A Glean movie guide
Mind Games: Essential Psychological Horror
Fear what's inside.
Masterpieces of dread that blur the line between reality and nightmare.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Shining
A chilling descent into isolation-induced madness within the walls of a haunted, snowbound hotel.
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.
- 02
Hereditary
A harrowing exploration of inherited trauma and grief that spirals into an inescapable family nightmare.
Following the death of the Leigh family matriarch, Annie and her children uncover disturbing secrets about their heritage. Their daily lives are not only impacted, but they also become entangled in a chilling fate from which they cannot escape, driving them to the brink of madness.
- 03
Get Out
A masterclass in social paranoia that uses psychological manipulation to expose deep-seated cultural fears.
Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. 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 never could have imagined.
- 04
Black Swan
A visceral look at the psychological toll of perfectionism as a dancer loses 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
Psycho
The definitive study of a fractured psyche that pioneered the psychological horror genre.
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.
- 06
The Babadook
A haunting allegory for depression and the exhausting mental toll of unprocessed grief.
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
- 07
Midsommar
A daylight nightmare that examines the terrifying psychological power of groupthink and toxic relationships.
Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.
- 08
The Silence of the Lambs
A legendary game of mental chess between an FBI cadet and a manipulative, incarcerated killer.
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
- 09
Perfect Blue
A mind-bending animated thriller that explores identity dissociation and the blurring of fiction and reality.
Rising pop star Mima Kirigoe 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.
- 10
The Invitation
A tense exercise in social gaslighting where the horror lies in the uncertainty of the protagonist's perception.
Will and his new girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner with old friends at the house of Will’s ex Eden and her new partner David. Although the evening appears to be relaxed, Will soon gets a creeping suspicion that their charming host David is up to something.
- 11
Shutter Island
A twisty investigation into a disappearance that becomes a deep dive into memory, trauma, and reality.
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.
- 12
The Invisible Man
A terrifyingly modern take on gaslighting that roots its horror in the trauma of domestic abuse.
When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.