Without employing supernatural twists and turns, the best psychological horror films explore the dark side of humanity through realistic and terrifying plots. Combining classic elements of suspense, noir, and action thrillers, regular people quickly turn into vicious monsters in these unsettling movies.
One especially frightening narrative arc in the genre deals with characters being abducted against their will. Whether it's a kidnapping or a home invasion, these films bring the real and imagined nightmares of audiences to life on the big (or small) screen. These are the kinds of features that inspire viewers to keep their bedroom lights on at night.
10 Alone (2020)
John Hyams is responsible for this recent thriller about a woman fleeing from a serial killer in a remote region of the Pacific Northwest. Jules Wilcox plays Jessica, a recent widow who crosses paths with her assailant, an unnamed man played by The Outsider's Marc Menchaca, while on the move to a new town.
After escaping the murderer's remote cabin, Jessica is forced to traverse the rugged wilderness in order to survive. Jessica's tense and drawn out ordeal makes Alone a chilling watch.
9 The Call (2013)
Even though The Call falls apart in its final act, this high-concept movie is marked by engrossing performances from Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin. Berry plays a 911 operator who receives a call from a teenage girl who has just been kidnapped by a man in a mall parking lot.
Breslin plays the girl, who pleads for help from the trunk of her abductor's car. Michael Eklund co-stars as the deranged man responsible for the crime.
8 The Devil's Candy (2015)
The Devil's Candy is a stylistic, Satanic horror film about a metalhead painter who moves his family into a home once occupied by devil worshippers. Ethan Embry plays the painter, Jesse, whose teenage daughter is targeted by the unstable son of the house's former occupants.
Pruitt Taylor Vince is extra creepy as the man who hopes to sacrifice Jesse's daughter to Satan, just as he's done with other children before her. Directed by Sean Byrne, known for The Loved Ones, The Devil's Candy is a gruesome tale about family.,
7 Funny Games (2007)
Austrian director Michael Haneke remade his German-language film Funny Games frame-by-frame in English, casting Tim Roth and Naomi Watts as a married couple whose weekend getaway to the lake is interrupted by two well-dressed and sociopathic home invaders. Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet play the young attackers, who decide to capture and torture the family just for fun.
Funny Games packs many powerful punches. Haneke's aim was to make a film that criticizes moviegoers' love for carnage and excessive violence, and the result is horrifying.
6 The Collector (1965)
Based on the novel of the same name by John Fowles, The Collector stars Terrence Stamp as an awkward butterfly collector who decides to stalk and kidnap a young female art student. Stamp's character Freddie hopes to convince the woman, Samantha Eggers's character Miranda, to fall in love with him.
Freddie's delusions about not being a bad guy make this thriller so effective. It becomes clear by the end of the film, though, that he is a narcissistic madman who believes women are objects for him to procure.
5 Dead Of Winter (1987)
A deep-dive into gothic horror, Dead of Winter is a moody and atmospheric feature from Arthur Penn, who directed Bonnie and Clyde and The Chase. Mary Steenburgen plays a struggling actress who follows up on a screen test in a mansion occupied by Roddy McDowall's character Mr. Murray.
Instead, Steenburgen's character Katie finds herself in the middle of a blackmail plot, one that involves her being held against her will. Full of surprises and darkly comedic quips, the film feels like a bizarre mystery dinner theatre play transformed into a film.
4 Berlin Syndrome (2017)
In the underrated, female-directed movie Berlin Syndrome, a one-night stand for an Australian woman traveling in Berlin turns into a tortuous, elongated imprisonment. Teresa Palmer plays the backpacker, Clare Havel, who meets the handsome and charming Andi Werner, played by Max Riemelt.
Andi turns out to be a deluded and obsessive young man who intends to hold Clare captive in his apartment. As the days pass, Andi drags Clare into his emotionally manipulative and toxic routine.
3 The Vanishing (1993)
A remake of the 1988 French-Dutch film of the same name, The Vanishing stars Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, and Keifer Sutherland. Despite paling in comparison to its predecessor, thanks in large part to its happy Hollywood ending, the film's suspenseful plot is held up by its talented cast.
Bullock plays a woman who disappeared from a gas station three years before, and Sutherland plays her aggrieved boyfriend who refuses to stop seeking the truth. Bridges enters the picture, in a rare sinister role, as the man responsible for the woman's vanishing.
2 Hounds Of Love (2016)
Hounds of Love is a difficult film to watch. This Australian thriller is inspired by a real-life serial killing couple who abducted and murdered teenage girls in 1986. The movie focuses on the saga of their fifth victim, played by Ashleigh Cummings, a 17-year-old who is determined to stay alive at all costs. As the police drag their feet in search of the girl, she pitches herself between the couple who kidnapped her in hopes of causing their murderous union to collapse.
1 Misery (1990)
One of the most infamous abduction horror movies of all time, this adaptation of Stephen King's novel sees Kathy Bates playing the troubled nurse Annie Wilkes. Wilkes decides to hold her favorite romance author, Paul Sheldon, captive after rescuing him from a car crash.
James Caan plays Sheldon in Misery, who is drugged and bound to a bed by Wilkes. Things go even further south when Wilkes learns Sheldon intends to kill off her favorite character in his latest novel.
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