A subgenre of Thriller, Psychological Thrillers also focus on giving thrills to the audience. But while a regular Thriller is usually based on action and a tightly-woven storyline, a Psychological Thriller is centered around the characters, their thoughts, their motivations, and their behavior. It's not what the characters are doing that's so disturbing, it's their reasons for doing so. Most commonly, one of the main characters is mentally unstable. Either a character's instability is causing trouble for others, or the other characters are targeting an unstable person. To use two Alfred Hitchcock classics released back-to-back as an illustration, North By Northwest, about a man who has to evade danger after getting unwittingly wrapped up in an espionage scheme, is a Thriller, while Vertigo, about a man hired to track a beautiful woman, only to become obsessed with her to an unsettling degree, is a Psychological Thriller.
"Psychological Thriller" is a very fluid genre description, and it frequently overlaps not only with the Thriller, but also Mystery Fiction and sometimes Horror. Psychological Thriller is sometimes taken to mean "Horror-lite" or "A Horror story that's too good to be called Horror" (the latter is especially prevalent when baiting for awards). There's also the close cousin Psychological Horror.
Philosophical and ethical issues are often explored in Psychological Thrillers. Common narrative devices used to facilitate the exploration of the characters' psyches are Back Story, Character Narrator, and Battle of Wits.
Examples:
- Akagi
- Babylon
- B: The Beginning
- Case File nº221: Kabukicho
- DEAD Tube
- Death Note
- DEVILMAN crybaby (this anime only, not the source material or the other anime adaptations.)
- Devilman Lady (this anime only, not the source material.)
- Doreiku
- ERASED
- Happy Sugar Life
- Hero Mask
- ID: Invaded
- The second season of Inazuma Eleven did this with Fubuki Shirou.
- GO gives us Fei's (Chrono Stone) and Matatagi's (Galaxy) arc.
- In These Words, which is quite unheard of for a Yaoi series.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is part this, part romantic comedy.
- Kaiji
- Kasane
- Liar Game
- Monster
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- MW
- Onani Master Kurosawa
- PandoraHearts
- Paranoia Agent
- Perfect Blue
- Psycho-Pass
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit
- Strongest Legend Kurosawa
- Talentless Nana
- Tomodachi Game
- Kira Is Justice
- Zenith, Darkness, Reverie
, another Death Note fanfiction.
- The Very Secret Diary
- 4Closed
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
- Acrimony
- American Psycho
- Anamorph
- Antebellum
- Arlington Road
- Autómata
- Bad Influence
- Bad Samaritan
- The Bad Seed (1956)
- The Bad Seed (1985)
- The Bad Seed (2018)
- The Bad Seed Returns
- Bad Timing
- Batman (1989)
- The Batman (2022)
- Beast (2017)
- Before I Go to Sleep
- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
- The Big Cube
- Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
- The Black Panther
- Black Swan
- Bloodline
- The Body (2012)
- The Bone Collector
- Boot Camp
- The Bride Wore Black
- Bunny Lake Is Missing
- The Butterfly Effect
- Caché
- The Caller
- Cam
- Captivity
- The Cell
- The Changeling
- Chasing Sleep
- Circle
- Compulsion (2013)
- Confessions
- The Conversation
- Crime Thief
- Criminal (2016)
- The Crush
- Cul-de-sac (1966)
- Damage (1992)
- The Dark Knight
- The Dark Mirror
- Dark Skies
- Dark Waters (1944)
- Dead Man's Shoes
- Dead Ringer
- Deathtrap
- Desperate Measures
- Les Diaboliques
- Domestic Disturbance
- Donnie Darko
- Don't Say a Word
- Don't Worry Darling
- The Dry
- D-Tox
- The Element of Crime
- Elle
- Eraserhead
- Eyes Wide Shut
- Exam
- Das Experiment
- The Experiment
- The Fanatic
- The Fastest Gun Alive
- Fatal Attraction
- Fear (1996)
- Fight Club
- First Blood (the first film, but not the Rambo franchise in general that follows)
- Flightplan (2005)
- The Fly (1986) (the first film only, not its sequel nor the 1958 film that the film was a remake of)
- Freeway
- Friend of the World
- Funny Games
- Get Out (2017)
- The Gift (2015)
- Glass (2019)
- The Glass House, combined with Mystery
- Gone (2012)
- Gone Girl
- Goodnight Mommy
- The Good Son
- The Hand
- The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
- Hannibal
- Hard Candy
- Hide and Seek
- The Hitcher
- The Hole
- The Hollow Point
- Hour of the Wolf
- House of 9
- The House That Jack Built
- Hulk
- The Hunted (2003)
- Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
- Identity
- Images
- In the Line of Fire
- Inheritance
- Insomnia
- The Invitation (2015)
- Jacob's Ladder
- Joker (2019)
- Karen
- The Killing Kind
- The Killing Room
- Kiss the Girls
- Knight Moves
- Koma
- Lady in a Cage
- Lady in the Water
- Leave Her to Heaven
- The Lighthouse
- Lizzie
- The Lodge
- The Machinist
- Magic
- Malice
- Marnie
- Martha Marcy May Marlene
- Memento
- The Menu
- Midnight Lace
- Monkey Shines
- mother! (2017)
- Mulholland Dr.
- Murder by Numbers
- A Murder of Crows
- Ne te retourne pas
- Next of Kin (1982)
- New Best Friend
- New World (2013)
- Night Must Fall
- Nine Dead
- Nocturnal Animals
- No Good Deed (2014)
- Obsessed
- Obsession
- Of Unknown Origin
- Oldboy (2003)
- The Omen
- One Hour Photo
- Pacific Heights
- The Paperboy
- Passengers (2008)
- Peacock
- Peeping Tom
- The Perfect Host
- Phone Booth
- La Piscine
- Play Misty for Me
- Promising Young Woman
- Psycho
- Psycho (1998)
- The Purge
- Rebecca
- Red Eye
- A Reflection of Fear
- The Rental
- Repulsion
- Resurrection (2022)
- Return from the Ashes
- Ricochet
- Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt (overlaps with Horror)
- Rosemary's Baby (the Trope Codifier for Religious Horror, but the first two-thirds of the story is a Psychological Thriller)
- Run
- Schizo
- The Scribbler
- Séance on a Wet Afternoon
- Secret Window
- Se7en
- Shadow of a Doubt
- Shattered (1991)
- Shutter Island
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Single White Female
- The Sixth Sense
- The Skeptic
- Sleeping with the Enemy
- Spider (2002)
- The Spiral Staircase
- Split
- Stay (2005)
- The Stepfather
- The Stepfather (2009)
- The Stepford Wives
- Stoker
- Strait Jacket
- Strangers on a Train
- Straw Dogs (1971)
- Straw Dogs (2011)
- Suspect Zero
- Suspicion
- Swallow
- Swimfan
- Swimming Pool
- Targets
- Taxi Driver
- The Tenant
- That Cold Day in the Park
- Them (2006)
- Thirst 2010
- Thirteen Women
- Trance (2020)
- Trash Fire
- Triangle
- Unbreakable
- Unknown (2006)
- Unlawful Entry
- Unsane
- Vanilla Sky
- The Vanishing
- Vertigo
- The Village
- Vivarium
- Wait Until Dark
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
- White Nights
- Wicker Park
- The World of Kanako
- Affinity
- American Psycho
- And Then There Were None
- The Archie Sheridan series, particularly the first three.
- Babylon
- Baby Teeth
- Bad Monkeys
- The Bad Seed
- Black Iris, focused on Laney Keating's quest for revenge. Similar to Gone Girl, in that it utilizes the rage of the suppressed to tell a chilling, gripping story.
- The Collector
- Confessions (2008)
- A Cry in the Night
- Damnatio Memoriae
- Deadfall
- Destination Unknown
- Dolores Claiborne
- Endless Night — an Agatha Christie novel, and something of an Creator's Oddball for her, as it isn't really a murder mystery, but rather a psychological thriller evoking a sense of doom when a young couple builds a house on land that may have a Gypsy Curse.
- Final Girls
- First Blood, which later turned into a movie that became the first installment of the Rambo films.
- The works of Fyodor Dostoevsky—but especially Crime and Punishment.
- The Girl on the Train
- Gone Girl
- Ill Will
- MARZENA
- The Mental State
- My Sister, the Serial Killer
- Rabbit Heart
- Ratman's Notebooks
- Ripliad
- Sharp Objects
- SOPHIE
- The Stepford Wives
- The Treyton Injections
- Things We Have In Common
- The Woman in the Window
- You (2015)
- Alert: Missing Persons Unit
- Beyond Evil
- Cardinal
- Dark Blue
- Dig
- Dublin Murders
- Fi
- Fujiko
- Gypsy
- Hannibal
- The Head
- Homecoming
- Homeland
- Legion has strong elements of this, mixed with some light Horror.
- Million Yen Women (Partially)
- Mouse (2021)
- Mr. Robot
- Nancy Drew (2019)
- Prodigal Son
- Ransom
- Safe House
- Severance (2022)
- Sharp Objects
- Strangers From Hell
- Many episodes of Thriller
- The Undoing
- Wakefield
- You (2018)
