20 Baffling IMDb Top 250 Placements You Won't Believe

10. Shutter Island

Interstellar Cooper
Paramount Pictures

The Film:

A dark psychological thriller from director Martin Scorsese, which follows Leonardo DiCaprio's detective searching for a missing patient on an island asylum.

Placement: #177

Why It's Wrong:

Most will probably be on the same page with this one. It's anyone's guess how a thriller film with only 68% on Rotten Tomatoes that no-one even seems to remember that much has reached such heights. It's also one of the movies on the database that has received the most votes, with nearly a million at the time of writing. Why?

Shutter Island is a perfectly cast and visually stunning thriller which is a good, enjoyable movie but it's not IMDb Top 250 level. Not even close. Here are some movies which aren't on the Top 250: The Naked Gun, Battleship Potemkin, Blue Velvet, The Searchers, ET, Man with a Movie Camera, Glory, Get Carter, Goldfinger and Strangers on a Train. All of those are certified classics and they missed out on a spot, yet this is on it?

Shutter Island might boast a beloved director and a beloved lead actor with Leonardo DiCaprio, but let's not forget that it's fairly straightforward and the plot twist is rather predictable. Hardly anyone talks about it anymore, and this remains an odd placement to this day.

Where It Should Be: In all honesty, it doesn't really belong on the list. The only really acceptable placement given how many other great films aren't on the list would be #240-#250.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.