In this blog for the Herald, I celebrate the return of the glossy lifestyle thriller, a once dormant sub-genre revved back to life by the success of David Fincher and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

The Emily Blunt-starring film The Girl on the Train, released in theatres this week, is the latest example of a Hollywood trend that has me very excited: the return and elevation of a certain kind of thriller, the kind that features attractive suburban couples with nice kitchens whose lives are ripped apart by something within their own social sphere.

Almost exactly three years ago, I lamented how these kinds of thrillers had faced a rough patch at the dawn of the new millennium. With studios instead favouring giant blockbusters, Oscar-bait dramas and low-budget horror, the architecturally-resplendent suburban thriller lost its way…