Greatest Psychological Horror/Thriller Movies [Top 20]
by dan-thurston | created - 26 Aug 2012 | updated - 21 Jun 2013 | PublicThe Greatest (Recent) Psychological Horror/Thriller Movies, since 1990, IMO. Not necessarily listed in order of how scary they are but more how much I enjoyed them, how much they leave you thinking and how good the storyline is.
There are a few films that'll probably make it onto the list in the near future, but that I haven't seen yet, these are:
Don't Look Now, Blue Velvet, The Orphanage, A Tale of Two Sisters, Fargo, Let Me In, Pulse, The House of the Devil, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Inland Empire, Inside, The Happening, Audition, The Knowing, Stir of Echoes, Let the Right One In, The Purge, VHS, VHS 2, You're Next.
Honorable Mentions:
The Ring, The Grudge, The Omen, Gothika, The Number 23, Dead Silence.
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1. Jacob's Ladder (I) (1990)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death.
Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven
Votes: 117,938 | Gross: $26.12M
2. Session 9 (2001)
R | 97 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.
Director: Brad Anderson | Stars: David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas
Votes: 62,922 | Gross: $0.38M
3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine
Votes: 1,548,992 | Gross: $130.74M
4. Identity (2003)
R | 90 min | Mystery, Thriller
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Votes: 267,338 | Gross: $52.16M
5. 1408 (2007)
PG-13 | 104 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A man who specialises in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.
Director: Mikael Håfström | Stars: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Tony Shalhoub
Votes: 294,304 | Gross: $71.99M
6. American Psycho (2000)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
Director: Mary Harron | Stars: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage
Votes: 716,183 | Gross: $15.07M
7. The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
After a family is forced to relocate for their son's health, they begin experiencing supernatural behavior in their new home, and uncover a sinister history.
Director: Peter Cornwell | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Martin Donovan, Elias Koteas, Kyle Gallner
Votes: 65,166 | Gross: $55.39M
8. Funny Games (2007)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two psychopathic young men take a family hostage in their cabin.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Votes: 103,873 | Gross: $1.29M
9. The Skeleton Key (2005)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
Director: Iain Softley | Stars: Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, Joy Bryant, Gena Rowlands
Votes: 123,044 | Gross: $47.81M
10. Se7en (1995)
R | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Andrew Kevin Walker
Votes: 1,800,005 | Gross: $100.13M
11. The Butterfly Effect (2004)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber | Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson
Votes: 521,359 | Gross: $57.94M
12. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 384,027 | Gross: $7.22M
13. Shutter Island (2010)
R | 138 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 1,457,684 | Gross: $128.01M
14. The Uninvited (2009)
PG-13 | 87 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Anna returns home after a stint in a mental hospital, but her recovery is jeopardized by her father's new girlfriend and ghastly visions of her dead mother.
Directors: Charles Guard, Thomas Guard | Stars: Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks, David Strathairn
Votes: 85,092 | Gross: $28.57M
15. Fight Club (1999)
R | 139 min | Drama
An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier
Votes: 2,325,421 | Gross: $37.03M
More of a dark drama/thriller than a psychological horror but still a really good film
16. Donnie Darko (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Votes: 850,363 | Gross: $1.48M
17. The Sixth Sense (1999)
PG-13 | 107 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams
Votes: 1,051,775 | Gross: $293.51M
18. Frailty (2001)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A mysterious man arrives at the offices of an FBI agent and recounts his childhood: how his religious fanatic father received visions telling him to destroy people who were in fact "demons."
Director: Bill Paxton | Stars: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O'Leary
Votes: 91,402 | Gross: $13.10M
19. Hide and Seek (2005)
R | 101 min | Horror, Mystery
As a widower tries to piece together his life in the wake of his wife's suicide, his daughter finds solace, at first, in her imaginary friend.
Director: John Polson | Stars: Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue
Votes: 88,803 | Gross: $51.10M
20. The Others (2001)
PG-13 | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann
Votes: 393,389 | Gross: $96.52M
21. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
R | 81 min | Horror, Mystery
Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.
Directors: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez | Stars: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffin
Votes: 285,724 | Gross: $140.54M
22. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
R | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer's books have on his fans is more than inspirational.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, David Warner
Votes: 79,368 | Gross: $8.95M
23. Disturbia (2007)
PG-13 | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
When a teenager is placed under house arrest, he succumbs to despair and starts spying on his neighbors, hoping to spice up his life. This, however, leads him to witness a serial killer on the loose.
Director: D.J. Caruso | Stars: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sarah Roemer
Votes: 248,368 | Gross: $80.21M
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