It could be said that we go to the movies in the first place for the thrills. The desire to experience new stories put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, and live out exciting events that might otherwise never be possible. We long for escapism. But that’s not what psychological thrillers are all about. Psychological thrillers focus less on external adventure and threat and more on the interior worlds of heroes and villains whose grasp on reality is dangerously close to failing.

It can be hard to pin down which films are psychological thrillers and which are just thrillers in which the characters are motivated by their psychology, which is why we are focusing on films that are 100% thrilling and 100% rooted in psychological anxiety. From Don't Look Now to Psycho, these are the best psychological thrillers that will provide food for thought.

35 'Shutter Island' (2010)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio as two US marshals in 'Shutter Island'
Image via Paramount Pictures

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island is a highly beloved, fan-favorite film in the psychological thriller genre, and a very successful one at that (it grossed $295 million worldwide). Although not one of the filmmaker's best features, it benefits greatly from Leonardo DiCaprio's astounding central performance, as expected. The story centers around Deputy U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels as he investigates a psychiatric facility on Shutter Island after one of the patients goes missing.

It's not for no reason that Shutter Island is often seen in "top movies of the 2010s" lists; it really was that affecting. Its twist ending is one of the most memorable aspects of this Martin Scorsese epic that gives audiences the heebie-jeebies for its unsettling atmosphere. While not a scary movie per se, Shutter Island is a well-crafted psychological thriller that meditates on illusion versus reality, guilt, grief, and conspiracy theories.

Shutter Island
R
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Release Date
February 14, 2010
Director
Martin Scorsese
Runtime
138

34 'The Prestige' (2006)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Two rival magicians stand in the streets of 1890s London, discussing the method of a magic trick.
Image via Warner Bros. 

This Christopher Nolan essential, based on the 1995 novel by Christopher Priest, immerses viewers who dare to witness an anxiety-inducing game of cat and mouse through an utterly captivating narrative about how obsession destroys the artist. The Prestige depicts two rival stage magicians in Victorian London, perfectly played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, who feud over a perfect teleportation trick.

This engrossing battle of wits earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography, and deservedly so. Still, although The Prestige's visuals are quite striking, the aspect that stands out the most are the powerful performances by a talented ensemble cast and Nolan's intelligently written screenplay. Audiences on the lookout for the best psychological thriller movies should check out The Prestige essentially because it is mind-blowing but accessible and comprehensible.

The Prestige
PG-13
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Release Date
October 20, 2006
Runtime
130 minutes

33 'Donnie Darko' (2001)

Director: Richard Kelly

Donnie, Gretchen, and Frank the Rabbit in a movie theater in Donnie Darko.
Image via Ryman Hospitality Properties

Donnie Darko is one of the many early 2000s movies that have garnered a massive cult following. While this is mostly thanks to its mind-boggling narrative, it also features great performances. The Jake Gyllenhaal-led Richard Kelly feature follows the titular character, an emotionally troubled teenager who escapes a bizarre accident by sleepwalking. He then begins having visions of a mysterious figure in a rabbit costume who causes panic by informing him that the world will end in just over 28 days, tasking Donnie with a special mission.

Among the best movies about alternate universes, Donnie Darko also deals with subjects of time travel and sacrifice, among other deeper themes of self-destruction and loneliness. Its philosophical topics and the way they are executed, in addition to its meticulous attention to detail, make this Kelly film a must-see in the psychological thriller genre.

Donnie Darko
R
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Release Date
October 26, 2001
Director
Richard Kelly
Cast
Jake Gyllenhaal , Holmes Osborne , Maggie Gyllenhaal , Daveigh Chase , Mary McDonnell , James Duval
Runtime
113

32 'Don't Look Now' (1973)

Director: Nicolas Roeg

Donald Sutherland as John Baxter holding someone while screaming in Don't Look Now
Image via British Lion Films

Thanks to its innovative editing style and some controversial scenes that sparked conversations among moviegoers (especially considering the standards of contemporary mainstream cinema), Don't Look Now centers around a grieving couple, John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie), who mourn the death of their young daughter in Venice. There, they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is a psychic.

Meditating on the consequences of grief and the effect of the death of a child on a couple's relationship, this visually striking arthouse psychological thriller by Nicolas Roeg is guaranteed to astonish those who like the genre. Furthermore, part of what makes this film so remarkable is the symbolism it features and the complex and layered storyline at its center, as well as the film's shocking twist ending. Don't Look Now is overall a fantastic film with great performances and an intense, increasingly sinister slow-burn narrative.

Don't Look Now
R

Release Date
October 16, 1973
Director
Nicolas Roeg
Runtime
110

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31 'Jacob's Ladder' (1990)

Director: Adrian Lyne

jacobs-ladder
Image via TriStar Pictures

Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a mild-mannered postal worker, recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder after a bloody tour in the Vietnam War. His family is no longer with him, his son died years ago, and he’s just barely putting the pieces of his life together with his new girlfriend… when he sees a tentacle on the subway and mysterious men with blurry faces, viewers are left wondering if it his PTSD affecting him or something far, far more sinister.

The repulsion that Jacob, played by an impressively vulnerable Tim Robbins, has for his present visions and his ugly past permeates into the grimy cityscapes around him. They represent a Hell of his mind’s own making, and by watching his story we are trapped in Hell with him. Jacob’s Ladder is a surreal and captivating vision of the psychological thriller genre; it should come as no surprise that it was a direct influence on the Silent Hill franchise.

Jacob's Ladder
R

Release Date
November 2, 1990
Director
Adrian Lyne
Cast
Tim Robbins , Elizabeth Peña , Danny Aiello , Matt Craven , Pruitt Taylor Vince , Jason Alexander
Runtime
113

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30 'Shock Corridor' (1963)

Director: Samuel Fuller

A man walking in a hallway in Shock Corridor.
Image via Allied Artists Pictures

As a filmmaker, Samuel Fuller reveled in pushing narrative boundaries, and in his absolutely electric psychological thriller, Shock Corridor, he practically burst through them. Peter Breck plays Johnny Barrett, a journalist obsessed with winning the Pulitzer Prize, who embarks on a daring scheme to catch a headline. He will go undercover in a mental institution, live amongst the inmates, and get to the bottom of an unsolved murder.

It’s the kind of idea that sounds clever on paper, but puts Barrett in a harrowing position. Without backup, without a confidante, without any chance of respite or escape, he’s plunged into an environment of abuse, paranoia, and delusion, and repeatedly falls under the spell of his fellow inmates. Whether he solves the murder becomes a secondary concern; he’s trapped in a never-ending battle for his own sanity. Outstanding performances, disturbing writing, and daring imagery keep Shock Corridor shocking over 60 years later.

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29 'Manhunter' (1986)

Director: Michael Mann

manhunter
Image via De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

The first film adaptation of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter novels, based on the novel Red Dragon, goes deeper into psychological terror than any of the others (at least until the TV show came along). Michael Mann’s Manhunter stars William Peterson as Will Graham, an FBI profiler so talented at getting into the mind of a killer that he ends up losing his own personality and drowns in the darkness.

Hannibal Lecter appears, inexplicably named “Hannibal Lecktor,” and played with a disarming casualness by Succession's Brian Cox, whose take on the character is more insidious and less mannered than the other actors who have taken on the role. Meanwhile, as Mann brings out the madness in his protagonist, he’s exploring the humanity of his murderer, Francis Dollarhyde, played by an impossibly frightening, and impossibly tragic Tom Noonan. Manhunter is insightful and terrifying, and in some respects, perhaps the second-best adaptation of Harris’s work to date.

Manhunter
R
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Release Date
August 14, 1986
Director
Michael Mann
Cast
William Petersen , Kim Greist , Joan Allen , Brian Cox , Dennis Farina , Tom Noonan
Runtime
119

28 'Dead Ringers' (1988)

Director: David Cronenberg

dead-ringers-jeremy-irons
Image via 20th Century Fox

David Cronenberg spent the majority of his career exploring the terrors of the human body, and our unnerving psychological obsessions with our own organics. While he’s made several classic films along these lines, it is perhaps Dead Ringers that stands out as his crowning accomplishment. Jeremy Irons plays identical twins who share each other’s work, each other’s lives, and — without telling them — the same women.

Elliot is confident and domineering, Beverly is shy and sensitive, and when they begin a romantic relationship with one of their patients, played by Geneviève Bujold, the strain becomes too much to bear. Irons gives two devastating performances, with subtle, impeccable editing creating the unmistakable illusion, using old-fashioned techniques, that he’s somehow cloned himself. Dead Ringers is a technical marvel, and a sublimely weird, twisted psychological thriller.

Dead Ringers
R
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Release Date
September 23, 1988
Director
David Cronenberg
Cast
Jeremy Irons , Geneviève Bujold , Heidi von Palleske , barbara gordon , Shirley Douglas , Stephen Lack
Runtime
116

27 'Gaslight' (1944)

Director: George Cukor

gaslight-1944
Image via Loew's, Inc.

George Cukor’s Gaslight isn’t just a psychological thriller, it’s synonymous with manipulation and horror — this film’s very title has entered the popular lexicon to describe a form of psychological abuse. Ingrid Bergman stars as a young opera singer who meets the love of her life, a handsome older gentleman played by Charles Boyer. But no sooner are they married and move into the London townhouse does the relationship devolve into a nightmare. Our heroine, it seems, is losing her mind. Or is she?

Gaslight is a remake of a 1940 British thriller, which was almost lost to history after MGM bought the remake rights and tried to destroy the original negatives. And while the classic psychological thriller may have twists that seem telegraphed today, now that viewers all know what “gaslighting” is, the bleak and angry heart of the film still pumps. Bergman’s Oscar-winning performance, as a woman pushed to the brink of her mental endurance, is vulnerable and raw, trapped and clawing, captivatingly genuine, and Boyer’s twisted villainy will always be the stuff of goosebumps.

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26 'Caché' (2005)

Director: Michael Haneke

cache-2005
Image via Les films du losange

Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche) are an unremarkable, upper-class French couple, who discover, to their horror, that they are being watched. Every day a video arrives on their doorstep, with footage of the front of their house. No threats, no message, just one person’s clear obsession with observing them. What the two decide to do with this information says a lot about them. Without any clue, they decide to dig into the past on their own, and what they find is the wretched refuse of a life filled with mistakes.

Michael Haneke’s Caché is elusive and mysterious, and the only solution it provides, in the end, is so subtle it’s easy to miss the first time around. But it’s a fabulous and paranoid puzzle of a film – easily among Michael Haneke's best movies – and one that speaks to anyone with the capacity for guilt and shame.

Caché
R

Release Date
February 17, 2006
Director
Michael Haneke
Cast
Daniel Auteuil , Juliette Binoche , Maurice Bénichou , Annie Girardot , Bernard Le Coq , Walid Afkir
Runtime
117 minutes

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25 'Get Out' (2017)

Director: Jordan Peele

Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington crying and looking shocked in Get Out.
Image via Universal Pictures

Jordan Peele's Get Out is easily one of the most innovative movies in the horror and psychological thriller genres of recent times (while it learns towards horror more, it is debatable that Get Out also deserves a spot in the category). The plot centers around Chris' — a young African-American played by the Oscar-nominated Daniel Kaluuya — trip alongside his white girlfriend. The two decide to stay with her parents for the weekend. However, his increasing uneasiness about their reception of him reaches a boiling point.

Unnerving, unsettling, and downright disturbing, Get Out is an uncomfortable experience through and through; the 2017 movie sends poignant messages about race and racism and stays engraved in viewers' memories long after the credits roll. Peele's efforts were deservedly recognized, and he made Oscars history by being the first Black writer to win Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

Get Out
R
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Release Date
February 24, 2017
Director
Jordan Peele
Runtime
103

24 'Gone Girl' (2014)

Director: David Fincher

gone-girl-ben-affleck-social
Image via 20th Century Fox

David Fincher’s Gone Girl plays like a lurid airplane novel, but hiding beneath the salacious storyline and the borderline campy violence is one of the filmmaker’s most bitterly observant motion pictures. Ben Affleck stars as a teacher, Nick, who’s married to Amy (the Oscar-nominated Rosamund Pike) who famously inspired a series of children’s books. It’s not a happy marriage, so when Amy goes suddenly missing under suspicious circumstances, the media blitz quickly turns on Nick and makes him the prime suspect.

Where Gone Girl goes from there would be a crime to reveal, but let’s just say there’s more to the story, and Fincher and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, adapting her best-selling novel, have bigger ideas beyond mere murders and mysteries. The absorbing psychological thriller Gone Girl explodes the idea of marriage, of living in public, of being perceived as an object or an icon. Rosamund Pike is next-level fantastic in a multifaceted role — one of the smartest villains of all time — at once harrowing and hilarious and tragic, and Affleck gives one of his finest performances as a man endlessly manipulated.

Gone Girl
R
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Release Date
October 3, 2014
Director
David Fincher
Runtime
149 minutes

23 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?' (1962)

Director: Robert Aldrich

what-ever-happened-to-baby-jane
Image via Warner Bros.

In the bizarre and grotesque What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, filmmaker Robert Aldrich exposes what appears to be a deep-seated loathing for the entertainment industry and the toll it takes on young performers. The film tells the story “Baby” Jane Hudson, a child star of the 1920s whose career eventually took a back seat to her sister, who was the superior actor. A tragic accident left Blanche paralyzed, and Jane blamed for the tragedy, begrudgingly accepting the role as her sister’s unwilling caretaker.

Blanche (Joan Crawford) lives upstairs at the mercy of Jane, played by Bette Davis in one of her best movies. The abuse she suffers is shocking, and the decay of Jane’s psyche is repulsive, but both Crawford and Davis are wholly committed to making this bizarre, mutually destructive life seem plausible. These, the movie argues, are the larger-than-life consequences of living larger than life, and the gruesome fate that befalls these sisters plays out as though it was ripped from particularly salacious headlines. Riveting performances and prurient dread await you in the Aldrich movie.

what ever happened to baby jane?
NR

Release Date
October 12, 1962
Director
Robert Aldrich
Cast
Bette Davis , Joan Crawford , Victor Buono , Wesley Addy , Julie Allred , Anne Barton
Runtime
134

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22 'Black Swan' (2010)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Nina, staring into a mirror at herself with blood red eyes in Black Swan.
Image via Fox Searchlight Pictures

It's not for no reason that Natalie Portman took home the Best Actress award for her role in Darren Aronofsky's multilayered character study of a struggling artist. Black Swan tells the story of a perfectionistic ballerina on the verge of stardom who is pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and rival. As such, she begins to slowly descend into a nightmare.

While the lead acting is possibly the best asset of Aronofsky's intense thriller, Black Swan also features impeccable, masterful direction from the filmmaker. On top of illustrating the troubled psyche of an overworked ballerina, this Oscar-winning feature highlights obsession and sheds light on the terrible pressures at all levels that ballerinas face in the industry. Furthermore, Black Swan also explores sexuality and repression through the experiences of its naive and insecure protagonist.

Black Swan
R
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Release Date
December 3, 2010
Director
Darren Aronofsky
Cast
Natalie Portman , Mila Kunis , Vincent Cassel , Barbara Hershey , Winona Ryder , Benjamin Millepied
Runtime
110

21 'The Shining' (1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Jack Nicholson looking through a door in 'The Shining'.
Image via Warner Bros.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this well-known Jack Nicholson feature is a highly referenced one in pop culture all these years later, with some cinephiles memorizing every line in the movie, including, of course, "Here's Johnny!". The intense Kubrick classic adapted from Stephen King's 1977 novel of the same name centers around Nicholson's writer and recovering alcoholic, Jack Torrance, who accepts a new position as the off-season caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel. Everything starts to crumble when he sees his sanity deteriorate under the influence of the hotel and the residents, consequently putting his family in danger.

The Shining's impact on the thriller and horror genres (especially the latter, as seen in the subsequent horror films that explored the same themes) is undeniable, and for that reason, it deserves a spot on this list. Kubrick's movie is a well-crafted observation of fears, anxieties, and the psyche of mentally unstable protagonists, making for a harrowing on-the-edge-of-your-seat experience.

The Shining
R
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Release Date
May 23, 1980
Director
Stanley Kubrick
Cast
Jack Nicholson , Shelley Duvall , Danny Lloyd , Scatman Crothers , Barry Nelson , Philip Stone
Runtime
146

20 'Mulholland Drive' (2001)

Director: David Lynch

Naomi Watts and Laura Harring looking upward in Mulholland Drive
Image Via Universal Pictures

David Lynch tells stories on the edge of reason, usually leaning in the other direction. Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Lost Highway, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me are all must-see films for enthusiasts of the psychological thriller genre, but his masterpiece may very well be Mulholland Drive. Naomi Watts stars as a young and idealistic ingénue who moves to Hollywood and quickly takes up with an amnesiac, played by Laura Harring, who may be on the run from murderers. Together they navigate the twisted world of behind-the-scenes studio conspiracies, the underground dream world of independent theater, and, most shockingly, a revelation that will destroy them.

Whether or not it’s his best film, Mulholland Drive is perhaps Lynch’s most successful thriller (and one of the best thrillers of the 21st century) because the new finale wraps everything up satisfactorily, while still never quite explaining what the nightmare behind the diner really was. It provides the thrills we seek, the depth we crave, and the inexplicable mysteries we couldn’t possibly solve without ruining the mystique.

Mulholland Drive
R
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Release Date
June 6, 2001
Director
David Lynch
Cast
Naomi Watts , Laura Harring , Ann Miller , Dan Hedaya , Justin Theroux , Brent Briscoe
Runtime
147

19 'Cure' (1997)

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

cure-1997
Image via Daiei Film

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure may very well be the most hypnotic psychological thriller ever made, and quite literally. Cure tells the story of a detective, played by Kōji Yakusho, tasked with solving an impossible series of murders. In each case, a person is murdered, and the murderer is found nearby, with no memory of what happened or why. The only connection between them is a mysterious drifter named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) who doesn’t even know who he is or where he is.

What he does know, and what both Mamiya and Kurosawa employ all too well, are the techniques of hypnosis. Mamiya lulls everyone in his path into a psychologically pliable state, under which they are impressionable enough to do almost anything. Kurosawa lets the technique play out for the audience as well, giving Cure a unique sense of cinematic thrall. Its horrors are tranquil. Its evils are under the skin and deep inside you. Although Cure has an infamously divisive ending, Kurosawa's film is one of the very finest films of its kind and one of the pinnacles of the psychological horror genre.

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18 'American Psycho' (2000)

Director: Mary Harron

Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, holding an axe and looking menacing in American Psycho
Image via Lions Gate Films

American Psycho is, on the surface, a serial killer story. Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman, a handsome yuppie in the 1980s who works in finance, takes excellent care of his body, and lives a life of absurd luxury. He’s also homicidal, and throughout the film, murders co-workers, sex workers, and even tries to feed a cat into an ATM.

But Mary Harron’s film isn’t a mere saga of violence and brutality; it is a bitter and incisive comedy, in which the horrors committed by Bateman are balanced by the absurdity of his fragile ego. The horrors of American Psycho are clear and threatening, but the real nightmare is the possibility that even Bateman’s most violent, powerful fantasies are nothing more than immature macho fantasy — or worse, that the world exists explicitly to cater to macho fantasies and enables the worst and most pathetic brand of toxic masculinity. American Psycho (one of the best movies of the 2000s) is a gripping psychological thriller and a bitter indictment of the mentalities that feed into the so-called "American Dream."

American Psycho
R
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Release Date
April 13, 2000
Director
Mary Harron
Runtime
102

17 'Blow Out' (1981)

Director: Brian De Palma

John Travolta as Jack Terry recording environmental sound outside on a cold night
Image via Filmways Pictures

Like many other Brian De Palma movies, this 1981 psychological thriller explores the human psyche in an intense and utterly compelling manner that will have audiences hooked from the start. This tale is about a sound recordist who accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually a murder and finds himself in dangerous waters.

What is so great about the beautifully shot and stylish Blow Out is how it offers viewers a political drama and a serial killer movie at once, building tension like no other. While it surprisingly tanked when it came out 40 years ago (perhaps because audiences found the ending too anguishing), it remains arguably De Palma's best feature to date. Travolta gave one of his best performances in what is one of the most important films of his career.

Blow Out
R

Release Date
July 24, 1981
Director
Brian De Palma
Cast
John Travolta , Nancy Allen , John Lithgow , Dennis Franz , Peter Boyden
Runtime
108 Minutes

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16 'Repulsion' (1965)

Director: Roman Polanski

repulsion-1965
Image via Compton Films

The almost threadbare simplicity of Repulsion may be jarring. The intense movie about paranoia stars Catherine Deneuve as Carol, a young woman living with her sister Helen, who is repulsed by her sister’s boyfriend, her own would-be suitors, and menial elements of her life that would, under usual circumstances, be minor annoyances. When Helen suddenly leaves town for a romantic getaway Carol is left to her own devices and finds herself suddenly mired in her anxieties, phobias, and, gradually, hallucinations.

The majority of Repulsion is just Catherine Deneuve fraying her nerves in an apartment, and yet that only makes her descent into psychotropic horror seem universal. Devoid of contrivance and narrative trickery, Repulsion highlights the subconscious associations Carol has, revealing a web of unchecked, undiagnosed trauma that has finally been given an opportunity to fester, free from seemingly unwelcome distractions of other people.

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