In film, the niche genre projects that used to struggle to get made are becoming the new normal, and it’s helped turn perennial crowd-pleasers, like the horror genre, into even greater bastions for creativity. Moreover, there’s something viscerally human about how horror films can legitimately invoke fear in their audience. For many viewers, a supernatural monster or a mysterious masked killer are too heightened of ideas that fall flat.
However, there are just as many horror movies that explore psychological terrors and the limitless dangers of the mind. These horror movies sometimes lack gore and a hefty body count, but they’re still guaranteed to creep out crowds.
10 Psycho Is An Iconic Character Study Of A Fractured Mind Under Impossible Pressures
Alfred Hitchcock is a master storyteller responsible for dozens of groundbreaking pieces of cinema. Hitchcock’s horror films are no exception, and Psycho remains a high mark of the genre and a pivotal movie when it comes to depicting frayed mental states in horror cinema.
Psycho’s legacy and Anthony Perkins’ legendary performance as the conflicted Norman Bates have transcended beyond cinema and are major pop culture touchstones. It’s easy to distill Psycho to its famous shower scene or shocking twist ending, but the tortured psychology of Norman Bates makes the film an evergreen horror classic.
9 Repulsion Unravels A Frail Mind That’s On The Brink Of Collapse
1965's Repulsion is a straightforward horror film that's just as effective today as it was more than 50 years ago when it was first released. Catherine Deneuve stars as Carole, a fragile soul who suffers from a crippling case of androphobia – the fear of interactions with men.
Carole is left to look after her sister's apartment for a holiday, but this extended period alone preys upon Carole's mind and throws her into a destructive tailspin. Repulsion relishes Carole's discomfort, and it elegantly turns her aggressive fear into physical manifestations that invade the apartment and rob her of any security.
8 Magic Keeps The Audience Guessing Over Where The True Horrors Lie
Directed by Richard Attenborough with a nightmarish score by Jerry Goldsmith and starring Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, and Burgess Meredith, Magic is a psychological horror film from the late 1970s that doesn't pull any punches.
Horror movies that dwell on creepy dolls or ventriloquist dummies are well-trodden territory. Still, Magic avoids the typical cliches and genuinely keeps its audience in the dark over whether Hopkins' Corky is losing his sanity or if something sinister is afoot with his new act. Magic is full of unnerving emotional breakdowns, and the fragile chemistry between Corky and his dummy is surprisingly captivating.
7 Session 9 Explores An Extended Stay In A Haunted Insane Asylum
Session 9 pulls from the successful framework of an isolated horror story like The Shining and builds upon its premise by switching its setting from a hotel to an abandoned mental institution. A team of maintenance workers takes on a simple job that slowly gets the better of them and preys upon their wicked impulses.
The horrors of the abandoned asylum plague these workers in extreme ways and a stash of upsetting patient tapes unleashes even more dangers. This unexpected dig into the past leaves the team of workers wondering if they’re alone in here or succumbing to the same delusions that previously afflicted the hospital’s patients.
6 Darling Unpacks The Slow Disintegration Of A Lonely Girl’s Reality
2015's Darling by Mickey Keating is a movie that's deeply indebted to not just Roman Polanski's Repulsion, but his entire alienating "Apartment Trilogy." Deceptively simple in its premise, Darling is a black-and-white descent into mental instability that's told across six stark chapters as a frail woman feels increasingly targeted after she takes on a caretaking gig.
The success of Darling has so much to do with Lauren Ashley Carter's hypnotic and captivating performance in the lead role. Darling is light on answers, but every micro-gesture that Carter transmits conveys an unmatched economy of emotion.
5 In The Mouth Of Madness Invokes Cosmic Horror To Tear Down Reality
The final film in John Carpenter's cosmic horror "Apocalypse Trilogy," 1994's In the Mouth of Madness is one of the acclaimed filmmaker's last genuinely great films. The film depicts a small community overrun with contagious psychosis as the lines between fantasy and reality become endlessly blurred.
The rapidly spreading mental illness that infects the movie reaches a fever pitch, and the film's final act is among Carpenter's most compelling sequences. Sam Neill doesn't get enough credit for his contributions to the horror genre, and he really gives his all in In the Mouth of Madness.
4 The Babadook Uses Malevolent Monsters As A Melancholy Motherhood Metaphor
Jennifer Kent’s visceral horror film, The Babadook, is a painful metaphor for motherhood more than a creepy creature feature. The big centerpiece of the Australian horror film involves the haunting Mister Babadook pop-up book, its macabre designs, and the corresponding monster birthed out of its pages.
All of these elements attack viewers with their raw intensity, but Amelia’s lack of control over reality gets under the audience’s skin the most. It’s horrifying for both Amelia and the audience to figure out that she may be the greatest danger to her son.
3 Pearl Is A Sad Descent Into Loneliness That’s Filtered Through Heightened Fleets Of Fancy
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Visionary genre filmmaker Ti West surprised horror fans with the release of not only throwback exploitation horror flick X, but also its Technicolor World War I era prequel, Pearl. The film is full of grisly murders and surreal fantasy sequences that reflect Pearl’s desire to spread her wings and escape from her humble origins.
At its core, Pearl is a melancholy look into how loneliness and unrealized potential can metastasize into deadly impulses. The final film in this stylized horror trilogy, MaXXXine, is set to come out in 2023 and will surely deliver even more bloody, psychological mayhem courtesy of Mia Goth’s starlet Maxine.
2 Creep Gets Up Close And Personal With An Accomplished Serial Killer
A modern subversion of the found-footage horror subgenre, both Creep and its sequel function as enlightening character studies that put an unreliable serial killer under the microscope. Both Creep films are exceptional exercises in tension where it’s unclear who has the power, and if anything that Duplass’ duplicitous character has revealed is actually true.
Duplass brings a quiet, simmering rage to his character that’s hard to withstand. For years, Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass have attempted to find the right story to tell for a third and final Creep feature, which will hopefully one day become a reality.
1 The Shining Traps A Weak Mind In A Hotel Of Haunted Horrors
Considered by many to be one of the greatest horror films of all time, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining ultimately takes a very different turn from Stephen King’s haunting source material. The Overlook is one of fiction’s most intimidating haunts and the way these restless spirits tear down Jack Torrance’s defenses is terrifying and heartbreaking.
Some consider Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack Torrance already excessive before he reaches the Overlook, but the entire film remains a painful descent into possession and delusion. Jack's breakdown is the film's centerpiece but Duvall's performance and a distraught Wendy Torrance and the Overlook's denizens earned their places in horror history.