44 Psychological Thrillers That Will Mess With Your Head
Get. Ready. To. Be. Mind. Fucked.
Our thirst for psychological thrillers seems to be insatiable. They give us unsettling narratives, crazed characters and malign motives. And yet, as with horror movies, we are drawn to them, again and again—despite our better selves.
Some believe that this is precisely the point. Psychological thrillers allow us to explore the more sinister sides of our imagination, and even let us live as our darker selves—vicariously, momentarily and without suffering any of the consequences. As Paul Roberts wrote in a 1995 edition of Psychology Today on "Forbidden Thinking"—"We all have dark impulses. None of us wants them. Yet attempts to suppress them can turn them into agents of harm."
However, there may be more innocent reasons behind the enduring popularity of psychological thrillers. The best movies in the genre are often recognised for the mind-bending power of their plots, and if we watch movies partly to escape—to distract ourselves from the dreary, unstimulating reality of our day-to-day lives—then there are few more captivating routes out. Movies such as Memento, Fight Club and Donnie Darko both appeal to our problem-solving tendencies and outmaneuver them.
The unique ingredients that define a psychological thriller continue to divide critics. The genre's closest cousin may be horror, with both known to produce sweaty palms. But while the borders of any genre are blurry, there are important differences.
Perhaps the key contrast to horror is in the audience reaction, and what they remember afterwards. Whereas a good psychological thriller has you on the edge of your seat, constantly questioning what might happen next, a good horror movie has you gripping the arms of your chair (or perhaps the person sitting next to you), waiting for the next scare. Once the movie is over and you leave the theater, one should leave you puzzling over how the plot played out—the other is more likely to leave you with, well, horror.
But psychological thrillers do have a similar focus on fear and suspense. "Fear isn't so difficult to understand," Alfred Hitchcock—perhaps the master of the genre—once said. "After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual."
Is your mind playing tricks? Or is something evil going on? These Psychological Thrillers feature unseen dangers, untrustworthy characters, and unsettling suspense.
Our thirst for psychological thrillers seems to be insatiable. They give us unsettling narratives, crazed characters and malign motives. And yet, as with horror movies, we are drawn to them, again and again—despite our better selves.
Some believe that this is precisely the point. Psychological thrillers allow us to explore the more sinister sides of our imagination, and even let us live as our darker selves—vicariously, momentarily and without suffering any of the consequences. As Paul Roberts wrote in a 1995 edition of Psychology Today on "Forbidden Thinking"—"We all have dark impulses. None of us wants them. Yet attempts to suppress them can turn them into agents of harm."
However, there may be more innocent reasons behind the enduring popularity of psychological thrillers. The best movies in the genre are often recognised for the mind-bending power of their plots, and if we watch movies partly to escape—to distract ourselves from the dreary, unstimulating reality of our day-to-day lives—then there are few more captivating routes out. Movies such as Memento, Fight Club and Donnie Darko both appeal to our problem-solving tendencies and outmaneuver them.
The unique ingredients that define a psychological thriller continue to divide critics. The genre's closest cousin may be horror, with both known to produce sweaty palms. But while the borders of any genre are blurry, there are important differences.
Perhaps the key contrast to horror is in the audience reaction, and what they remember afterwards. Whereas a good psychological thriller has you on the edge of your seat, constantly questioning what might happen next, a good horror movie has you gripping the arms of your chair (or perhaps the person sitting next to you), waiting for the next scare. Once the movie is over and you leave the theater, one should leave you puzzling over how the plot played out—the other is more likely to leave you with, well, horror.
But psychological thrillers do have a similar focus on fear and suspense. "Fear isn't so difficult to understand," Alfred Hitchcock—perhaps the master of the genre—once said. "After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual."
Is your mind playing tricks? Or is something evil going on? These Psychological Thrillers feature unseen dangers, untrustworthy characters, and unsettling suspense.
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