Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in the poster for Se7en.
Not many psychological thrillers could be described as “light,” because films taking such an approach might well be missing the point. Psychological movies need to get into the heads of various characters, for better or worse, and thrillers – on account of them having to, you know, thrill – will frequently get into the minds of characters who are either troubled or immeasurably stressed… or maybe even a bit of both.
So, for those psychological thrillers that go the extra step in feeling dark, here are some that are all compelling, but don’t exactly make for the easiest of viewing experiences. Those who want things dark, intense, and possibly even existentially despairing might want to check the following out, as some of them more than earn the right to be called the darkest psychological thriller movies of all time. 10 'Saw' Directed by James Wan You have to love how the Saw series kicked off, compared to what it became. The 2004 original had some uncomfortable and grisly moments, but so much bloodshed was kept off-screen. The sequels seemed increasingly willing to revel in the gory outcomes of traps, both successful and failed, and so then the entire series got a reputation for indulging in torture porn . But the original Saw was more psychologically tense and terrifying because of what it didn’t show, and what it let you glimpse. The dilemmas here weren’t too abstract or over-the-top, either, and the film’s involving, in part, because you can imagine what you'd do the same or differently if you were put in the sorts of terrible situations the film’s main characters find themselves in. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 9 'Mother' Directed by Darren Aronofsky Wildly dividing people upon release, and then disappearing for a while, Mother may well strike back or be critically reassessed in the coming years/decades . Narratively, this one’s hard to break down, since it’s just a series of increasingly horrible events happening inside one woman’s house, following her desperate and futile attempts to get everyone out. Mother starts off being quietly unnerving, then it gets bigger and louder, and then, eventually, the final act might well have some of the most gonzo scenes found in any major release film of the 2010s. Mother is horrifying and maybe even exploitative, but dammit does it work, throwing so much at the screen and viewer and, in turn, becoming one of the boldest psychological horror/thriller movies in recent memory. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 8 'Cube' Directed by Vincenzo Natali Cube stays intense because it’s so ludicrously confined in scope throughout. The title doesn’t mess around, because the environments of Cube largely stick the film’s numerous characters into a series of rooms that all look like cubes. It turns out the whole thing is one giant – and confusing – prison, and even if escape from it seems unlikely, that’s just what the characters set out to do: escape. It’s like a less gruesome Saw, but Cube proves similarly psychologically harrowing if you're willing to imagine yourself in the situations the characters here find themselves in. You feel the stress and pressure of it all, and the sense of continual danger throughout, and those things are just what a thriller needs to stay engaging… especially a psychological thriller, you know. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Cube R Sci-Fi Mystery Thriller Drama Release Date September 11, 1998 Runtime 90 minutes Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse 7 'Nocturnal Animals' Directed by Tom Ford It’s hard to properly explain the plot of Nocturnal Animals, and even if one were to break it down pretty well, you'd cease being able to experience it the way you should. This movie wants to shock you, it wants to unsettle you, it wants to confuse you, and it wants to make you paranoid, all at different points… well, actually, sometimes Nocturnal Animals seems keen to provoke all those different emotions all at once. There’s a darting back between fiction and reality within the film, and then the film itself is another layer being watched, so the mind bends around in all sorts of directions trying to get a handle on this. Also, Nocturnal Animals has some of the most intense scenes ever filmed, and fully embraces being a feel-bad kind of psychological thriller, perhaps even more so than most other very dark psychological thrillers are willing to do. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 6 'Insomnia' Directed by Christopher Nolan While Insomnia might not have any Michael Caine , it does carry some other Nolan traits, albeit not quite as many as you might expect. Insomnia is the black sheep of the Nolan films, but it’s still pretty damn good, and it gets into the head of its central character in a similarly powerful way to Memento . The big thing about Insomnia is that it follows the solving of a murder case, but one of the head detectives is dealing with insomnia, which means he has to second-guess certain things he thought he saw or heard. The twists pile up, and things get continually overwhelming and perplexing – but not in a frustrating way – as the case grows more complicated, and the protagonist’s capacity to get to the bottom of everything regrettably withers. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 5 'Nightcrawler' Directed by Dan Gilroy Nightcrawler contains a strong satirical element, which means it can be darkly funny at times, at least by the standards of otherwise intense psychological thrillers. The main character is a man who pushes himself to do continually risky things, all in the name of getting the ghastly footage he records on the air. His desperation makes him more dangerous, and, in turn, Nightcrawler only gets more disturbing. As for that satire, though, Nightcrawler does have a lot to say about how the media works, and it unpacks the notion that horrific stories seem to sell, so they're not going anywhere. Like most good psychological thrillers, the answers here aren’t easy to reach, and the point at which any individual turns on the “hero” here is likely to differ, based on one’s own outlook on life, especially as said outlook relates to the themes and ideas explored in Nightcrawler. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 4 'Vertigo' Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo deserves some extra props for being so relentlessly dark and uncomfortable so far back in history. In 2028 , Vertigo will be 70 years old, and yet it will continue to feel timeless as far as looks at madness, obsession, emotionally controlling love, and gender dynamics are concerned. And it does so much with what’s an initially ridiculously slow story about a man looking over the wife of one of his friends. Things don’t entirely come together until the final act here, but Vertigo trusts its viewers to be patient, all the while knowing that the more devastating moments will be more effective if they're built to in such a way. So, yeah, no beating around the bush here. Vertigo is excellent, and Vertigo – even more impressively – is excellently unsettling and psychologically grueling even now, close to 70 years on from when the movie first came out. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 3 'Psycho' Directed by Alfred Hitchcock In contrast to Vertigo, Psycho is a bit more of a horror movie, but that doesn’t mean it can’t also function as an expertly made example of a psychological thriller alongside being an effective piece of horror. Sure, there’s more of an outright killer here, but Psycho plays its cards close to its chest, so a good deal of the terror comes from not knowing who’s killing who, and why. Things are eventually revealed, and once they are, those moments are extremely troubling. Psycho, in all honesty, has a couple of small scary scenes, but many of the more unnerving moments are quieter and closer to feeling as though they're classifiable as psychological thriller moments, rather than, necessarily, psychological horror moments. But all that being said, you can’t go wrong entirely with a bit of both. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse 2 'Se7en' Directed by David Fincher Se7en has one of the most iconic endings of all time, and though it won’t be directly spoiled here, maybe even knowing that it builds toward something big can, in itself, count as a spoiler. Generally, there are two detectives here, and they're on a horrific case that seems to involve one perpetrator going about and committing a series of murders: one each based on one of the seven deadly sins. Things progress in a way that you might expect them to in this kind of cop movie, but then an extra layer of horror is revealed, and things end in one of the gutsiest conclusions in the history of the American film industry. There are moments of bleakness here that put just about all other American directors to shame, and though none of it ends up being fun, the misery of Se7en has endured while also inevitably making it something of a classic. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Se7en R Thriller Drama Crime Mystery Release Date September 22, 1995 Runtime 127 minutes Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse 1 'Taxi Driver' Directed by Martin Scorsese Close Some might question Taxi Driver being here, calling it more of a psychological drama, but there have been a couple of movies here that might well lean more toward psychological horror, so why not let Taxi Driver join the club? Well, the taxi driver in Taxi Driver is a kind of unpleasant dude. He says some awkward stuff, doesn’t mind taking people to adult film theaters, and might even be planning some violent stuff in the future… er, is anyone looking out for that guy? That guy is Travis Bickle, and his life breaks down gradually throughout Taxi Driver. He loses the small amount of faith he had left with certain areas of life, and then enters into the realm of nihilism. When he starts lashing out, it feels sadly inevitable. Taxi Driver, as a character-focused film, is executed perfectly, and the psychological look into such a damaged central character is so intense, realistic, and maybe even prophetic. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been savedPowered by Expand Collapse NEXT: The Most Unpredictable Horror Movies, Ranked
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