deceit and charm into every one of their characters to add to the tension. And, by tension I don't mean explosions or big car chases. If you think this is Jason Bourne 6, you'll be disappointed. Rather, it's down-on-life protagonist Mason Skiles (Hamm) is a negotiator (hence the title) and is asked to secure the release of an American agent in Beirut. He at no point kicks ass, so to speak, but his intelligence and unfaltering patriotism allows him to navigate the political and personal treachery of the CIA and the middle east to emerge (spoilers?) as the hero. It may be a slow-burner, but that doesn't mean it isn't tense. 

So, there you go. Remember to stay safe out there everyone and remember to keep smiling. If in doubt, put on a movie. Maybe, one of the above?