There's something to be said for films that stay with audiences, movies that linger long after the credits roll and force them to think about what they've just seen for days. Psychological thrillers can be the pinnacle of thought-provoking cinema, delivering elements of mystery, suspense, and plenty of paranoia. From the likes of Rosemary's Baby to The Silence of the Lambs, the best psychological thrillers dissolve an audience's sense of reality by focusing on the fears and anxieties of their least reliable characters.
The 2010s brought several of cinema's greatest cerebral chillers to life, reviving the noir sensibilities of classic cinema. Whether it's through the use of distinctive visual elements to convey a character's alienation from the world, or interplaying lighting and shadows with unbalanced 'Dutch-angle' framing to emphasize specific tones or moods, psychological thrillers play with suspense and tension to exploit the uncertainties of an ambiguous narrative. By doing so, they take the audience on an atmospheric, thrill-driven journey through the minds of unreliable narrators.
5 'Black Swan' Makes A Bloodcurdling Story Out Of Ballet
Natalie Portman stars in the story of Nina Sayers, a ballerina who chances upon the role of a lifetime, the Swan Queen in a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The ballet requires a dancer to play the dual roles of 'Odette' and 'Odile': White Swan and Black Swan, respectively. One i innocent and fragile, the other is sensual and seductive. Nina becomes overwhelmed when she learns she'll need to compete for the lead role and subsequently loses her grip on reality as she tries to be "perfect."
Directed by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan disturbs and exhilarates in all the right ways, offering a wonderfully creepy peek into an artist's obsession and ambition. Filmed in gorgeously grainy cinematography with memorable color-grading and mind-bending camerawork, Aronofsky evokes his earlier works of The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream. The director pulls a perfect performance from Portman that stands out even among Oscar winners.
4 'Nocturnal Animals' Tells A Toxic Tale Of Psychological Revenge
Tom Ford directs an ensemble cast in Nocturnal Animals, which follows the story of an art gallery owner (Amy Adams) as she reads through a novel written by her first husband (Jake Gyllenhaal), who's composed a story about their former relationship. He blurs the line between real and unreal to create an autobiographical work of fiction. The film stars Gyllenhaal as his own lead opposite Isla Fisher as a fictionalized version of Amy Adams' character. The supporting cast includes Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Laura Linney, and Michael Sheen.
Nocturnal Animals is visceral and violent, showing extraordinary deftness in the way it blends romanticism and bleakness. The film's final scenes are every bit as horribly gripping and intimately upsetting as they are gorgeously shot. With beautiful visuals and a breathtaking score, Nocturnal Animals unfolds like a frantic fever dream, underscored by its commentary on the ways people betray and disappoint themselves and those they love.
3 'Shutter Island' Saunters Through A Psychiatric Hospital
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Deputy Marshal Teddy Daniels—a detective investigating a patient's implausible disappearance from a high-security psychiatric facility. The compound is situated on the remote, windswept landscape of 'Shutter Island.'
Scorsese lulls the viewer into a false sense of reality, hanging his film on one of DiCaprio's most convincing performances. Shutter Island maximizes every detail to confuse its audience about who's telling the truth. The film is intelligently crafted and blends neo-noir elements into its visual style. Shutter Island seeks to confound its viewers with an emotionally-involving narrative set against the backdrop of ominous and foreboding possibilities.
2 'Gone Girl' Gives Its Audience A Masterclass In Manipulation
Directed by David Fincher, Gone Girl follows a man who becomes the prime suspect in his wife's sudden disappearance. Nick and Amy Dunne, played by Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, present the portrait of a perfect marriage to the public. She's the star author of a set of children's books, he's a writer/teacher; both of them are blissfully in love. However, on their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick returns home to find his wife missing.
Gone Girl crafts a sleek, suspenseful, shocking psychological thriller from its very first frames. Taut with tension and, at times, surprisingly funny, the film glances into the grim realities of love and courtship that aren't always talked about in song or poetry. Its two-and-a-half-hour runtime flies by like a bullet train with shocking revelation after shocking revelation. Its rumination on marriage, media, and morality make for one of the decade's best pieces of pulp fiction.
1 'Mother!' Reimagines An Entire Genre Of Cinema
Darren Aronofsky's 2017 mystery movie Mother! chronicles the story of a young woman (Jennifer Lawrence) who spends her days renovating the country home that she and her husband (Javier Bardem) live in. One fateful evening, their tranquil life is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious couple (Ed Harris & Michelle Pfeiffer) seeking shelter for the night.
Mother! plays like a dense, twisted fever dream. Full of deeply disturbing allegories and thought-provoking parables, Aronofsky gleefully drags the audience through the film's carnage while perfectly pacing his steps to gaslight viewers into understanding the film's peculiar logic. Think of it as Crossfit for the critically minded. Mother! will leave viewers engrossed, enthralled, and emotionally exhausted after one-hundred-and-twenty minutes of pure, psychologically-thrilling cinema.