I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers. It’s by far my favorite genre. I get a strange kind of high from storylines that cause psychological discomfort in me. You know, storylines that make me question my own sanity and shatter my concept of reality. If you’re anything like me, you’re going to love the movies on this list.
Without further ado, let’s start…
[10] Inception (2010)
Brave concept and stunning visuals. Dreams within dreams and planting ideas into the subconscious, who can’t love this stuff? Although the movie is more of an action/sci-fi type, the fact that things are going on in the characters’ collective unconscious automatically creates the thrill that we thrill buffs crave for.
[9] Primal fear (1996)
This is a movie that you won’t forget in a long, long time and will continue to give you chills years after you’ve seen it. It’ll leave a deep scar on your psyche and I must warn you that it may even cause you to lose faith in humanity.
[8] Unthinkable (2010)
Isn’t that title enough? The movie does live up to its title by playing with your mind until the very last minute. How far can you go in torturing someone who isn’t willing to divulge information? It has some violent scenes and if you’re the over-sensitive type you may find them disturbing.
[7] The Sixth Sense (1999)
If you haven’t seen this one you’re not from this planet. The mother, no the grandmother of all jaw-dropping, brow-raising, spine-chilling psychological thrillers, this one will shock the life out of you. Like Primal Fear, this movie also creates a hole in your psyche and you’ll keep thinking about it, years after you’ve seen it.
[6] The Man From Earth (2007)
This one’s a pure gem. It’s mostly shot in just one room where a bunch of intellectuals is having an interesting conversation. Not really a psychological thriller in the strictest sense (It’s sci-fi), but it forces you to reflect on human behaviour. You’ll love it if you’re the type who experiences more thrill when forced to think than by car chases, guns or weird concepts.
[5] Coherence (2013)
Talking about weird, this is as weird as it gets. As the title suggests, it has something to do with quantum mechanics, which, by the way, has been causing cognitive dissonance to physicists ever since it was conceived. This movie will split your consciousness and your concept of reality into numerous pieces.
[4] Identity (2003)
A bunch of people in a motel is being murdered off one by one and nobody has a clue about the killer. Not just another one of those murder mysteries. It’s much more than that. An edge-of-the-seat psychological thriller that will leave your mouth open for 5 more minutes when you’re done watching it.
[3] Shutter Island (2010)
A stunning masterpiece. Shot in an asylum, this movie is a behaviour buff’s paradise. It’ll force you to think about sanity and insanity, repression, false memories, and mind control. It toys with your mind, twists it and turns it over and over, till you get a mindgasm.
[2] Memento (2000)
Wow! Just Wow! When I finished with this one I got a severe headache- perhaps the only headache of my life that I actually loved. The movie proceeds in reverse chronological order and you have to concentrate hard to ‘get it’ in the first viewing. A movie as good as this comes out once in decades.
[1] Triangle (2009)
The epitome of psychological horror. I strongly recommend watching this one alone and in the middle of the night if possible. It’ll give you an existential crisis so severe that you’ll doubt your own existence and the existence of everything around you.
Hi, I’m Hanan Parvez (MA Psychology). I’ve been writing about Psychology for 9+ years. My work has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Reader’s Digest, and Entrepreneur. If you have any queries, use the contact form or reach out to me on my socials.