From Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Vertigo, to David Fincher's Se7en and Gone Girl, psychological thrillers are appealing cinematic features due to their depictions of killers and/or individuals with complex personas. There are also detectives and heroic protagonists who try to understand a killer's motive by investigating and studying various profiles.
Psychological thrillers also tend to have personal conflicts, such as cops who mourn the loss of their partners, or family members frightened for those targeted by predators. There are always questions regarding why a killer or criminal can act a certain way, and their tendency to scramble with other people's psyche. Several thrillers have been praised, while others have been criticized for ripping off classics. Some, however, don't quite get the recognition they deserve, like those below.
Law Abiding Citizen
In this feature, Gerard Butler portrays Clyde Shelton, a man whose family is assaulted and killed during a home invasion. Clyde is left emotionally torn, and is further saddened when prosecutor Nick Rice (played by Oscar winner Jamie Foxx) agrees to make a deal with Clarence Darby (the man directly responsible for murdering Clyde's wife and daughter) in exchange for his testimony against his accomplice, Rupert Ames. A decade later, Clyde gets his revenge by brutally killing Darby and Ames to avenge the deaths of his loved ones, while also going after Nick and the entire judicial system.
The thriller may be considered highly implausible and preposterous due to the idea that one man is capable of killing people while confined in prison. However, Butler is compelling in his role as a family man who transforms himself into a killer out of his desire to make his point that the justice system is flawed and corrupt. Foxx's prosecutor is also intriguing because, while he becomes the hero later on in the film, his character is flawed due to his selfish ambition to be the best lawyer. Each protagonist can be viewed as both a hero and a villain. The film also has some elaborate set-ups, advanced weaponry, explosive action, and moral themes that question whether the law really works.
Panic Room
Jodie Foster stars in this David Fincher thriller as Meg Altman, a mother who is recently divorced from her husband, and is moving into a new, four-story home on the Upper West Side of NYC with her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart). During their first night in their new home, three burglars break in, attempting to steal millions in bearer bonds that are hidden inside the panic room (a place in the home used for emergencies). Meg and Sarah do everything they can to stay alive and fight off the thieves, while trying to call for help.
This is one of Fincher's most underrated thrillers, but it is an effective one that resembles the work of Hitchcock (such as the story taking place in one setting, providing a sense of claustrophobia). Foster and Stewart have powerful chemistry together as mother and daughter, portraying strong and vulnerable female characters placed in a scary and challenging situation. The burglars are also intriguing players because they each have different personalities, leading to several disagreements. Forest Whitaker is a professional thief and technician who is good with tools and has no intention to kill or hurt anyone, while Dwight Yoakam portrays the criminal willing to shoot anyone to get what he wants. Finally, Jared Leto is the pretty rich boy who bails immediately when things don't go as planned.
Identity
James Mangold has covered various genres, such as superhero films (the R-rated Logan, The Wolverine), Westerns (3:10 to Yuma), and romantic comedy (Kate & Leopold). In this psychological thriller, ten strangers end up in the same motel during a rainstorm in Nevada. Individuals begin getting killed off one by one, leading to a whodunit murder mystery. While this is going on, a convict named Malcolm Rivers is about to be executed for murder, but his psychiatrist tries to postpone it in order to prove Malcolm's insanity.
John Cusack, the late great Ray Liotta, and Amanda Peet lead an entertaining ensemble cast in a thriller that initially seems obvious and predictable, but contains several twists and turns. All the strangers (an ex-detective, a prostitute, a cop transporting a prisoner, a newlywed couple, a small family trio, a washed-up actress, and a hotel owner) have a connection, along with hidden flaws and secrets of their own. The cleverness of the film is that, as the identity of every stranger is revealed, the audience also learns more about Rivers and his split personality disorder. There are also some bloody action sequences, including a Western-style shootout and gruesome death scenes (including one involving a baseball bat).
Kiss The Girls / Along Came A Spider
While Morgan Freeman's performance as Detective William Somerset in Se7en is more memorable, his role as Alex Cross in Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider is also powerful and appealing. Based on one of James Patterson's most popular characters in a book series spanning several novels, Freeman portrays Cross as an insightful forensic psychologist, intelligent detective, and skilled marksman. In Kiss The Girls, Cross searches for a serial killer who kidnaps women. In the sequel, Along Came A Spider, Cross investigates the abduction of a U.S. Senator's daughter.
The plot in each film may seem simple and straightforward, but there are some surprising twists: crooked cops with hidden agendas, and the methodically disturbing schemes carried out by the villains. Freeman is perfect as Cross due to the character's calm patience, as well as his convincing ability to research and encounter valuable information when analyzing evidence and crime scenes. Cross is also partnered with strong female characters. Ashley Judd in Kiss The Girls portrays a doctor who manages to fight her kidnaper and escape captivity. Monica Potter in Along Came A Spider plays a Secret Service Agent who helps Cross in the search for the Senator's daughter, but she is also more than her character appears to be. Cross's confrontations with the villains are chilling, because the detective/psychologist is able to talk down and get inside each killer's head, causing them to snap.
Insomnia
Christopher Nolan's 2002 remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name is one of the director's most underappreciated films, because it isn't an effects-driven blockbuster like The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. However, this old-fashioned thriller is eerie and suspenseful not only due to the complex characters, but also the cold and quiet atmosphere of the Alaskan setting. In the film, LAPD detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and his partner Hap Eckhart are sent to Alaska to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. While the LAPD detectives and the local police nearly capture the mysterious killer, Dormer accidentally shoots and kills Hap due to the foggy weather, leaving the veteran cop in a state of depression and insomnia.
Pacino has played several great cop roles over the years, such as the eccentric Vincent Hanna in Michael Mann's Heat and the honest cop in Serpico. In Nolan's feature, Pacino portrays another experienced detective, but a more vulnerable one because he feels guilty over accidentally shooting his partner dead and covering up the evidence so that he doesn't get caught. As Walter Finch (the killer of the teenage girl), the late Robin Williams delivers a surprisingly subtle performance. Going against type, he isn't funny in the slightest, instead portraying a character who is calm, calculating, and mischievous in his villainy. Finch even messes with Dormer's psyche by calling him every night, but the detective desperately tries to overcome his demons and not go down without a fight.