![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
For reasons that shall remain unstated, I need to know what movies are very good psychological thrillers. My thought with that is a movie that is well-crafted and acted (preferably) and has a strong plot (James Bond is not what I am looking for, whatever IMDb says). I would like the violence kept to a minimum, and to be isolated instances (I'm thinking of Heat here, or Fight Club, though I don't know if those movies actually qualify as psychological thrillers). I don't know, for example, if something like The Ring is a psychological thriller or if it's more into out and out violence, because scary movies scare me, and then I have a morbid imagination anyway, so I get no sleep, and that's all very bad.
Movies I'm thinking of so far:
Fight Club
Heat
Mystic River (I've read the book, anyway)
Misery (I've seen part of it)
Donnie Darko
The Sixth Sense (which I haven't seen, but should)
Rear Window
The Birds
What I need is to get as large a sampling of movies that I've seen as possible, so don't limit yourselves, seriously, because chances are, I probably haven't seen it. Or tell me what makes a psychological thriller to you. I'm trying to determine what would compose Standards of Content (I can work with anything up to an R rating, and bear in mind that literature can go a bit more graphic than movies) for, um, something I'm working on. I want to get more into crafting horror out of psychological violence than out of Yet Another Blood-Soaked Abattoir And Later There Will Be A Sword Fight. But I'm not sure where the line should be, where violence is necessary to create horror, and where horror is created without violence at all; that's why I want movies, because I am drawing a big ol' blank.
Also, if you can think of a PG movie that is seriously likely to fit into this category, tell me, because I'm trying to come up with something that maxes at an R rating, rather than movies that are R rated and are scary. I would seriously prefer to create horror without violence, because I find that more frightening than blood everywhere, which sickens me after a while.
I am not interested in sexual content or profanity at all; those are pretty easy to sort out, as I've refused to deal with vampire erotica (which pretty much means no sexual content or else I wind up arguing again that I don't want to be on the Anne Rice Laurell Hamilton bandwagon), and most profanity would be an anachronism (and it sounds silly to keep cursing in Bulgarian just for the sake of having curses.)
Movies I'm thinking of so far:
Fight Club
Heat
Mystic River (I've read the book, anyway)
Misery (I've seen part of it)
Donnie Darko
The Sixth Sense (which I haven't seen, but should)
Rear Window
The Birds
What I need is to get as large a sampling of movies that I've seen as possible, so don't limit yourselves, seriously, because chances are, I probably haven't seen it. Or tell me what makes a psychological thriller to you. I'm trying to determine what would compose Standards of Content (I can work with anything up to an R rating, and bear in mind that literature can go a bit more graphic than movies) for, um, something I'm working on. I want to get more into crafting horror out of psychological violence than out of Yet Another Blood-Soaked Abattoir And Later There Will Be A Sword Fight. But I'm not sure where the line should be, where violence is necessary to create horror, and where horror is created without violence at all; that's why I want movies, because I am drawing a big ol' blank.
Also, if you can think of a PG movie that is seriously likely to fit into this category, tell me, because I'm trying to come up with something that maxes at an R rating, rather than movies that are R rated and are scary. I would seriously prefer to create horror without violence, because I find that more frightening than blood everywhere, which sickens me after a while.
I am not interested in sexual content or profanity at all; those are pretty easy to sort out, as I've refused to deal with vampire erotica (which pretty much means no sexual content or else I wind up arguing again that I don't want to be on the Anne Rice Laurell Hamilton bandwagon), and most profanity would be an anachronism (and it sounds silly to keep cursing in Bulgarian just for the sake of having curses.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
Afghan immigration flick - incredibly well-done. Heartbreaking, important, hopeful, sad, beautifully filmed.
From:
no subject
"Hour of the Wolf" - Ingmar Bergman (and talk about a head trip)
These would easily be G or PG by today's standards.
I wouldn't regard "Fight Club" as falling into the psychological thriller category at all personally- while it addresses the notion of insanity, it's simply not that thrilling or frightening.
I would suggest you hunt down some of the horror masters from different eras and read them.
Peter Straub is, in my opinion, one of the best psychological horror writers out there. Either "The Throat", "Mystery" or "Koko" would be good (although I've a feeling you'd like Koko the most). Ramsey Campbell does some good work. August Derleth is good if you're looking for Lovecraftian influence although I haven't read him in ages. If you do read Lovecraft, I recommend the Erich Zann story though I'm not remembering which it is.
Also, you must read "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson if you haven't (NOT "The Lottery"- everyone reads that but it's not half as good) or "We Have Always lived in the Castle". I have a very good version (it's an old movie) of the first if you want to see it. And although I wouldn't normally recommend him, the actual novel of "The Shining" by Stephen King falls into that category as well.
I also probably still have some good horror anthologies around here somewhere if you want any of them... we should get together sometime!
From:
no subject
From:
Speaking of Joseph Cotton...
~M~
From:
Re: Speaking of Joseph Cotton...
There's also Vertigo (with Jimmy Stewart) and Niagara (with Marilyn Monroe)...
From:
is it worth a watch?
~M~
From:
Re: Speaking of Joseph Cotton...
*headdesk*
From:
Re: Speaking of Joseph Cotton...
~M~
From:
Re: Speaking of Joseph Cotton...
Go look at "more keywords" for Reservoir Dogs. It's just pathetic.
From:
IMDb
~M~
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
And, of course, Ripley is so fucked in the head, and that's my fandom.
From:
no subject
That's horror though, not thriller... maybe Frantic? I didn't like it but they advertise it as a "thriller". Single White Female, Se7en, Twelve Monkeys,... all movies I didn't really like that could count as psychological thrillers.
Your list above though seems to list movies I would consider "fucked up movies" rather than thrillers. I don't like movies about insane people, it makes writers and directors lazy because anything can (and usually does) happen. I'm always trying to "work out" the movie and get very frustrated when I can't and two hours in it turns out the primary character is a loony and certain things haven't actually happened - Fight Club is a perfect example. That's just me though; I'm not much of a movie person :)
From:
no subject
Usually when I think of psychological thrillers, the first point I jump to (honestly) is well-written mind control literotica. The best ones invariably dial up the tension before letting loose with the sexx0rz in about a 3:1 ratio. mcstories.com carries a great load of them, both not-so-great and wonderful. I recommend most of Tabico's work, as well as this recent selection (http://www.mcstories.com/AllDolledUp/AllDolledUp1.html).
From:
no subject
I'll take a look at the story when I'm on another computer that doesn't have Hasbro's filters on it. *blush* Oh well, it's research, you morons, RESEARCH. GIVE ME MY INTERNET LITEROTICA.
Particularly if they are going to make me read (and evaluate!) vampire erotica for work.
But that's definitely a point I'm dealing with - most of the "erotica" in horror is really just a crap reason to write sex and, occasionally, kill things. I want to turn the dials on all the knobs up to eleven, but I don't want a book that's JUST SMUT, either.
From:
no subject
We need to have movie night- I swear!! Or else I need to ship you some movies!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
12 Monkeys
The Jacket
Vanilla Sky
Memento
11:14
To name a few...
From:
no subject
i woudl also suggest Chris Marker's short film, La Jette, on which 12 monkey's is based. (it is NOT a remake, so seeing one doesn't mean you've seen the other, except in that you have some clue about the ending which I won't give away) its a classic, often shown in film history classes. amazon has it on a dvd collection of short films called "short" vol 2. unfortunately even THAT is out of print now, and the VHS versions are even more expensive, out of print, and much poorer quality. i loved the movie so much, id pay the $35 for the dvd version, (it was $10 when I bought it!). If you cant get a hold of it where you are, i can send you a copy.
I believe La Jette is unreated but i think it'd be PG if it was. Post war horrors (think b/w photos you'd see in history text books- literally), psychological torture, but no violent blood and gore, and the sex is just implied
~~~~
Arlington Road - no sex that i recall in it, theres some violent scenes- but not in a gratuitous way
From:
no subject
Is Vanilla Sky really worth it? I think of Tom Cruise as a total hack who can't act.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From Hell
From:
no subject
The Others
Night of the Comet
Sphere
The Mothman Prophecies
Classic psychological thrillers, of which I am a big fan:
Psycho
Dr. Phibes, et. al.
House of Wax
(think Peter Cushing and Vincent Price movies and keep going from there)
The Haunting (the original)
anything involving big/many animals (Them, Night of the Lepus, etc.)
The Blob
The Thing
The (fill in the blank)
From:
no subject
Being John Malkovich and Adaptation are also two excellent intellect straining films.
From:
no subject
I am amazed at how many movies I've actually seen and forgotten about.