The Shallows (2016)

  

A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.

OK thriller makes the best of its simple premise and has some effective sequences; Blake Lively makes it all work with her appropriate performance. 

Run All Night (2015)

A mobster and hit man has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, a mob boss, who wants the hitman's son to pay for the death of his own son.

Solid, but not too original thriller is suspenseful due to professional direction and a good cast.

Non-Stop (2014)

An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages demanding $150 million into an off-shore account, or someone will die every 20 minutes.

An old-hat premise is turned into an above-average thriller by keeping the tension high throughout and upping the ante of the plot's possibilties to the edge of credibility.

Maltin**: "Follows a familiar textbook for this kind of thriller but delivers the goods and keeps you guessing right to the outlandish finale."

Orphan (2009)

A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

OK horror thriller with a great cast is at times suspenseful, but the story is old hat and the actual resolution something of a letdown.

Maltin**1/2: "Formulaic "bad-seed"-type horror movie still manages to offer up plenty of creepy Gran Guignol moments and sports a genuine you-won't see-it-coming twist that sets it apart from others in the overworn genre...Some of this goes way over the top, yet remains a gulty pleasure for genre fans."