10 Best Mystery Movies Where Nobody Can Be Trusted

It’s typical of a mystery movie to include multiple suspects, any one of whom may be the culprit. They are often made this way in order to keep audiences guessing, or sometimes to throw them for a loop as the real culprit is revealed to be someone entirely different. But at the same time, there are usually a handful of characters on the other side, who the audience can feel safe with, and can easily guess that their intentions are good.

But this isn’t always the case, of course. Some movies are crafted in such a way that the evidence could implicate everyone, or even no one, which makes the viewer guess even more, desperate to figure out who could be responsible for the nefarious deeds pictured in the film. These are the movies where the vast majority of characters, if any at all, cannot be trusted, because there is no telling what motivations the characters have.

1 ‘Memento’ (2000)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Memento is one of director Christopher Nolan‘s earliest and most underrated efforts. It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man who is personally investigating the death of his wife. The story doesn’t take place in chronological order though and features multiple time jumps, bouncing backwards and forwards on a frequent basis. The way the film is shot establishes Leonard as an unreliable narrator, made even more apparent by the fact that he has to tattoo important bits of information on himself in order to deal with his amnesia.

Not only is Leonard himself unreliable, but so is pretty much everyone else he comes into contact with. For the majority of the movie, it’s never really clear who can be trusted and who can’t, but most people seem to fall into the latter category. If audiences can’t even depend on the movie’s protagonist, who can they depend on?

2 ‘Clue’ (1985)

Directed by Johnathan Lynn

Making a movie based on a board game of all things seems like a ridiculous premise. And yet, Clue works perfectly. This isn’t just a mystery film, though—it’s also a black comedy, and it succeeds in nearly all departments of both genres. The premise of the board game is that there are six characters, all with distinct personalities, who are spending the night at an extravagant dinner party at a millionaire’s mansion. Suddenly, the estate owner turns up dead, and it is the job of the players to figure out who did it with what weapon and in what room.

The thing about the game is that it could literally be any one of the six characters, and this possibility translates into the film as well. The six protagonists could all be potential suspects, and each little tidbit of evidence left behind implicates multiple of them. Like the game players, it’s not wise to trust anybody, because anyone might be the killer in disguise. It’s a big mansion, after all, and there would have been a lot of opportunity to carry out a murder without being caught.

3 ‘Knives Out’ (2019)

Directed by Rian Johnson

Knives Out follows a private eye named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who interferes in a police investigation involving the sudden death of a millionaire. It pulled a lot of clear inspiration from Clue, where any one of the main characters could be the suspect. Much of it concerns the inheritance money that the millionaire left behind, meaning any of the members of his dysfunctional family could have the means, motive, and opportunity to see him dead.

Since there’s no shortage of suspects, there’s also no shortage of shady characters, which really complicates things for Benoit and for the police. It’s never really clear until the end who Benoit should set his sights on because the members of the family are consistently pointing fingers at each other, and it’s hard to know which ones are lying and which are telling the truth.

4 ‘Identity’ (2003)

Directed by James Mangold

Identity is much in the same vein as Clue, in that there are a series of main characters, any one of whom could be a suspect in a murder investigation taking place. These ten unaffiliated people find themselves stranded in a motel in the middle of nowhere, where some begin to die under mysterious circumstances. This turns the movie into a race against time to find out who is the killer before they can clean the place out.

It’s hard to guess who the killer is, just like it is for the characters contained within the movie. But one thing is certain: one shouldn’t get too attached to any one of the main cast, because for all they know, they could be the murderer. It instills a sense of paranoia in the viewer, making them doubt every single character’s intentions, dispositions, and personality as they anxiously await the final reveal.

5 ‘Shutter Island’ (2010)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Shutter Island may not have a very surprising plot twist, but it does have a foreboding energy about it as detective Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) is sent to a remote island in New England to investigate the escape of a patient at a mental hospital. Throughout the film, his only constant companion is Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), who is right by Teddy’s side through thick and thin. Pretty much everybody else though is cold and callous, choosing not to speak to Teddy or to remain distant.

Obviously, this makes Teddy’s job a whole lot harder, and he gets nowhere fast in his investigation. It seems like Chuck can be trusted, but only at first, because after its twist is revealed, it’s really not clear who, if anyone, is worthy of trust. It all seems like an elaborate conspiracy against Teddy, which leaves audiences wondering why this is happening, and how much the asylum staff really know.

6 ‘Prisoners’ (2013)

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Prisoners stars Hugh Jackman as a deeply religious man named Keller, whose beliefs are tested when he and his best friend’s daughters are kidnapped. As any father would be, Keller is desperate to get his daughter home safe, no matter what obstacles he has to overcome. In fairness, the movie reveals who the culprit is pretty early on, but things aren’t really as simple as they initially appear. The reason why many people can’t be trusted is primarily because of what they are willing to do. Or, in this case, what they aren’t willing to do.

Prisoners succeeds in showing the lengths a religious man like Keller will go to in order to get his daughter back, resorting to violence and even torture to find the answers he desperately seeks. But his best friend isn’t quite as willing to sink that low, and neither are either of their families. On top of that, Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), the detective hired to tackle the case, seems to be dragging his feet, and remarkably, the police actually release the kidnapper due to a lack of evidence. Keller is understandably frustrated, and like the audience, he doesn’t really know if anyone is truly willing to help and clearly can’t rely on anyone else to help find the missing kids. Beyond that, it’s clear that the kidnapper isn’t working alone, which means anyone could be an accomplice or an external force that drove him to do this.

7 ‘The Game’ (1997)

Directed by David Fincher

Director David Fincher is sort of known for making mystery thriller films that instill a sense of paranoia in his viewers, but The Game might take the cake as the one that does this the best. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most underrated films in Fincher’s repertoire. The story centres on Nick (Michael Douglas), a banker who is given an opportunity to participate in an elaborate game for some sort of reward.

As the game goes on, however, it becomes increasingly weirder and more suspicious. This leads Nick to start to doubt everyone he meets, thinking this game may just be an elaborate way to ruin his life. He begins to suspect everyone around him, and so does the audience. Who could possibly have a motive for doing such a thing? Moreover, is Nick even correct in his assumptions, or is he looking too deeply into something that is more benign (although admittedly, strange)? It’s not easy to pinpoint who might be behind everything in this movie, but that’s why it’s so brilliant.

WATCH ON NETFLIX

8 ‘The Conversation’ (1974)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

The Conversation features Gene Hackman as Harry, a surveillance agent whose sole job is to listen in and record a conversation between an unidentified man and woman. Already, this is a haunting premise, making audiences wonder if someone could really be listening in on them in turn. It’s not something that anyone really wants to think about and is an instrumental topic in establishing the overarching theme of mistrust and paranoia.

As the conversations between the couple evolve, Harry begins to suspect that someone may be after them and interested in doing them harm. Now that he’s also indirectly involved, he begins to worry that the very same person or persons may be interested in harming him as well. No one is exempt from his suspicion. He even begins to worry that his own employers are observing him, waiting for their moment to strike. Not only is the protagonist unreliable, but so is pretty much everyone else in the movie.

9 ‘Werewolves Within’ (2021)

Directed by Josh Ruben

Werewolves Within is based on a video game of the same name from 2016. Normally, this would be a recipe for disaster, but the movie is surprisingly really good and very adept at tackling the concept and spirit of the original game. Not only is it a great mystery flick with a supernatural twist, but it’s also a fantastic comedy.

When a group of villagers are trapped inside an inn, some are randomly attacked by a strange beast. Now, with the nature of werewolves, the beast itself could be literally anyone. One of their key characteristics is that they are humans ordinarily but transform into wolves under various circumstances, which differ according to which story they’re a part of. As such, the actual werewolf is going to be unassuming at first glance, which, like many other mysteries, means that any one of the characters could be the villain in disguise, and there’s not really any certainty as to who it is until the very end.

10 ‘Caché’ (2005)

Directed by Michael Haneke

Caché follows a family living in the French suburbs who suddenly find themselves at the mercy of a mysterious stalker. The series of bizarre events begins with the family finding a videotape in their mail, which contains long surveillance footage of their family home. Gradually, more tapes appear and things begin to ramp up, with the stalker clearly knowing intimate details about the family’s personal lives. Yet who they are and why they’re doing this is never revealed at the end.

It’s such a mind-bending film because it leaves the audience to do all the detective work themselves. As the family tears itself apart, leads begin to appear, but they ultimately lead nowhere. Every single character that appears in the film could be a potential suspect, so it’s not easy to pinpoint exactly who the stalker is. It could be literally anyone, but also no one at all, which makes this phenomenal movie as perplexing as it is creepy as it instills the family’s sense of paranoia onto the viewer.

RENT ON AMAZON

KEEP READING: 20 Best Mystery Movies of All Time, Ranked According to IMDb