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The 10 Most Intense Movies of the 1960s, Ranked Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the poster for Bonnie and Clyde

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

By Ryan Heffernan Published 22 minutes ago Ryan Heffernan is a Senior Writer at Collider. Storytelling has been one of his interests since an early age, with his appreciation for film and television becoming a particular interest of his during his teenage years. This passion saw Ryan graduate from the University of Canberra in 2020 with an Honours Degree in Film Production. In the years since, he has found freelance work as a videographer and editor in the Canberra region while also becoming entrenched in the city's film-making community. In addition to cinema and writing, Ryan's other major interest is sport, with him having a particular love for Australian Rules football, Formula 1, and cricket. He also has casual interests in reading, gaming, and history. Sign in to your Collider account follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

The 1960s were a pivotal decade for cinema, an era of change and evolution that saw audience sensitivities begin to shift and boundaries in storytelling loosen as filmmakers became increasingly bold in what they were willing to depict on screen. While it may be the 1970s that is most remembered for the groundbreaking impact of New Wave Hollywood cinema, the appetite for more striking and intense movies was established throughout the '60s.

Ranging from iconic horror movies that continue to define the genre’s brilliance today to callous crime biopics, brutal and realistic war films, and even hard-edged Westerns that redefined cinematic violence, these movies stand as the most relentlessly tense of their decade. They are all celebrated today as being pioneering highlights of film history that were instrumental in ushering in a new approach to cinema and have found a quality that is both timeless and ahead of their time in the process.

10 'The Birds' (1963)

Tippi Hedren is trapped in a telephone booth in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.Image via Universal Pictures

Considered by many to be Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s last truly great masterpiece, The Birds is a creative creature feature that startles viewers by preying on the innate fear of random violence and the primitive nature of animal attacks. It follows Melanie (Tippi Hedren), a wealthy young socialite from San Francisco, whose trip to a small town nearby in pursuit of a potential boyfriend takes a shocking turn when the birds in the area begin exhibiting unusual and aggressive behavior.

As was his trademark, Hitchcock excels at building suspense with tremendous dread, conjuring a frightfully intense viewing experience that successfully takes common birds and turns them into some of the most terrifying movie monsters of the era. While The Birds perhaps hasn’t aged as gracefully as some of the director’s other films, its influence on horror cinema can’t be overstated. Its technical precision and the craftsmanship of the scares ensure that even the most hardened horror lover will still be sucked into the movie’s most intense and unnerving moments.

9 'Wait Until Dark' (1967)

Audrey Hepburn touching Richard Crenna's face in Wait Until Dark (1967)

Image via Warner Bros.

Tight, taut, and nail-bittingly intense, Wait Until Dark takes a simple premise and makes the absolute most of it. Anchored by Terence Young’s razor-sharp direction and Audrey Hepburn’s affecting, Oscar-nominated performance, the movie soars as a home invasion chiller. It follows a woman who, while still adjusting to her blindness after a recent accident, finds her house being besieged by a trio of sadistic criminals desperate to retrieve a stash of heroin that she unknowingly has in her possession.

An obvious precursor to modern gems like Hush, The Strangers, and You’re Next, Wait Until Dark thrives with its air of compact tension that intelligently depicts vulnerability and overcoming adversity to endear its plucky protagonist to viewers, thus making every moment of suspense all the more resounding. Further bolstered by its technical display, supporting performances, and one of the greatest jump scares in cinematic history, the 1967 thriller is a decadent delight that, for the most part, is still every bit as chilling today as it was upon release.

8 'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967)

Bonnie and Clyde sitting in a convertible, looking in the same direction in Bonnie And Clyde (1967).

Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in Bonnie And Clyde (1967).Image via Warner Bros.

Controversial upon release yet coming to be heralded as a boundary-pushing classic, Bonnie and Clyde stunned audiences in 1967 with its blunt depiction of violence, sex, and crime. It dramatizes the notorious reign of criminal lovers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star as the troubled titular duo. The film follows their exploits as they resort to stealing cars and robbing banks to make quick money, every squabble in their gang threatening to be their undoing, while staying one step ahead of the police.

A landmark moment in American cinematic history, the visceral impact of Bonnie and Clyde can be seen in hundreds of thrillers and crime dramas released over the decades since. Even in its own right, it remains a striking depiction of criminal activity that leans into the mythos and legend surrounding Bonnie and Clyde, even daring to idolize its central characters at times to paint a fascinating portrait of the intersection of violence and fame in American culture.

7 'The Battle of Algiers' (1966)

A military officer in sunglasses and a beret leads soldiers through a crowd in The Battle of Algiers, 1966.Image via Allied Artists

The 1960s featured an abundance of great war movies, from Cold War political satires like Dr. Strangelove to awe-inspiring epics like Lawrence of Arabia. An Italian-Algerian production, The Battle of Algiers belongs in the ranks of the decade’s best forays into the genre, operating with a documentary-like grittiness and a fact-based story of oppression, resistance, and warfare. Examining both sides of the conflict, the film follows both the FLN, Algerians using guerrilla warfare and terrorism to repel French colonization, and the French Army paratroopers sent into the country to quell the freedom fighters.

Its intensity is a direct result of its reality. The Battle of Algiers is a harrowing exploration of conflict, resistance, and anti-war sentiment in an urban setting where civilian casualties are an accepted cost and methods of torture are implemented. The film’s observations of morality in war are arguably even more confronting than its depiction of café bombings and fighting in the streets, making for one of the all-time great war movies and a harrowing masterpiece of 1960s cinema.

6 'Night of the Living Dead' (1968)

A horde of zombies walks towards the camera in Night of the Living Dead (1968).Image via Continental Distributing

In regard to horror cinema, the 1960s were a decade of revolutionary changes, a decade of paradigm-shifting excellence and creativity that laid the groundwork for the genre’s sweeping magnificence through the 1970s and beyond. Among the most important and celebrated scary movies of the decade is George A. Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead, a relentlessly eerie and intense movie that pioneered zombies as the undead, flesh-eating monsters we know them as today.

More than just an ingenious dose of monster horror, however, Night of the Living Dead also finds an air of striking impact through its thematic strength. Its endeavor to explore themes of racial tension, capitalist greed, and humanity succumbing to internal conflicts even in the face of overwhelming external forces is particularly noteworthy. It doesn’t feature much in the way of gore or graphic zombie designs, but it remains one of the subgenre’s most imposing movies thanks to the sense of dread and hostility it conjures, as well as Romero’s ability to make the mere threat of violence a haunting catalyst for tension and unease.

5 'Peeping Tom' (1960)

Carl Boehm as Mark Lewis holding a device in 'Peeping Tom'Image via Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors

Some horror filmmakers break new ground with a revolutionary idea and are heralded as genre-defining geniuses; others do the same thing and are dismissed as callous, sadistic, and perverse hacks whose stories have no merit or value. Unfortunately, the latter was initially the case for Tom Powell when he released Peeping Tom in 1960, and the film’s grueling tale of a serial killing filmmaker who records the final moments of his victims was lambasted upon release.

While this reception did effectively ruin Powell’s career, it is some small comfort that the film has, in time, come to be celebrated as a daring triumph of cinema that pioneered a new frontier of thriller and horror rife with gripping realism and ferocious intensity. Immersing viewers in the perspective of a deranged murderer, Peeping Tom thrives as a chilling yet contemplative masterpiece that dissects the exploitative nature of cinema through its sadistic protagonist and his violent impulses.

4 'Eyes Without a Face' (1960)

A woman wears an expressionless white mask in Eyes Without A Face (1960)

Image via Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France.

Not at all dissimilar to Peeping Tom, Eyes Without a Face wouldn’t find the critical acclaim it so thoroughly deserved until some years after its initial release. Now lauded as being an unforgettable and disturbing masterpiece that was instrumental in shifting horror cinema from monster-focused fantasy to real-world depths, the French-Italian co-production thrives as a harrowing tale of parenthood, guilt, and helplessness. It focuses on a plastic surgeon who, after causing an accident that leaves his daughter disfigured, takes to kidnapping young women in a horrific bid to remove their faces and graft them onto his daughter.

Forgoing unnatural chills and ghoulish ghastliness, Eyes Without a Face finds its terror in human nature, using the resonant theme of a father’s love as a catalyst to explore themes of obsession, vanity, and the elusive nature of identity with both horrific intentions and completely understandable desperation. It defines the underrated intensity of '60s horror, the reconfiguration of the genre through increasingly dark and daring stories that emphasize the internal brutality of humanity.

3 'The Wild Bunch' (1969)

William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson, and Warren Oats walking with weapons in The Wild Bunch.Image via Warner Bros.

By the late '60s, Western cinema had seen a lot, ranging from mythic tales of heroism and conviction on the expanding frontier, stories of greed, grit, and anti-hero ambiguity, and even poignant, character-focused dramas of great emotional depth and detail. However, nothing could prepare the genre for the onslaught of amorality and violence seen in The Wild Bunch, a hugely controversial picture on release due to its graphic content and coarse characters. Alas, it has come to be celebrated as a landmark achievement in not just Western filmmaking, but all cinema as well.

Following a group of aging outlaws as their final heist ends in disaster, leading them to take shelter in a lawless border town, the Sam Peckinpah classic is, even today, a harrowing exploration of violence that dismantles the myth of valor and stoic morality in the Old West. Through sequences of slow-motion shots, rapid-fire editing, and various camera angles, The Wild Bunch illustrates violence with a hyperrealistic intensity, crafting a shocking sensory overload that complements its bleak tale of aging gunslingers and the demise of the Old West superbly.

2 'Rosemary’s Baby' (1968)

It is one of the most piercing horror movies ever made, and yet it contains very little in the way of violence or blood and gore; instead, it thrives with a viscerally terrifying atmospheric might as it focuses on themes of domesticity, the loss of control, misogyny in household environments, and common anxieties around childbirth. Released in 1968, Rosemary’s Baby takes place as Rosemary (Mia Farrow) starts experiencing unsettling occurrences after moving into an apartment with a dark history with her husband. When she falls pregnant, Rosemary begins to fear her haunting visions are more than just nightmares as she suspects her unborn baby may be the Antichrist.

The film’s horror is truly timeless, preying on the viewer’s fears of isolation, vulnerability, and betrayal through its twisted story of Satanic ritual and spousal manipulation that unfolds with an air of pure evil. As bold and profound a psychological horror as has ever been made, Rosemary’s Baby is a vicious medley of simmering relationship troubles and demonic terror that delivers a picture of piercing and precise intensity that lingers in the minds of viewers long after the credits have rolled.

1 'Psycho' (1960)

Janet Leigh as Marion Crane screaming in the shower in Psycho.Image via Paramount Pictures

Not only the most intense movie of the 1960s, but one of the most defining and terrifying triumphs of horror cinema at large, Pyscho masters the art of subversive suspense and simmering intensity with a might that remains unmatched even 65 years on. In the nature of its story alone, the film conjures frightful tension, presenting a protagonist on the run after stealing a sum of money from her employer only for her to be killed halfway through the movie, upheaving the narrative audiences had grown attached to and conjuring a new arc as it follows the victim’s sister and lover in their efforts to find the truth.

Add to that chilling tale Hitchcock’s innovative and agonizing camerawork, one of the most nerve-breaking scores in cinematic history, and an iconic performance from Anthony Perkins, and Psycho thrives as a daring picture of technical excellence and tremendous impact. Its success recalibrated the horror genre while shifting the possibilities of cinematic suspense forevermore. It remains one of the most bitterly intense pictures of all time, and stands as one of the crowning glories of 1960s cinema at large.

Psycho R Horror Mystery Thriller Release Date September 8, 1960

Cast Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, John Gavin, Vera Miles Runtime 109 minutes Director Alfred Hitchcock Writers Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch Genres Horror, Mystery, Thriller Powered by

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