Highest rated thrillers on Rotten Tomatoes

1.) Citizen Kane
2.) The Third Man
3.) Laura
4.) Gravity
5.) Repulsion
6.) North By Northwest
7.) Rear Window
8.) The Maltese Falcon
9.) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
10.) Rashomon

The majority of the films on this list are pre-1950's classics. This works in my favour as it would be easier to be inspired by their techniques as most were made on a limited budget. Also I find the suspense in classic thriller movies to be more effective, in turn this makes making my thriller easier as I can more efficiently produce a higher quality thriller at the end of production.

Highest rated thrillers on IMDb

1.) Pulp Fiction
2.) Drishyam
3.) 1
4.) Inception
5.) The Zohar
6.) Waar
7.) Na Maloom Afraad
8.) Baby
9.) Usual Suspects
10.) Se7en

I agree mostly with this list, however most of them I have not watched, specifically 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Yet from the ones I have watched I can implement features from them that define them as thrillers, this will in turn make my opening sequence more a thriller so I can hit the mark criteria accurately.

My 4 favourite thriller films of all time

I am going to list 4 of my all time favourite thriller movies and explain how I am going to incorporate parts of them films into my own.

1.) Pulp Fiction - I really enjoy the comical elements in Pulp Fiction, however I am not going to include any in mine as I am not going down that specific path.
2.) Inception - I really like the confusion caused by Inception, I believe it keeps the audience interested. I have implemented the mysterious object in her hand to replicate this.
3.) Se7en - Se7en has a lot of elements that I wished to include into my opening sequence however due to budget issues and lack of a professional actor this was impossible. However I based the tone of my thriller heavily upon this.
4.) The Usual Suspects - I knew from the beginning that it would be hard to include any features of this film into mine, the acting is incredible and the twist at the end really surprised me during my first viewing.

Different sub genres of thrillers

Common sub genres are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers.
Another common sub genre of thriller is the spy genre which deals with fictional espionage. 
Alfred Hitchcock created some of the most iconic thriller movies to date and he was a bug influence on the way thrillers are made today.
The different genres of horror often overlap with the thriller genre. 
Thrillers tend to be psychological, threatening, mysterious and at times involve larger-scale situations such as espionage and terrorism.

Thriller Research - Conventions of a Thriller

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewers mood, giving them a sense of dread and anticipation as they do not know what will happen to the protagonist next.
A thriller provides a sudden rush of excitement that drives the main narrative through to the end.
I believe this knowledge will help me improve my short film as I know I need to create tension in order to progress the story and to ensure the viewer does not get bored watching.