15 best psychological thrillers about mind games and maniacs

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

From the classic Psycho and the iconic Fight Club to the surreal new Joker.

1. Joker

• USA, Canada, 2019.
• Drama, thriller, crime.
• Duration: 122 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 9.

Shy Arthur Fleck moonlights as a clown and dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. Only he has uncontrollable fits of laughter, which makes life very difficult for him and those around him. Gradually, Arthur's affairs get worse, and he begins to lose touch with reality. There is only one way out - to transform into the Joker clown.

The director Todd Phillips, who became famous for the comedy "The Hangover in Vegas", took the famous comic book villain as a basis, but completely changed his story. The result is a very dark drama about loneliness. At the same time, the author left the audience the opportunity to independently decide which of what was shown on the screen was real, and what was happening only in the head of the protagonist.

2. Fight club

• USA, Germany, 1999.
• Drama, thriller.
• Duration: 139 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 8.

The main character spends his life at an unloved job and cannot relax even in a dream. But everything changes when he meets the soap merchant Tyler Durden. He convinces him that the main and only goal of life is self-destruction. Friends open "Fight Club" - a secret place where anyone can come to fight. But then the hero realizes that the soap merchant's plans are much more complicated.

The cult film by David Fincher is based on the famous book by Chuck Palahniuk. Taking on the leading roles of Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, the director was able to show an excellent contrast between the characters: one looks always tired and is losing weight, and the second is a pumped-up handsome man.

3. Psycho

• USA, 1960.
• Psychological horror.
• Duration: 109 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 5.

Mary Crane breaks up with a divorced man, steals money at work and leaves town. On the way, she stops at a motel run by a nice young man, Norman Bates. But, as it turns out, he has a very strange relationship with his mother. Moreover, the woman herself does not appear in the frame.

This film by Alfred Hitchcock has long become a benchmark for thrillers. And the charming madman Norman Bates has repeatedly been included in the lists of the most famous on-screen maniacs with personality disorder.

4. Remember

• USA, 2000.
• Thriller, detective, drama.
• Duration: 113 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 4.

Leonard Shelby tries to find his wife's killer. The only problem is that his short-term memory is impaired. Leonard remembers the events before the death of his beloved, but forgets everything that happened more than 15 minutes ago. To help himself, he makes tattoos with tips on his own body.

Christopher Nolan's painting is built in a very unusual way: one storyline develops in direct chronology, and the second is shown in reverse order. And all in order to surprise the viewer with an unexpected ending.

5. Island of the damned

• USA, 2010.
• Psychological thriller, detective.
• Duration: 138 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

The bailiffs are sent to a closed island where a psychiatric hospital is located. They must investigate the disappearance of the patient, but are faced with a whole web of lies and hiding evidence. In addition, a hurricane hits the island, which cuts off the heroes from the rest of the world. But then things get even stranger.

The famous Martin Scorsese in his work very successfully catches the viewer. The action begins as a dark, confusing detective story. But as a result, all theories are practically turned inside out. A separate merit of the picture is the excellent play of Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo.

6. Donnie Darko

• USA, 2001.
• Mysticism, thriller.
• Duration: 133 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

One night, high school student Donnie Darko, obeying the mental order of a man in a rabbit suit, left the house. The next morning, he discovered that the plane engine that had fallen from the sky had hit exactly his room. From this moment, Donnie notices that he can either predict the future, or change the time itself.

This unusual film in a retro atmosphere is reminiscent of the work of David Lynch. Moreover, its plot interestingly balances on the verge of a tangled thriller and psychedelic fiction.

7. Black Swan

• USA, 2010.
• Drama, thriller.
• Duration: 103 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 0.

Nina Sayers becomes the new prima ballerina. She is very talented, but she lacks self-confidence and relaxedness. Before the staging of Swan Lake, a competitor appears in the troupe, who can take all the parties away from the heroine.

In Darren Aronofsky's film, it is unlikely that it will be possible to distinguish reality from the unhealthy fantasies of the main character. But this is the whole point, because she herself is not sure of what is happening.

8. Mulholland Drive

• USA, 2001.
• Thriller, drama, detective.
• Duration: 147 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 9.

They try to shoot the girl in the car, but an accident rescues her. Having lost her memory, she meets with aspiring actress Betty. She helps the stranger, and together they try to understand her past, becoming closer to each other. But gradually the events turn out to be more and more surreal.

Most of David Lynch's films do not have a clear explanation of the outcome. But in "Mulholland Drive" everything is a little simpler, the main thing is to separate the real actions of the main character from her dreams.

9. The machinist

• USA, Spain, 2004.
• Thriller.
• Duration: 97 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

Trevor Resnick hasn't slept for a year. He turned into a living skeleton and stopped distinguishing dream from reality. He is tormented by nightmares in reality, but lately they have more and more influence on everyday events. Trevor realizes that he is gradually losing his mind.

For the role in this film, Christian Bale lost 30 kilograms, so the protruding ribs and sunken face are not computer graphics, but the real physical form of the actor at that time. And this also helped him to better get used to the image of a hero who is so exhausted that he hardly distinguishes reality from dream.

10. American psycho

• USA, Canada, 2000.
• Drama, thriller.
• Duration: 101 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 6.

Patrick Bateman is considered almost perfect. He is energetic at work, looks after himself and tries to help people. But one day he meets a homeless person and impulsively kills him. This awakens his hidden passion for violence, which can no longer be stopped.

Bateman, also played by Christian Bale, is another famous cinematic psychopath. The combination of a beautiful appearance and an extremely perverse mind was very remembered by the audience. Although it is still not completely clear what crimes the hero actually committed, and what he just invented.

11. Jacob's Ladder

• USA, 1990.
• Thriller, drama, horror.
• Duration: 113 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 5.

Jacob Singer served in Vietnam and was injured. After returning home, terrible visions began to haunt him. And at the same time, those around him begin to assert that he is lying about his military past. Jacob feels that he himself no longer understands where the truth is.

In the wake of rampant remakes and relaunches, a new version of the cult film was released in 2019. But it turned out to be much worse than the original and failed in all respects.

12. Split

• USA, Japan, 2017.
• Horror, thriller.
• Duration: 117 minutes
• IMDb: 7, 3.

A stranger puts three girls to sleep and kidnaps them right in the parking lot. They wake up in the basement. And soon they find out that 23 persons coexist in the body of their kidnapper Kevin Crumb. But all the heroes are waiting for the creepiest, 24th.

James McAvoy in this film put all his acting talent to play the main villain. After all, the character has a personality disorder, and he appears either in the form of a reserved business person, or in the form of a cruel maniac. And sometimes he even considers himself a woman or a child.

13. Clouding

• USA, 2006.
• Science fiction, thriller, drama.
• Duration: 100 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 1.

Robert Arctor is a police officer who is embedded in the drug addict environment and is undercover, excluding any personal contact with contacts. Gradually, he himself becomes a victim of addiction to drugs and begins to suspect himself of betrayal.

The unusual visuals of this film made it possible to convey all the madness of the hero who is under the influence of drugs: his interlocutors can turn into insects, and objects change shape. But the atmosphere of doubt in his own memory is best conveyed here, because from a certain moment the hero watches himself.

14. Enemy

• Canada, Spain, 2013.
• Thriller, detective.
• Duration: 88 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 9.

Having once rented a disc with a film, a history teacher sees on the screen an actor who is remarkably similar to himself. He decides to find his double, but gradually it turns into a real obsession, leading the hero to mystical events and plunging him into metaphysical darkness.

Director Denis Villeneuve explicitly referred to David Lynch in this film. And therefore, his psychological thriller is closer to the arthouse than to the traditional cinema. The plot does not give clear answers here, and the ending remains open.

15. Vanilla sky

• USA, Spain, 2001.
• Melodrama, thriller, fantasy.
• Duration: 130 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 9.

Rich handsome David Ames meets Sofia at a party and immediately falls in love. But after a car accident set up by his jealous mistress, the hero turns into a disabled person with a mutilated face. After the plastic surgery, everything seems to be normalized, but still David feels that something strange is happening to him.

The plot of this picture partly overlaps with the famous book by Philip Dick "Ubik", where the question "what is reality" arises from the main character repeatedly. But "Vanilla Sky" still gives a more romantic, rather than philosophical, interpretation.