The thrill in the suspense
As a kid, I was always drawn to scary movies. Even if it was a disney movie, I always chose the horror sequels, such as Alvin and The Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman. All of my family members called me crazy for enjoying movies that scared the living bejeezus out of me. Even now, I still suggest a horror movie at every family movie night. I realized it was not just because I was a “weirdo that liked being scared,” it is because psychological horror movies give me a certain thrill that no other movie genre can replace.
With Halloween upon us, I figured this was the perfect topic. Let’s start with a little history. Whenever I am asked why I love psychological thriller movies, I start with the classic film, Halloween. Now, Halloween is the film that everyone “loves to hate.” The original film was directed by John Carpenter in 1978, and what many people don’t know is that the budget was only $325,000, which in movie terms is not a lot. So, there was not a lot of money to pay for special effects, blood and gore. The producers decided to make the film less about scaring you directly, and rather play on the imagination of viewers in a tactic called “theater of the mind.” It was the element of mystery and good old fashioned suspense that beats modern horror movies every time.
In modern horror movies, scary movies prey on grossing you out with buckets of blood and torture. That is the key difference between psychological thriller movies and modern horror movies. Psychological thrillers play on the terror of what you don’t see, rather than scaring you with what you do see. In Halloween, it was always the question of “is Micheal Meyers going to be in this scene?” or “is he behind that door?” It is the general atmosphere of suspense that will always top bloody gory horror movies in my opinion.
Along with suspense, what makes psychological thriller movies superior to any other genre is the classic plot twist at the end. Take Stephen King’s The Shining for example. The main character, Jack, gets possessed by the Overlook Hotel and hunts his wife and son with an ax, but (spoiler alert) freezes to death in the maze. But what made the movie a classic today was the plot twist of the ending image of a picture of Jack in the Overlook Hotel from the 1920s, a time almost 50 years prior. It was that confusion and plot twist at the end of The Shining that made it a staple movie for people to refer to as a classic psychological thriller.
In the end, psychological thriller movies are a principle movie genre simply because of the thought that goes into the plot, the suspense and the classic twist at the end. These movies keep you on your toes and still leave you with a shaky feeling when the movie wraps up. So, whenever you’re with your friends and you are trying to pick a scary movie, try suggesting a psychological thriller. I promise you won’t be disappointed.