suspense: psychological thrillers and mystery.
by black_and_red | created - 12 Nov 2012 | updated - 17 Aug 2013 | PublicUnpredictable intelligent tension. Illusion, obsession, self delusion, mystery, identity, sex, guilt, family, the environment as character, death, coincidence, the past and the present, compulsion.. The return of the repressed.
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1. The Return (2003)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
In the Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father - a man they know only through a single photograph - resurfaces.
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev | Stars: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko, Nataliya Vdovina
Votes: 47,494 | Gross: $0.50M
2. Caché (2005)
R | 117 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bénichou, Annie Girardot
Votes: 85,184 | Gross: $3.63M
3. Swimming Pool (2003)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A British mystery author visits her publisher's home in the South of France, where her interaction with his unusual daughter sets off some touchy dynamics.
Director: François Ozon | Stars: Charlotte Rampling, Charles Dance, Ludivine Sagnier, Jean-Marie Lamour
Votes: 48,332 | Gross: $10.11M
4. The Hurt Locker (2008)
R | 131 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce
Votes: 473,633 | Gross: $17.02M
5. Take Shelter (2011)
R | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart
Votes: 108,030 | Gross: $1.73M
6. The Son (2002)
103 min | Drama, Mystery
A joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne | Stars: Olivier Gourmet, Morgan Marinne, Isabella Soupart, Nassim Hassaïni
Votes: 10,091 | Gross: $0.07M
7. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 383,616 | Gross: $7.22M
8. Moon (2009)
R | 97 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
Director: Duncan Jones | Stars: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott, Rosie Shaw
Votes: 376,596 | Gross: $5.01M
9. Under the Sand (2000)
Unrated | 92 min | Drama, Mystery
When her husband goes missing at the beach, a female professor begins to mentally disintegrate as her denial of his disappearance becomes delusional.
Director: François Ozon | Stars: Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Cremer, Jacques Nolot, Alexandra Stewart
Votes: 11,408 | Gross: $1.45M
10. Stephanie Daley (2006)
R | 92 min | Drama
Pregnant forensic psychologist Lydie Crane is hired to learn the truth behind the case of 16-year-old Stephanie Daley, who is accused of concealing her pregnancy and murdering her infant.
Director: Hilary Brougher | Stars: Tilda Swinton, Amber Tamblyn, Timothy Hutton, Vincent Piazza
Votes: 1,897 | Gross: $0.03M
11. Notes on a Scandal (2006)
R | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her fifteen-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond a platonic friendship.
Director: Richard Eyre | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Andrew Simpson, Tom Georgeson
Votes: 84,535 | Gross: $17.51M
12. Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
R | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.
Director: Sean Durkin | Stars: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes, Christopher Abbott
Votes: 55,807 | Gross: $2.98M
13. The Page Turner (2006)
Unrated | 85 min | Drama, Music, Thriller
After failing the audition to a prestigious music school because of the rude behavior of one of the testers, a girl takes revenge by gaining the trust of the same woman some years later and becoming indispensable for her.
Director: Denis Dercourt | Stars: Catherine Frot, Déborah François, Pascal Greggory, Clotilde Mollet
Votes: 7,376 | Gross: $0.21M
14. Enduring Love (2004)
R | 100 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Two strangers become connected by a tragedy, yet one dangerously feels that the connection goes much deeper than the other is willing to admit.
Director: Roger Michell | Stars: Rhys Ifans, Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton, Bill Weston
Votes: 11,000 | Gross: $0.36M
15. Don't Look Now (1973)
R | 110 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A married couple grieving the recent death of their young daughter are in Venice when they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a warning from beyond.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania
Votes: 62,293 | Gross: $0.98M
16. Doubt (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama, Mystery
A Catholic school principal questions a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student.
Director: John Patrick Shanley | Stars: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis
Votes: 136,054 | Gross: $33.42M
17. The Dancer Upstairs (2002)
R | 132 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A police detective in a South American country is dedicated to hunting down a revolutionary guerilla leader.
Director: John Malkovich | Stars: Javier Bardem, Laura Morante, Juan Diego Botto, Elvira Mínguez
Votes: 6,877 | Gross: $2.38M
18. No Country for Old Men (2007)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson
Votes: 1,059,497 | Gross: $74.28M
19. Cronos (1992)
R | 94 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel
Votes: 33,111 | Gross: $0.62M
20. The Vanishing (1988)
Not Rated | 107 min | Mystery, Thriller
Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.
Director: George Sluizer | Stars: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege, Gwen Eckhaus
Votes: 44,124
21. Tell Me Something (1999)
R | 118 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Lieutenant Cho, a cop on the edge, is mourning his mother's recent death while under investigation for graft; on top of that he is suddenly put in charge of a seemingly-impenetrable mystery.
Director: Yun-hyeon Jang | Stars: Han Suk-kyu, Shim Eun-ha, Jang Hang-seon, Yum Jung-ah
Votes: 3,140
22. Safe (1995)
R | 119 min | Drama
An affluent and unexceptional homemaker in the suburbs develops multiple chemical sensitivity.
Director: Todd Haynes | Stars: Julianne Moore, Xander Berkeley, Dean Norris, Julie Burgess
Votes: 17,226 | Gross: $0.51M
23. The Ring (2002)
PG-13 | 115 min | Horror, Mystery
A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it.
Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman
Votes: 374,820 | Gross: $129.13M
24. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
PG-13 | 119 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Campbell Scott
Votes: 140,020 | Gross: $75.07M
Might have to make a separate list for the overtly supernatural, although, this is here because like most of the psychological thrillers, it plays with the idea of whether something is a trick of the mind.
25. The Woman in the Fifth (2011)
R | 84 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A college lecturer flees to Paris after a scandal costs him his job. In the City of Light, he meets a widow who might be involved in a series of murders.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig, Samir Guesmi
Votes: 7,092 | Gross: $0.11M
26. La clef (2007)
115 min | Thriller
One morning, Eric Vincent, a thirty-something without a past and reluctant about fatherhood, receives a phone call from a stranger proposing him to retrieve the ashes of his late father, whom he never met.
Director: Guillaume Nicloux | Stars: Guillaume Canet, Marie Gillain, Vanessa Paradis, Josiane Balasko
Votes: 668
27. The Woodsman (2004)
R | 87 min | Drama
A child molester returns to his hometown after 12 years in prison and attempts to start a new life.
Director: Nicole Kassell | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Yasiin Bey, David Alan Grier
Votes: 35,380 | Gross: $0.04M
28. Keane (2004)
R | 100 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A disheveled man desperately searches New York City for his young daughter.
Director: Lodge Kerrigan | Stars: Damian Lewis, Liza Colón-Zayas, John Tormey, Brenda Denmark
Votes: 5,817 | Gross: $0.03M
29. Kwaidan (1964)
Not Rated | 183 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A collection of four Japanese folk tales with supernatural themes.
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Rentarô Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Kenjirô Ishiyama
Votes: 19,974
30. The Piano Teacher (2001)
R | 131 min | Drama, Music
A young man romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoît Magimel, Susanne Lothar
Votes: 71,731 | Gross: $1.90M
31. Lake Mungo (2008)
R | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Strange things start happening after a girl is found drowned in a lake.
Director: Joel Anderson | Stars: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe, Talia Zucker
Votes: 28,905
32. Lantana (2001)
R | 121 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
The relationships of four couples unravel after the discovery of a young woman's body in Lantana bush in suburban Sydney.
Director: Ray Lawrence | Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Rachael Blake, Kerry Armstrong
Votes: 20,222 | Gross: $4.46M
33. One Hour Photo (2002)
R | 96 min | Drama, Thriller
A mentally unstable photo developer targets an upper middle-class family after his obsession with them becomes more sick and disturbing than any of them could imagine.
Director: Mark Romanek | Stars: Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Dylan Smith
Votes: 131,685 | Gross: $31.60M
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