The medium of film feels like a particularly appropriate one for the psychological thriller genre, with various cinematic techniques being well-suited to get the viewer in the headspace of a troubled/conflicted/stressed-out character (or characters). That’s what psychological thrillers are all about, really; telling intense stories from an uncomfortably close point of view, helping a viewer understand the ramifications of being in all sorts of unpleasant or high-stakes scenarios.
There are a large number of movies that can be categorized as psychological thrillers, withthe genre being popular enough that it’s inevitable certain ones will get overlooked and subsequently feel underrated. To hone in on just the 2010s, the following movies are all psychological thrillers (or at least contain elements that can make them definable as such), with all being worthy of more attention and exposure.
10’The Dirties' (2013)
Director: Matt Johnson
The Dirtiesis certainly a feel-bad movie, and might not initially feel like a traditional thriller at first, but it goes there at a certain point.There is an element ofvery dark comedy to this high school movie, though it eschews coming-of-age tropes and conventions and instead looks at bullying in a way that can be surprisingly intense and realistic, while also exploring the nature of filmmaking and revenge.
To be more specific, the plot ofThe Dirtiesinvolves friends making a movie about getting revenge on those at their school who’ve been bullying them, and the consequences that unfold when one of them starts taking things too far. It unfolds in a way that feels uncomfortably realistic, and though there is enough humor to call it a dramedy, the way it builds in intensity makes it feel increasingly like it belongs to the psychological thriller genre as it goes along.
The Dirties
Watch on Tubi
9’The Stanford Prison Experiment' (2015)
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Revolving around an experiment involving a simulated prison,The Stanford Prison Experimentnonetheless manages to givemovies about actual imprisonmenta run for their money when it comes to being unnerving and suspenseful.It’s a retelling of actual events that happened in August 1971, where the titular experiment occurred at Stanford University, making some volunteers act as prison guards and others act as prisoners.
The psychological study was controversial and eventful, and though 2015’sThe Stanford Prison Experimentcan’t be a 100% accurate retelling, it does capture this surprising and heavily publicized event well. Indeed, the film is successful in getting across the toll the experiment had on the people involved, capturing how quickly seemingly normal people turned on each other and how abruptly they began to act a certain way based purely on the “role” they were given.
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8’Be My Cat: A Film for Anne' (2015)
Director: Adrian Țofei
Likely to no one’s surprise at all, the movie calledBe My Cat: A Film for Anneis an incredibly weird one, and additionally very hard to even explain. It pushesthings pretty far when it comes to horror, being about a disturbed individual who’s infatuated withAnne Hathaway, and goes to some surprising/distressing lengths in an attempt to persuade her to feature in a movie he’s making.
Be My Cat: A Film for Anneunfolds in a found footage/mockumentary style, with the entire thing being uncomfortable to watch, owing to how it aims to place the viewer in the shoes of one very strange character.Blending horror, crime, and psychological thriller genres, it’s certainly rough around the edges and proves hard to watch at times, but you can’t deny its capacity to leave a mark while proving hard to shake/forget.
7’Grand Piano' (2013)
Director: Eugenio Mira
Before his breakout success withWhiplash,Damien Chazellewas mostly well known for writingGrand Piano, a film directed byEugenio Mirathat, as the title suggests, features music prominently, as Chazelle often seems to like doingwith the films he’s directed. Running for a tight 90 minutes,Grand Pianois wonderfully simple,with the plot involving a pianist on stage who finds out he’s the target of a sniper.
Further, the hapless protagonist ofGrand Pianolearns that one wrong note will result in him being shot, which naturally gets things feeling very intense and appropriately high-stakes right from the start. It’s not able to stick the landing quite as well as it takes off, but the simplicity ofGrand Pianodoes make it often satisfying for those who like straightforward thrillers, withElijah Woodturning in a strong lead performance as the very unlucky and stressed-out pianist.
Grand Piano
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6’Cold Fish' (2010)
Director: Sion Sono
Anyone familiar with the films ofSion Sonowill know that he’s a director who tends to push many a boundary, and few movies of his go quite as far asCold Fish. This 2010 release isa gritty and uneasy crime movieabout a man who runs a fish store and becomes involved with a family, only for the members of the family to realize that the seemingly kind man isn’t exactly who he initially appeared to be.
Cold Fishcan afford to unfold slowly, owing to its runtime of almost 2.5 hours, and this duration/pacing means it can very effectively build up dread and eventually despair as it chugs along. It’snot a movie for the faint of heart, being psychologically distressing on top of being very gory in places, but will likely work for anyone who’s after an intense crime/thriller/horror movie and is prepared to see some rather challenging things.
Rent on Apple TV
5’Operation Avalanche' (2016)
Three years on fromThe Dirties(and a few years beforethe excellent and underratedBlackBerry),Matt JohnsondirectedOperation Avalanche, which feels arguably even more under-appreciated than his aforementioned 2013 movie. Once again, things revolve around people making a movie (kind of), but inOperation Avalanche, things take place in 1967, and the “film crew” are actually CIA agents going undercover at NASA.
As one might expect, conspiracies start to get uncovered and paranoia runs high, withOperation Avalancheoverall doing a fantastic job at being a nail-biting psychological thriller, a dark mystery film, and a fairly funny comedy.It’s clever and a little bit weird, sure, but does feel criminally underrated, even compared to the already fairly underrated movies for which Johnson is slightly better known for making.
Operation Avalanche
4’Raman Raghav 2.0' (2016)
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyapis perhaps best known for directingthe amazing gangster epicGangs of Wasseypur, but his accomplishments as a filmmaker gofar beyond the remarkable duology. He’s one of the best and most prolific Indian filmmakers working today, and tends to specialize in making ambitious thriller/crime/dark comedy movies, withRaman Raghav 2.0leaning mostly towards the thriller genre.
Raman Raghav 2.0takes a premise most have likely seen before and puts a relatively fresh spin on it, broadly being about two morally dubious people on each side of the law –one a serial killer and the other a corrupt cop – getting intoa game of cat and mousewith each other. The pacing is relentless, the film looks stylish, and it’s overall quite exciting, being a worthwhile watch for anyone burnt out on contemporary American/English-language thrillers.
Buy on Amazon
3’The Endless' (2017)
It wouldn’t be accurate to simply labelThe Endlessas a psychological thriller and nothing else, because much of the time, it also feels likean eerie blend of science fiction and horror.Additionally, it’s heavy on mystery and can get pretty surreal, with the plot centering on a pair of brothers who re-evaluate and rediscover the cult that they’d escaped from years prior, changing the course of their respective lives in unexpected ways.
The less known aboutThe Endlessgoing into it, the better, because it takes some wild and mind-bending turns over the course of its runtime, with those narrative/creative risks generally paying off. The budget isn’t necessarily high, but the level of creativity and ambition found withinThe Endlessare, and it’s definitely worth seeking out for anyone who wants an eerie and unique psychological thriller experience.
The Endless
2’A Record of Sweet Murder' (2014)
Director: Koji Shiraishi
A Record of Sweet Murdermay only be 86 minutes long, but feels a good deal longer because of how sustained its tension is. Usually, saying a movie feels longer than it is would be a criticism, but that doesn’t apply here, becausethe intent here is to make something that feels pervasive in horror and dread; arguably even something of a cinematic endurance test.
Like a good many effective psychological crime/thriller/horror movies,A Record of Sweet Murderunfolds in a mockumentary format, being about a journalist and camera person following arounda dangerous escaped patient from a mental institutionwho wants to engage in a killing spree. It feels like a rawer andeven more horrificNatural Born Killers, in some ways, and is easily one of the most intense and underrated movies of its kind from the 2010s.
1’The Guilty' (2018)
Director: Gustav Möller
One of thebest single-location thrillers in recent memory,The Guiltyis relatively well-regarded and decently well-known, but this 2018 version feels underrated nowadays, owing to amore high-profile American remakebeing released in 2021. That one’s not bad, but it’s a case where the original is definitely the best, not only proving more original (obviously) but also more suspenseful and gripping.
The premise ofThe Guiltyinvolves a police officer working as a dispatcher, and what happens when he gets a call from a woman who says she’s been kidnapped. It’s a movie where most of the story is told with sound, giventhe officer is contained to the police station while the entire situation unfolds, and that’s also where the camera stays.The Guiltyis stripped back and simple, but works wonders with the few ingredients it has, emerging as a top-notch psychological thriller/mystery film.
