"Shadow of a Doubt" - early Hitchcock and dated but wonderful "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!
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Date: 2006-06-02 12:50 am (UTC)"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!