The best movies can thrill us to our cores, and what better genre of film to do that than the psychological thriller? These films belong to the tradition of truly unhinged cinema. Even the genre’s definition refuses coherence; somehow they can be horror, murder mystery, or even action films, but they are all united under the same organizing principle: There are always characters who are mentally tortured or situations that are disturbingly removed from reality. Think: characters losing their grip on their sanity, stories filled with paranoia and delusion, revenge fantasies, serial killer movies, or political dramas that raise your heart rate.
Luckily for us, we live in the age of overstuffed streaming services. So, if you’re down to be stressed for anywhere between 90 minutes to three hours, this list of movies is guaranteed to give you enough anxiety and creeping thrills that you may even forget your worries for a moment. That said, one of the best parts about psychological thrillers is their ability to reveal systemic issues in our society or function as elaborate thought experiments. Totally fun, chill stuff!
