20 Psychological Thrillers You Must See Before You Die

17. Rear Window

Talking of Hitchcock, it would be unthinkable to not have him on a list like this, and Rear Window marks the first of his two entries. Regularly cited as one of the great director's top rank films, Window is a much imitated, never bettered, classic, and the setup is ingenious: a wheelchair bound photographer becomes obsessed with spying on his neighbours, eventually convinced that one of them has committed a murder. It's a deceptively simple idea and it makes for one of the tautest films ever made. Other than the obvious star turns from Jimmy Stewart and a mesmerising Grace Kelly, the film's biggest asset is the set design, which saw a whole apartment block built on a Paramount soundstage so that the characters and the audience could look into virtually every room. The film has been parodied countless times (the Shia Labeouf led Disturbia; the Bart After Dark episode of The Simpsons) but the effect of it has never been lessened.