Spoiler alert! This article contains major plot details from The Silence of The Lambs, Black Swan and The Substance. If you haven’t seen these movies and would like to go in fresh, you have been warned. 

When someone says “horror movie”, the first things that come to mind are probably monsters, jump scares and a huge amount of blood and gore that starts feeling pointless after a while. These are the staples of the genre.

These movies aim to catch us off guard in the moment by delivering a sudden shock or some revolting scene. Though, frankly, in many cases, the effect rarely lasts with the audience after the credits have rolled.

But there’s a difference between horror films and thrillers. The latter don’t rely on the aforementioned factors and tend to focus on keeping the viewer in a constant state of anxiety, as suspense and anticipation build. If done correctly, this can feel genuinely disturbing. The films that achieve this often belong to the subgenre of psychological thrillers. 

It’s a known fact that there’s nothing as twisted as the human mind and, as their name suggests, psychological thrillers play on psychology using basic but undeniably effective techniques to get under the audience’s skin and truly last. 

Imagine a young FBI trainee being recruited to interview a cannibalistic serial killer imprisoned in a hospital for the criminally insane. All that, in order to apprehend another psychopath (responsible for murdering women and skinning them in the process) using the insights the cannibal can provide. 

Eventually – after a couple of disturbing occurrences I feel uncomfortable even mentioning – the inmate does collaborate with the trainee and, in exchange for personal information (such as her father being murdered and, later, her experience on a farm where she failed to save some lambs from slaughter, which led to their screams haunting her nightmares), he gives her crucial information. 

And here comes the part that, in my opinion, is what’s supposed to haunt the most in a thriller: the ending. During a celebration, the cannibal calls her, asking if “the lambs have stopped screaming”.

I think you’ve recognised The Silence of the Lambs, the 1991 adaptation of the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris. I’m certain that anyone who’s watched this film (or read the book, for that matter) can agree that it’s unquestionably unsettling. 

After the movie became something I no longer thought about during the day, it ‘visited’ me when I was in bed. I caught myself thinking, “This may be made up, but things that happen out there are much the same. Think of serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy.”

If you don’t believe that thrillers can instil such ideas in a person’s mind, ask Janet Leigh, who actually refused to shower after playing Marion Crane in Psycho (1960), opting instead for baths. We all recognise that scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic black and white film: a young woman being stabbed while showering. 

Leigh was deeply affected by the role and found herself more impacted than you might expect. “I stopped taking showers and I only take baths. And when I’m someplace where I can only take a bath, I make sure the doors and windows of the house are locked,” the actress admitted in an interview. 

She went on: “I also leave the bathroom door open and the shower curtain open. I’m always facing the door, watching, no matter where the shower head is.” 

Speaking of stars, there’s the story of a young ballerina struggling to make it in the industry. Black Swan (2011)  is another powerful example of a psychological thriller. The protagonist, Nina, is a mentally unstable perfectionist and the pressure she faces brings her fragile state to the surface. This leads to disturbing hallucinations – and who isn’t terrified of losing the ability to distinguish between reality and delusion?

Of these, only one has ever claimed the top prize: The Silence of the Lambs in the 1992 Oscars. Since then, many thrillers and horror films have deserved similar recognition, yet Jonathan Demme’s movie remains the lone winner.

That makes me think the horror genre as a whole – including its psychological thriller subgenre – isn’t taken seriously. But I disagree. Psychological thrillers are the most impactful, raw and far-reaching type of film. 

They put the darkest corners of a human mind out in the open for the audience to see, and are capable of making one question their own fears and instincts. To my way of thinking, this is as serious as it gets.