Mystery Films That Keep You Guessing Until the End

Six strangers are invited to dinner at a mansion, each under a false name, and the host turns up dead. Based on the board game, played at high speed, and famous for having three different endings.

Watch it if: you want a mystery that is mostly a comedy.

A photographer stuck at home with a broken leg passes the time watching his neighbors across the courtyard, and becomes convinced that one of them has murdered his wife. Alfred Hitchcock builds a whole thriller out of a single room.

Watch it if: you like suspense built from small details.

Two rival magicians in Victorian London become obsessed with outdoing, and then destroying, each other. Christopher Nolan’s film is a magic trick in itself, and it plays fair with you.

Watch it if: you enjoy looking for the trick.

A child psychologist tries to help a frightened boy who says he can see dead people. Even if you know the famous ending, it is worth watching for how carefully every scene is built.

Watch it if: you want chills more than violence.

On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick comes home to find his wife Amy missing, and the evidence starts pointing straight at him. David Fincher’s thriller changes shape halfway through.

Watch it if: you want a film to argue about on the way to bed.

A cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle becomes obsessed with identifying the Zodiac killer, who taunted police and newspapers with coded letters. A true story with no tidy ending, and all the more gripping for it.

Watch it if: you like true crime and patient detective work.

Two young girls vanish from a Pennsylvania street on Thanksgiving, and when the police release their only suspect, one father decides to take matters into his own hands. Dark, long and extremely tense.

Watch it if: you can handle a heavy subject.

Two detectives, one a week from retirement and one new to the city, hunt a killer who is staging murders based on the seven deadly sins. Grim and brilliantly made, with an ending people still talk about.

Watch it if: you want the darkest film on the list.