A Glean movie guide
Mind-Bending Psychological Thrillers
Don't trust what you see.
Masterpieces of paranoia and deception that will leave you questioning everything.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Memento
A brilliant, reverse-chronological puzzle that forces you to experience a man's memory loss firsthand.
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
- 02
Shutter Island
A haunting descent into madness and isolation where the truth is hidden in plain sight.
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.
- 03
Oldboy
A visceral and shocking exploration of revenge and extreme psychological manipulation.
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
- 04
Black Swan
A dark, hallucinatory journey into the obsessive mind of a dancer losing her grip on reality.
A committed dancer struggles to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake".
- 05
The Game
A relentless thriller that keeps both the protagonist and the audience guessing what is real.
In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins.
- 06
Mulholland Drive
A surreal, dream-like mystery that recontextualizes its entire story with a single, jarring shift.
Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.
- 07
The Machinist
A gritty, unsettling look at the physical and mental toll of guilt-induced insomnia.
Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.
- 08
Coherence
A high-concept, intimate thriller where a dinner party dissolves into a terrifying reality-bending crisis.
Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.
- 09
Gone Girl
A sharp, cynical dissection of a marriage built on layers of deception and media manipulation.
With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
- 10
Perfect Blue
A masterclass in psychological horror that blurs the line between a performer's life and her roles.
Rising pop star Mima quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.