Mystery & Suspense Movies

In the wake of a disaster, the tenants of an apartment building turn on one another in this thriller from director Xavier Gens. New York is hit by an unexpected nuclear attack, and Eva (Lauren German) and her husband Sam (Ivan Gonzalez) rush to the basement of their apartment block, believing the cellar is their best bet for safety. They soon discover the basement is the domain of building manager Mickey (Michael Biehn), who is a survivor of the 9/11 attacks and doesn't put much trust in anyone. Convinced venturing outside will kill them all, Mickey refuses to let anyone leave, and Eva and Sam are trapped with macho bully Josh (Milo Ventimigila), Josh's soft-spoken brother Adrien (Ashton Holmes), loudmouth Bobby (Michael Eklund), high-strung single mother Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette), Marilyn's daughter Wendy (Abbey Thickson), and an impatient man named Delvin (Courtney B. Vance). As the days in the basement turn to weeks and supplies of food and water run low, the neighbors become increasingly tense and violent; eventually, the men and women form cliques and turn against one another. The Divide received its world premiere at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Director Chris Gorak (Right at Your Door) teams with producer Timur Bekmambetov for this tense apocalyptic thriller centering on the fight for survival waged by five youths who find themselves stranded in Moscow during an alien invasion. As the invisible extraterrestrials absorb all of Earth's energy and life forms, finding a means of escaping the unstoppable attackers becomes a seemingly impossible task. Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, and Max Minghella star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A teenage gambler finds his life thrown in to disarray after discovering the body of his best friend. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Five mountaineers free a young girl from an underground chamber deep in the Scottish Highlands, and find themselves targeted by a group of relentless kidnappers attempting to ransom her for a big payday in this thriller starring Melissa George, Sean Harris, and Karel Roden. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, a meditation on depression and the end of the world, stars Kirsten Dunst as an emotionally troubled newlywed named Justine, whose sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) throws her a lavish wedding party. While her lack of emotional stability begins to take a toll on Justine's new marriage as well as the party -- and old wounds are exposed -- Claire's wealthy husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) also knows a great deal about a planet that is on a possible collision course with Earth, further muddying the waters. The second half of the movie focuses on Claire, who ends up taking her sister in after the marriage collapses, and also begins to fear that John is hiding apocalyptically bad news. John Hurt and Charlotte Rampling co-star. Melancholia screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A reclusive Manhattan heiress finds her carefully structured world beginning to crumble after her elderly neighbor dies, and a young couple moves into the vacant apartment. On her 18th birthday, Abigail Clayton (Selma Blair) received a staggering inheritance from her late father, an affluent industrialist. That same day, Abigail also escaped the probing lenses of the paparazzi by sealing herself away from the world in her massive loft. Nearly twenty years later, the only people Abigail interacts with are Klandermann (Kevin Pollak) the Concierge, and Dr. Raymond Fontaine (Beau Bridges), a trusted family friend. One day, Abigail's elderly neighbor dies under mysterious circumstances, and Homicide Detective Frank Giardello (Giovanni Ribisi) comes knocking on Abigail's door looking for answers. Concerned that the open apartment could provide a perfect perch for prying eyes, Abigail inquires about purchasing it to no avail. Shortly thereafter, Abigail spies Charlie (Jason Lee) and Lillian (Amy Smart) moving into the apartment. In the weeks that follow, Abigail begins religiously using her peephole to scrutinize her new neighbors' every move. But she can't stay locked away forever, and the moment Abigail meets Charlie and Lillian in person, the nightmare begins. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A small-town mortician finds his darkest secret revealed in director Martin Guigui's edge-of-your-seat thriller. Everyone in Smithville, Texas, knows the name Ely Vaughn (Dennis Quaid). A former star quarterback on the high-school football team, amiable Ely went on to become the town mortician. Ely's always got a quick smile ready as he cheers on the hometown team, but two years after his wife's untimely death, he's grown increasingly reclusive. He lives in a sprawling mansion that also doubles as the local funeral home, and rumor has it that the house is haunted. For curious teens Travis (Tony Oller), Brian (Stephen Lunsford), Abby (Aimee Teegarden), and Danny (Devon Werkheiser), the temptation to find out for themselves if the stories are true prove too powerful to resist. Gazing into Ely's windows, the teens witness the silhouettes of the grieving widower and an unidentified woman dancing together, and decide to get a closer look. But it may be the last mistake they ever make, because beneath Ely's friendly facade dwells a murderous sociopath capable of unspeakable evil. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Emergency room nurse Kaitlyn (Natalie Zea) begins to experience the memories of a murder victim after being electrocuted by a defibrillator while attempting to save her life. Meanwhile, after failing to convince her friends and family that she's not going insane, Kaitlyn becomes determined to catch the killer before he can strike again, and gets some much needed help from veteran detective Peter Rafferty (Sean Patrick Flanery). Christopher Lloyd, Veronica Cartwright, Adam Baldwin, and Thomas Ian Nicholas co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An escaped cult member experiences paranoia and isolation while attempting to start a new life with her sister's family. Try as Martha might to blend into her new upper-middle-class surroundings, she can't help but be haunted by nightmares of the time she spent under the control of a malevolent cult leader, or the fear that the group is watching her every move and awaiting the perfect moment to take their revenge. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In this police thriller, a young officer (Channing Tatum) is assigned to the Queens precinct he grew up in. But when an unsolved murder threatens to reveal dark secrets from his past, he is forced to break his own moral code to keep himself, his family, and his fellow cops safe. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Venezuelan hit man Parca the Reaper takes over a Caracas hospital in the middle of a medical strike, and holds the staff hostage in a desperate attempt to save his girlfriend's life. Meanwhile, as police surround the building and the media circus gets underway, Parca becomes a folk hero by agreeing to give up one hostage for each new patient admitted. But when tensions in the hospital spill out into the streets, a heroic gesture has unexpected consequences. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An Ohio family man experiences a series of disturbing visions that gradually begin to weigh on his marriage and community when he begins obsessively constructing a heavily fortified storm shelter. Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) has a good life. He lives in a beautiful house with his loving wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and their deaf six-year-old daughter, Hannah (Tova Stewart), but begins to sense that something ominous is on the horizon when the dark clouds of swelling storms begin invading his dreams. Taciturn, Curtis refuses to discuss the dreams with anyone, but feels compelled to dig out a massive storm shelter with the help of a good friend (Shea Whigham). Meanwhile, as Samantha grows increasingly concerned with Curtis' erratic behavior, the local rumor mill begins to churn. Are Curtis' dreams a prophetic omen of things to come, or is he perhaps headed down the same dark road as his mother, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when she was approximately the same age that he is now? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi