Thebest psychological thrillersare true to their genre: they are suspenseful and cerebral, forcing audiences to expand their minds while characters face suspenseful environments. Several of acting’s finest have graced the screen in a psycho thriller once or twice, and the genre as a whole can be applied to a plethora of films. We will be looking at the psychological thrillers that caused minds to bend and muscles to clench; the thrillers that birthed twist endings still living on in cinematic infamy. We will be breaking down the 15 best psychologicalthrillersin order.
While taking a look at some of the 20th and 21st century’s best, we will also take a dive into the directors on this list and their ability to solidify the genre as one of the industry’s most attractive types of narratives. From Fincher to Nolan, the psychological thriller is a genre that has been uniquely crafted by every filmmaker of its time, even all the way up to 2019 with Todd Phillips’JokerandBong Joon-ho’sParasite. No matter which way they bend the story, these films get us invested and force us to try to resolve the conflicts before the characters do.
Not only can these thrillers play tricks on the minds of audiences, but they also break down our psyche and make us vulnerable to unlikely twists that we never saw coming. As complex as these films can get, so can the act of analyzing them. But when everything comes together for a film in this type of genre, it deserves to be remembered. Now let’s get into the 15best psychological thriller films.
Updated Jul 04, 2025: This collection of the best psychological thrillers has been updated with additional content, including where to stream each of the films featured.
15Get Out (2017)
Our list kicks off with an Oscar-winning original screenplay from one-half ofKey & Peele.Get Outfollows a young Black man, Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), visiting his white girlfriend’s family estate, as he becomes ensnared in a more sinister reason for the invitation. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship. But as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.Watch the trailer forGet OutonYouTube
Get Out Put Peele On the Map
Equal parts gripping thriller and provocative commentary,Get Outwas written and directed by Jordan Peele and produced by Blumhouse’s Jason Blum. Its themes of racial prejudice perfectly complement a welcome sense of humor, inventive cinematography, and palpable tension that slowly grows more and more intense as the film continues. To this day, most would consider this to be not only one of the best thrillers of the 2010s, but one of thebest Black horror movies ever made. Let’s hope this dynamic duo continues to collaborate on future projects.Stream on Prime Video
14Rear Window (1954)
Rear Window
One ofAlfred Hitchcock’s masterpieces,Rear Windowis a calmer type of thriller that delves into the psychological effects that isolation and curiosity can have on the mind. In the film, a photographer named L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) has become bound to a wheelchair in his stifling apartment. His only entertainment is the view from his window into the courtyard behind his apartment building. He watches his neighbors through the frames of their windows, only to discover that one of them may have been murdered.Watch the trailer forRear WindowonYouTube
Hitchcock Toys With the Audience
Hitchcock plays with the audience throughout the entire film, starting them off with confidence that what they saw was real, only to make them question if they made up the whole thing. The iconic premise and terrific performances by Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, and James Stewart would inspire decades of homages and parodies to come. WhileRear Windowdoesn’t have much horror to it, it is an almostnoir-style filmwith plenty of suspense, making it an excellent example of the thriller genre.Stream on The Criterion Channel
13Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rosemary’s Baby
Roman Polanski’s masterpieceRosemary’s Babyset the template for many horror films about cults. In particular,Rosemary’s Babyefficiently holds back on the reveal of the cult and instead uses a steady build of mystery and paranoia, shifting from drama to horror along the way. Mia Farrow beautifully plays a pregnant woman who moves into a new apartment with her struggling actor husband (played charmingly by the great American director John Cassavetes) with overly friendly neighbors. As it turns out, people in Rosemary’s life are conspiring to bring the burgeoning mother into a Satanic world in preparation for the Antichrist.Watch the trailer forRosemary’s BabyonYouTube
Polanski’s Classic Thriller
Farrow’s performance and Polanski’s masterful direction helped make the film a smash hit and an instant classic, and thegreatest film about cultsof all time. The film works as both a dedicated thriller and a shocking horror film, relying more on its unsettling tension than outward gore or loud scares to make your skin crawl. Ruth Gordon, who played the role of Minnie Castevet, would famously win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, with Polanski receiving several Best Screenplay nominations across a plethora of institutions.Stream on Paramount+
12The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Sixth Sense
While the shocking plot twist has become a facet of great storytelling in cinema, there was a time when the technique wasn’t so familiar to audiences. It has been explored for decades, but M. Night Shyamalan’s 1999 paranormal thriller,The Sixth Sense, has redefined how pop culture interprets a film’s plot twist.
Avoiding all spoilers, despite the film’s biggest reveal and its cultural impact,The Sixth Senseis a lesson in storytelling and subverting expectations. There arecolossal performances from Bruce Willisand a young Haley Joel Osment, who plays a child psychologist and a young boy with the bone-chilling ability to see ghosts, respectively. But that’s far from the twist.Watch the trailer forThe Sixth SenseonYouTube
What a Twist!
Shyamalan plays with our expectations like a true entertainer and hits us over the head with the movie’s most important theme: the conflict between seeing and believing. It’s a rare instance of a movie completely recontextualizing itself after you see the ending, prompting you towatch it twiceto pick up on all the clues you may have originally missed. Since Shyamalan’s breakout film, he hasn’t quite come out of its shadow, but his trademark storytelling techniques continue to reach the masses.Buy/Rent on Prime Video
35 Best Thrillers of All Time
With more suspense than dramas but less intensity than horror, these are the 35 greatest thriller movies ever made.
11The Devil All The Time (2020)
The Devil All The Time
Set in the Deep South after World War II, the secrets of several strangers cause their lives to collide in an unexpected and explosive way. The protagonist ofThe Devil All The Time, Arvin (Tom Holland), is a young man who must hold what’s left of his troubled family together. The film has a very unconventional structure, which is a key part of what makes it so suspenseful.Watch the trailer forThe Devil All The TimeonYouTube
A Cleverly Disguised Story
The majority of the film is more or less a bunch of cleverly disguised exposition. In a traditional three-act story structure, Arvin would be set on his quest within the first ten minutes or so. However,The Devil All The Timeis an extremely slow burn, taking the time to set the finale up, so it shocks audiences. That isn’t to say that the film is boring before that point, asthe amazing casteach plays their respective characters so well.
With a corrupt preacher, mentally broken soldiers, and highway serial killers,The Devil All The Timeforces its audience to see if Arvin’s innocence can survive what must be one of the most suspenseful films of all time. While director Antonio Campos took a risk with the unconventional style of storytelling, it accomplished exactly what he meant it to.Stream on Netflix
10American Psycho (2000)
American Psycho
Just a year afterThe Sixth Sensecame a different type of psychological thriller; one based on social commentary.American Psycho, the only film on this list written and directed by a woman, makes a statement about yuppie (young professional) America. Based on the controversial novel by Brett Easton Ellis, and starring Christian Bale as the infamous Patrick Bateman, this film is a polished look at an anti-hero who kills for pleasure. Bateman is an unreliable narrator as we see the world through his eyes, with his escalating violent antics potentially putting his professional life at risk.Watch the trailer forAmerican PsychoonYouTube
A Critique of Corporate America
Drawing from films before its time, likeThe ShiningandTaxi Driver, and inspiring work after its time, likeDexterandNightcrawler, Mary Harron’s psychological cult classicAmerican Psychokeeps audiences guessing. It’s a commentary on corporate America, the facades of business people, and their pretentious behavior through a hyper-analysis of a corporate yuppie by day, and an axe murderer by night. Harron takes the anti-hero archetype and spins it on its head psychologically,delving into Patrick Bateman’s mindand thought processes, especially with help from his cringey but convincing narration. The film’s ending is a perfect cherry on top of a biting black comedy thriller.Stream on Peacock
9Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 drama mystery directed by Stanley Kubrick centering on a Manhattan doctor who goes to unexpected lengths to please his wife after she admits she was unsatisfied and almost had an affair a year earlier. Eyes Wide Shut stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as husband and wife.
Eyes Wide Shutis the last film in Stanley Kubrick’s historical filmography before he died. And, although it was not as acclaimed when it came out, this film, starringTom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, is now known as a definitive epilogue to a storied career. On the surface, the film has a simple premise. A physician, William Harford (Tom Cruise), discovers that his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), considered having an affair a year prior. Disturbed by this revelation, William finds his way into a bizarre secret society, whose sexual proclivities may throw the two into a world they’re not prepared to inhabit.Watch the trailer forEyes Wide ShutonYouTube
Perfect Attention to Detail
While this won’t be Kubrick’s last appearance on this list,Eyes Wide Shutis a masterclass in attention to detail, exploring love, lust, cults, and more, with a dreamlike tone and pitch-perfect cinematography. While it is hard to compare Kubrick’s final film to its predecessors like2001: A Space Odyssey, its cultural movement is shifting it into a classic. The performances are great, with both Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman putting on an absolute clinic. Kubrick is at his best late in his career, and he took his time to deliver a film that checks every box. Tragically, Kubrick would pass away only a few days after a viewing of the final cut.
With cinematographer Larry Smith (Only God Forgives) behind the camera, Kubrick and co. create a psychological thriller based on taboo subject matters like sex and prostitution, and the vulnerability that men have to become tempted by their vices. From its mysterious, iconic termfidelioto its intense study of the psyche of a man entering a “new world,“Eyes Wide Shutis Kubrick’s last andgreatest contribution to cinema.Stream on Tubi
If you’ve already seenEyes Wide Shut, but want a thorough breakdown of the film’s thematic ending, check out our video below:
8The Lighthouse (2019)
The Lighthouse
The Lighthouseis a lesser-known film compared to the rest on this list, but it deserves recognition just the same. The film follows two lighthouse keepers as they attempt to remain sane during their time stranded at a remote lighthouse. However, with dwindling supplies, copious amounts of alcohol, and a growing distrust of each other, there’s a real possibility neither man will leave the lighthouse alive. The film has a small cast, but with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson in the leading roles, as well as someincredible world-buildingfound throughout, that is allThe Lighthouseneeds.Watch the trailer forThe LighthouseonYouTube
An Unconventional A24 Thriller
Writer and director Robert Eggers made many unconventional choices with this film, such as keeping the aspect ratio of the screen small and tight, locking the audience in the small space with the lighthouse keeper. The unusual nature of the cinematography matches the strange and unnerving nature of the story. With a concept inspired by a story by Edgar Allan Poe and a local legend about an accident that took place at a real lighthouse, it is no surprise that the audience has a hard time discerning reality from insanity. Its positive qualities have to be seen to be believed, even if the film was famously snubbed at the Academy Awards.Stream on Tubi
15 Modern Thriller Movies That Will One Day Become Classics
Some have already marked us beyond recovery, but these modern thrillers will surely become the classics we won’t stop talking about in the future.
7Memento (2000)
Christopher Nolan, one of the genre’s most influential filmmakers, has pretty much claimed it for his own and has been experimenting with different narratives within it, dating back to his earlier films likeMemento. BeingNolan’s breakout movie, this murder mystery and psychological thriller explores the life of Leonard Shelby, played by Guy Pearce, who has severe short-term memory loss and can only remember things from as far back as a few hours before. As he attempts to secure justice for the death of his wife, Shelby will have to tackle his own perception of reality along the way.Watch the trailer forMementoonYouTube
An Unordered Thriller
Nolan uses Leonard’s condition to drive the story on a bit of an unusual road. Leonard’s condition takes us through his memories and the clues, like his various tattoos that he leaves himself to remember previous events. Nolan explores the technique of an unordered narrative structure and nails it, creating a payoff thatyou’ll have to remember.Mementowould not only inspire other filmmakers but also himself, as he would go on to make some of the 21st century’s most memorable psycho thrillers.Stream on The Roku Channel
6Parasite (2019)
What more is there to say aboutParasite? It has all the awards and has made every top 10 list since. ButParasite’smulti-faceted exploration of the genre simply has to be discussed; the psychological thriller is one of those areas. Putting a microscope on two very different families in South Korea, director Bong Joon-ho breaks down class by portraying the thoughts and actions of the characters. You see deep into the characters and easily dissect their motives, their wants, and their needs. It follows two distinct families: one who is financially destitute but incredibly cunning, and the other who is financially well-off but a little too trusting. The poorer family manages to wedge themselves into a life of luxury via an impressive scheme, but their efforts may have disastrous consequences.Watch the trailer forParasiteonYouTube
The First International Best Picture Winner
WhileParasitemay not rank up to its psycho-thriller counterparts, it isn’t far off. With its incredibly global reception deeming it an instant classic, it simply explores several different genres, like dark comedy and drama, and cannot be held under one scope or interpretation. However, the film is a horrifying and surreal look into the lives of everyday people with completely different backgrounds. It creates the illusion that allows the audience to feel what the characters are feeling, as well as their suspense and anxieties. This is without mentioningParasite’sincredible ending, closing the door on a caustic examination of class struggles and differing socioeconomic classes.Stream on Max
