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Tension

What thriller should you watch tonight?

You want a film that holds you. Not necessarily violent, not necessarily spectacular: a film that doesn't let you drift off.

The thriller is the genre where the summary helps least. Two films described by the same sentence — "a man uncovers a secret bigger than he is" — can be a silent chamber piece or an unbroken chase. What separates them can't be read, it has to be seen: the rhythm of the cutting, the light, the way the camera holds a face. Thirty seconds of trailer says more than ten lines of synopsis.

That's what the "Under tension" mood exists for in CUT: instead of asking you for a genre, the app shows you the energy of the films before you commit to one of them. Three directions stand apart inside it, and they don't make for anything like the same evening. Crime holds you through the investigation and the mechanics of the facts. The psychological thriller holds you through doubt — about a character, about their memory, about what you've just seen. Espionage holds you through the manoeuvre: who is betraying whom, and since when.

Knowing which of the three appeals to you tonight narrows the field far faster than scrolling an entire catalogue. Once you've picked a title, CUT tells you which platform has it in your country — included in a subscription you already pay for, or available to rent.

The selection

Nine thrillers, by direction

Crime

  • Heat (1995)

    Michael Mann

    The heist is a profession and so is the hunt: two professionals who mirror each other, and one diner scene that holds the whole film.

  • Zodiac (2007)

    David Fincher

    The case is never solved — it consumes the people working it. The most patient crime film there is.

  • No Country for Old Men (2007)

    Joel and Ethan Coen

    Almost no score: the tension comes from silence, and from a man no argument can turn.

Psychological

  • Prisoners (2013)

    Denis Villeneuve

    A father goes too far, and the film refuses to tell you whether he is right.

  • Nightcrawler (2014)

    Dan Gilroy

    The unease comes not from a threat but from the lead himself, whom you follow anyway.

  • Gone Girl (2014)

    David Fincher

    Every reveal redistributes who is lying — the doubt is about the telling itself.

Espionage

  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

    Tomas Alfredson

    Espionage without a single chase: glances, files, and a betrayal surfacing slowly.

  • The Lives of Others (2006)

    Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

    Surveillance seen from the ear doing the listening, until it changes sides.

  • Munich (2005)

    Steven Spielberg

    A reprisal mission where each operation costs the people carrying it out a little more.

Your next obsession is one cut away