4 great psychological horror movies to watch with your bae

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) 

Yorgos Lanthimos remains one of the most interesting and unpredictable modern directors and occupies a unique place in the world of cinema. He created this film with the aesthetics of Kubrick, putting the tragedy of Iphigenia in Aulis at the basis of the plot.

Here, Colin Farrell plays a successful cardiac surgeon who makes friends with an awkward and slightly intimidating teenager. He introduces the guy to his family, his wife, Nicole Kidman, and two children. The family gets ill for no apparent reason. 

What begins as a family drama soon turns into a family horror, as dark secrets, old stories, and selfish motives emerge. But Lanthimos gave no clue to its viewers about the further events, so expect quite a lot of surprises down the road. 

Split (2016) 

After several years of box-office failures, M. Night Shyamalan did with Split what he does best: a psychological thriller. (Remember the success of The Sixth Sense?). 

The main character of Split, played by James McAvoy, has a dissociative disorder in which 23 different personalities have to get along. He kidnaps three teenage girls and keeps them in a basement. While the captives are trying to find a way out of their predicament, they become entangled in the personalities of the main character, one of whom is a villainous cannibal with superhuman abilities. 

The entire film is based on McAvoy’s virtuoso actor talent. But there are other storylines, one of which is associated with the captive named Casey, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who has her own tragic past and, at the same time, she turns out to be quite suited for such a situation.

Black Swan (2010) 

Many of us are perfectionists. This trait can be our strength or our weakness. Striving for perfection often binds a person, deprives them of the ability to act, not having confidence in the success of the result, and it can even cause mental health problems.

In Black Swan it is shown that in order to improve one’s skills, regardless of what we do, it is necessary to let go of perfectionism and just dive deep into the process of becoming better. 

In this film, Natalie Portman plays the role of Nina Sayers, a young ballerina who decided to be just like her mother. She’s chosen to play the role of the Black Swan in the upcoming performance of Swan Lake, but doubts and anxiety prevent the ballerina from being on her A-game. Her psyche weakens and her obsessive visions begin to torment her. 

The ending of the movie is rather ambiguous: it’s unclear whether or not Nina really killed herself or it was just another hallucination. According to Portman, Aronofsky used blood on the lower abdomen of the heroine in the final scene as a symbol of her transition to adulthood. 

This is a logical explanation, given the childishness of Nina throughout the first half of the film. She suffers from the feminine form of Peter Pan syndrome and is unable to find approval from her imperious mother. Only when Nina disobeys her mother and mentally kills that version of herself does she overcome her fear and accept her own sensuality. 

Raw (2016) 

Filmmakers often choose the horror genre to make their debut, because the special effects can be quite inexpensive. However, not all of the horror movie debuts turn out as successful as Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau. 

The heroine of the film is a vegetarian by the name of Justine, who enters veterinary school. Together with her peers, she goes through a hard ritual of becoming a student, including eating some raw meat. After the ritual, Justine wakes up with an irresistible craving for raw flesh. Justine loses control over her desires, becoming unpredictable and even primal. 

Raw is not the most shocking cannibal movie in history, but during some of its festival screenings, some viewers walked out of theaters.