10 Best Psychological Horror Movies Of The Last 20 Years

Not all horror movies are about gore and shock value, as the best psychological horror movies offer a different kind of horror. While there is always a place for blood and guts, it is often more disturbing to watch a slow-burn horror movie where a person slowly watches their world fall apart, and they have no idea how they can ever escape the situation. What makes these films work so well is that they show things that could happen in real life.

A24 is a prestige movie studio, and it specializes in making horror feel special and unique. A24 has mastered the idea of psychological horror in movies, and its work has made horror feel important again. However, this isn’t new for the studio, and these movies have been around for decades, with stories that rely on dread, paranoia, fear, grief, and more existential horror topics rather than just throwing out another jump scare to make the audience scream.

The best psychological horror movies of the last 20 years do more than just have people looking over their shoulders when they leave the theater. These movies cause people to double-check the locks on their doors, ensure a nightlight is turned on, and even worse, make sure that their loved ones are really who they claim to be. The sense of paranoia and fear make the best horror films ones that remain in a viewer’s nightmares for a very long time.​​​​​​

Vivarium (2019)

Vivarium follows Gemma (Imogen Poots) and Tom (Jesse Eisenberg), a young couple who become trapped in a suburban housing development. After a real estate agent leaves them there, they can’t find their way out and always find their way back to one specific house. Soon, a baby is left on their doorstep, and they are told to raise it if they ever want out. The child then rapidly ages almost a decade in just over three months, and things only get worse from there.

In the film directed by Lorcan Finnegan, both Eisenberg and Poots deliver great performances as their relationship slowly erodes, and they struggle as they realize they can’t find a way out of their predicament. The psychological horror is delivered through a haunting allegory concerning the loss of identity to forced parenthood and the soul-sucking life of suburban lifestyles. Add in the creepy child (Éanna Hardwicke) and this is a movie that leaves its mark on the viewers long after it ends.

Annihilation (2018)

Annihilation is a sci-fi horror movie, and while this is about aliens and monsters, those are not what brings the true terror to this story. Written and directed by Alex Garland, this movie follows a team of women scientists and military personnel who are sent in to investigate the Shimmer, a disaster zone with an expanding bubble forming over the land. The last team went in and never returned. Natalie Portman leads an incredible cast that also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Tuva Novotny.

The movie has an impressive 88% Rotten Tomatoes score, and its ending remains a nightmare situation which only exists in this form because producer Scott Rudin fought for Garland’s ending. This works so well as psychological horror because it weaponizes the theme of self-destruction using depression and grief. The fact that Garland doesn’t explain what the Shimmer is or why it is there makes this a film that is just about how it affects and eventually consumes Lena (Portman).

The Lighthouse (2019)

Robert Eggers has become one of the most interesting independent filmmakers working today, and his A24 horror film The Lighthouse was unlike anything released in theaters this century. The story follows two lighthouse keepers, with the elder Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and a newcomer named Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), caring for the lighthouse on a remote New England island. However, Ephraim begins to question what is real and what isn’t as a power struggle rises between the two men.

Eggers shot the movie in black and white and released it in theaters in that form, which was a risky move. However, it has become a cult classic, with a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and its reputation has been growing in the years since. What really makes this work as a psychological horror story is that the film never reveals with any certainty if anything supernatural happens or if it is all hallucinations. With an H.P. Lovecraft influence, the movie was all about the sensory assault that keeps the viewers disoriented.

Black Swan (2010)

Darren Aronofsky directed the horror movie Black Swan, which starred Natalie Portman as a ballet dancer named Nina who wins the lead role in the prestigious Swan Lake. However, as she prepares intensely for the performance, she begins to experience a breakdown as she attempts to embody both the good White Swan and the deadly Black Swan. When a new dancer arrives with her eyes on the role (Mila Kunis), it finally drives Nina over the edge.

Black Swan has an 85% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, while Portman won for Best Actress. The psychological horror movie played on the themes from several classic genre movies, including Repulsion and The Tenant, with the question of what is real and what is all in Nina’s mind. Portman has said the movie shares a similarity with Rosemary’s Baby (via Bloody Disgusting), which was another film about a woman pushed to unreal limits.

It Follows (2014)

It Follows was a terrifying horror movie from 2014 that starred Maika Monroe as Jay, a young woman who has a sexual encounter with a young man only to find herself relentlessly pursued by a slow-moving entity that only she can see. She soon learns that it will eventually kill her unless she passes the curse on to someone else through another sexual encounter. With a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score, this was a film that turned the horror movie trope of sexual promiscuity on its head.

The movie delivers a tense psychological struggle for Jay as she comes to terms with what she has to do for survival. This comes through the fear of a young person being followed, leading to a sense of dread that something could happen at any time. It is also a strong allegory about the world of sex among young people and the fear of sexually transmitted diseases. Add in the ideas of mortality, anxiety, and trauma, and the movie’s psychological horror remains clear.

Midsommar (2019)

Midsommar was a 2019 psychological horror movie that starred Florence Pugh as Dani. After her sister murders her parents and dies by suicide, Dani struggles to deal with the trauma. When her boyfriend convinces her to join him and some friends for a vacation in a remote Swedish village for a midsummer festival, her life changes forever. Once a murderous pagan cult targets the visitors to their town, Dani has to pick a side or die.

Ari Aster made the film on a low budget ($9 million), and it was a success, making $48 million with a lot of award nominations. Midsommar was extremely psychologically disturbing because the entire story took place in daylight in a beautiful countryside. With the murders and horror happening in the daylight, it makes death seem even more inescapable.

The Babadook (2014)

The Babadook is an Australian horror movie written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her debut feature. Essie Davis stars as Amelia, a widow struggling to raise her son Samuel after her husband’s death, and who finds her life slowly disintegrating. Things take a turn when the two read a sinister pop-up book about a creature known as the Babadook, a creature that appears to come to life and haunt the mother and son.

The psychological horror here rises with Amelia, as she starts to lose her touch on reality, slipping from moments of intense rage to an emotional collapse. Noah Wiseman also received critical praise for his performance as Samuel. With a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score, the movie chose to rely on terror and intense moments rather than jump scares. The Babadook itself represented suppressed grief and depression issues and how the monster can’t be destroyed, but only acknowledged in an attempt to regain control.

The Witch (2015)

Robert Eggers released his debut horror film in 2015 with The Witch. This came across as a New England folktale, following a devout Puritan family exiled from their plantation in the 1630s. Soon, the family begins to suspect their daughter, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), might be a witch thanks to terrifying events happening in the dark forest near their home. When Thomasin realizes a goat in her barn can speak to her, she starts her terrifying road to her destiny.

While the goat, Black Phillip, speaks to Thomasin, there is never definitive proof that witchcraft is real or if Thomasin is driven to believe it because of her parents’ paranoia and religious fanaticism, leading to moments of emotional abuse. The film remains a terrifying and unsettling experience thanks to Eggers shooting it in natural light and candlelight, adding to the sense of existential dread.

Get Out (2017)

Jordan Peele proved he was one of the best young filmmakers working in Hollywood when he released his debut feature-length directorial effort, Get Out, in 2017. Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris Washington, a young Black man who visits the family of his white girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams). What he finds are kind and overly welcoming white suburbanites on the surface who have devious plans for Chris beneath their facade. Soon, he realizes he wasn’t the first person led into this trap.

The movie earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, a rare feat for a genre horror movie release. It was also a tremendous box office success, making $255 million on a $4.5 million budget. The psychological horror here comes when the movie weaponizes liberal white social performance, where even the people who claim to respect and love the Black community can still come across as a threat, showing the marginalization of Black voices.

Hereditary (2018)

Ari Aster released his feature film directorial debut in 2018 with the A24 movie Hereditary. One of the best psychological horror movies of the last 20 years, it also has moments of gore, horror, and even jump scares. Despite those moments, it is the psychological horror moments that stick with people in the end. Toni Collette is Annie, a mother whose own mother dies, which leads to damnation for her and her family.

There are shocking deaths in Hereditary, and scenes of a family dissolving in the worst ways possible. This film uses supernatural horror as a metaphor for trauma and grief, while also showing how these traits can be passed down through generations. When it comes to psychological horror, things don’t get more disturbing than Hereditary.