The previous answer is for most watched thillers. You also might be interested in most liked thrillers. RottenTomatoes is a great website for answering that question.
Here the top thrillers listed at rottentomatoes: The Dark Knight (PG-13) 2008 Minority Report (PG-13) 2002 Memento (R) 2001 No Country for Old Men (R) 2007 The Departed (R) 2006 Children of Men (R) 2006 City of God (R) 2003 The Insider (R) 1999 Alien (R) 1979 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Not Rated) 2008 http://www.rottentomatoes.com/browser.php?movietype=3&genre=200320&subgenre=&tomatometer=80%25&avgrating=80&numreviews=10&mpaa=&decade=&video_format= But you can fine tune you search, and slice your results lots of different ways. If you want the top PG-13 Political Thrillers: The Manchurian Candidate (Not Rated) 1962 All the President's Men (PG) 1976 Z (PG) 1969 http://www.rottentomatoes.com/browser.php?movietype=3&genre=200320&subgenre=200320+and+200286&tomatometer=80%25&avgrating=80&numreviews=10&mpaa=%27G+%28MPAA%29%27%2C+%27PG+%28MPAA%29%27%2C+%27PG-13+%28MPAA%29%27&decade=&video_format= If you want the top Supernatural Thrillers: The X-Files - The Complete First Season (Not Rated) Signs (PG-13) The Crow (R) The Blair Witch Project (R) Stranger Than Fiction (PG-13) The Sixth Sense (PG-13) The Ring (PG-13) Wanted (R) Hellboy (PG-13) Dragonslayer (PG) Ringu (Not Rated) The Bishop's Wife (Not Rated) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/browser.php?nav.
Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn. Older movie but it created suspense in the old-fashioned way, no blood or special effects, just great writing, acting and cinematography. It is about a blind woman who is stalked in her apartment by a killer.
One Missed Call is the most scary movie full of suspense and thriller.
There are many hybrids thrillers such as: suspense-thrillers, action-thrillers, adventure-thrillers, science-fiction-thrillers, crime-caper-thrillers, western-thrillers, even romantic comedy-thrillers. Here are the 10 top thriller movies most watched of all time: 1) The Dark knight (2008) 2) Pulp Fiction (1994) 3) Fight Club (1999) 4) The Third Man (1949) 5) No Country for Old Men (2007) 6) The Silence of the Lamb (1991) 7) A Clockwork Orange (1971) 8) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 9) The Usual Suspects (1995) 10) Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.