I've watched a couple movies that were labeled with the "psych thrill" tag. The only one that sticks out in my mind is The Forgotten, mostly because I thought it was too dumb to forget. And then a friend told me to watch the Saw franchise because it was, in this person's opinion, an excellent piece of psy-thrill. I never intend to watch any of that series because gore-fests don't interest me at all.

I've always understood psy-thrill to mean stories where the conflict is in the mind, which sounds cool, but the products I've seen haven't been that interesting. Am I looking at the wrong stuff? because so far, what I've seen on screen hasn't convinced me that it'll be worth my time to read anything off the bookshelves from that sub-genre.

But my real question is, what's the draw to psy-thrill?
 

[This message has been edited by trousercuit (edited April 19, 2006).]
 

"Wait Until Dark," is an excellent movie that I have seen many times, but after all the bad reviews, have not bothered with the "Forgotten."

Books may be different, however, as there can be subtleness in text that can't be accurately portrayed in film.
 

I've written a couple in short form and my upcoming novel comes close to falling in that category. (But I'm calling it supernatural thriller instead.)

And "The Forgotten" made my list of worst movies of all time.

However, do not write if you are basing the your concepts on the silver screen. Writing is words on paper and the skill of screenwriting is entirely different from the skill of writing we normally discuss here. You can use silver-screen examples only to relate the simplest of ideas and only because it might be a more common experience than a particular book.

A written psych thriller is a much more moving experience than any movie. You will not be the same person after reading yourself into the mind of a loon.

Good psychological thrillers, hm, look at some of Hitchcock's stuff. Vertigo and Rear Window, specifically. A psychological thriller is basically a thriller (ie it's meant to scare you) that is not horror (there is no supernatural aspect) and it involves getting deep into the psyche, the thought-processes, of the characters. It isn't necessarily that the conflict is some kind of mind-game, or that the conflict exists inside the minds of the characters, although those can be aspects of a psychological thriller. It's more about the perspective the author (or filmmaker) chooses to present to the audience, in terms of POV, than it is about building suspense on the backs of external dangers.

Or so's my understanding.

Hope that helps.
 

The Grudge does not meet my definition of psychological horror at all. I mean, not even close. The Grudge is a horror film.

There's no problem basing your concept of what is and isn't psychological thriller on movies -- I think the movies perfected it. Particularly if you're using really excellent movies, like Vertigo, as a guide.

(Let me just say 'Vertigo' one more time. I don't think there ever has been or ever will be a more perfect example of a psychological thriller.)
 

The Grudge is about what a man's fears can do to him and others that get caught up in his energies. Fear is psychological.

YEs, Alfred Hitchcock was good at Psychological. But another good movie that is very Psychological is The Shining. Supernatural aspects of a movie don't have anything to do with whether or not it is psychological in nature.

 

The Grudge, are we talking about the same movie?
 

I think the quintessential example of the genre, at least in film, is "Gaslight," but I doubt anyone would agree with that.
 

Cape Fear (I thought the '62 version was better than the '91 remake)
The Hitcher
Sixth Sense
Suspect Zero

 

But how do you tell the difference between something like that and Sartre's "No Exit"?
 

Another really good pychological thriller movie, to me anyway, was a british B movie called "Paperhouse". It's about a little girl who likes to draw. She draws a picture of a house, and then gets sick. Whenever she falls asleep in her sickness, she dreams the house and goes to it. When she wakes she adds to her drawing, and each addition appears in her next dream. The line between dreams and reality blurs more and more over the course of the movie, and I have to admit I love that kind of thing.
 

How about these examples, (not in any specific order):
Manchurian Candidate
The Game (this is one of my favorites)
Pacific Heights (great!)
Cape Fear
Rear Window (just about any Hitchcock movie, but I think this is the best)
Primal Fear

These are the ones that came to mind right away. I am sure there are more. I'm not saying these are the best, just the ones that popped into my head.

I like most of these types of movies, but I am not a big horror fan. Most horror films come off as almost laughable. The Grudge was really not that great. I don't like my ghosts making stupid gasious throat noises.
 

I think gore is to action what cursing is to dialog... it's a lazy way to get a thrill. How much more satisfying the story is if the writer doesn't rely on those crutches, but provides the thrill through clever dialog and suspenseful action.
 

But seriously, it's supposed to be from the POV of someone (usually insane), and show you the disturbing stuff in there... and if it's done well, you don't know whether to hate or sympathize with him/her. Either that or it's just supposed to mess with your mind. Something like Sybil or Butterfly Effect?

My pair of pennies.
-Fahrion Kryptov