Part of the reason people go to the movies is to experience the thrills that likely will never happen to most of the audience. Modern moviegoers – like the moviegoers from every era – want to try to solve mysteries and they want to be held in suspense, and that's why this genre continues to expand and improve.
You often don't need the newest technology to make an effective mystery and suspense movie. You just need a good story. Here are five mystery and suspense movies since 2000 that have shaped the modern genre:
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1. "Memento" (2000)
While this movie might take more than one showing for the viewer to grasp exactly what he's seeing, the way this story is told (basically, from backward to forward, although that's a superficial explanation) is a remarkable way to experience a film. In 2001,
Salon wrote the following about this suspense film: "Its puzzles are so intriguing and so impenetrable at first viewing that filmgoers are almost forced to go back for a second look. "
2. "Saw" (2004)
There's certainly a discussion that could take place about whether this film – and the franchise it spawned – is actually a good movie, but the horror movie genre was changed after its release.
As Den of Geek points out, the movie schedule around the Halloween holiday centered on the franchise for many years afterward but, more importantly for the genre as a whole, it helped usher in a new era of so-called "torture porn" movies.
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/saw/32396/how-saw-changed-the-halloween-release-schedule
3. "No Country For Old Men" (2007)
This Coen Brothers movie cleaned up at the Academy Awards – it won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem – and at the time and maybe into today, this was considered the directors' masterpiece.
Wrote the New York Times in its review of the movie: "'No Country for Old Men' leaves behind the jangled, stunned sensation of having witnessed a ruthless application of craft."
4. "Inception" (2010)
Perhaps more than anything, this film will be remembered for the special effects it showcases and for the intriguing storyline. As the
Hollywood Reporter wrote in its review of this suspense film, "Inception" was "easily the most original movie idea in ages. What's new here is how writer-director Christopher Nolan repackages all this with a science-fiction concept that allows his characters to chase and shoot across multiple levels of reality." Nolan, it should be noted, also directed "Memento."
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5. "Argo" (2012)
This film, about a CIA agent who invents a fake movie in order to save six Americans trapped in Iran in 1979, was a winner at the box office and at the Academy Awards – it won for Best Film. But it also angered Iran, and
according to the Christian Science Monitor, it might have made it harder for Americans to make movies abroad.
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