Best psychological horror movie
 

Personally I find slasher/gore movies pretty dull. What I really enjoy though are good ghost stories and the type of movies that leave more of the horror to your own imagination. Some that come to mind are:

Jacob's Ladder
Changeling
Rose Red (mini)
Identity
Session 9
Below
What Lies Beneath (up until the ending :()

What are some of your favorites?

Pin

I'd like to throw Santa Sangre in there too since it works on many levels.

I can only recall 2 movies that I did not finish. Pin is one of them. I have tried 3 times. The first time, I fell asleep because I was tired. The second time, I fell asleep because I was bored. The third time, I just decided it wasn't worth it to finish.

Silence of the Lambs should be in the list.

Blair Witch also fits into the definition give in the original post.

Those two are definitely up there on my list. A few others that I enjoyed are The Shining and Stir of Echoes. You could also probably define quite a few Lynch movies as psychological horror, such as "The Lost Highway" and "Blue Velvet".

The Blair Witch Project.

These are my top 5 favorites:

Session 9
The Shining
The Exorcist
Candyman
A Tale of Two Sisters

They all give me the heebie jeebies no matter how many times I watch them.

Aftermath
Psycho
Exorcist
Tetsuo

The Haunting (the 1963 one) is my favorite. The Innocents is pretty good too.

Aftermath? Are you talking about the 30-minute gore short about a guy who has sex with a corpse after an autopsy? If so, that's about the furthest thing I'd think of from what the OP was looking for.

Recently saw "The Machinist" and think it fits the bill very nicely (by the director of "Session 9"). And Nemein, do you care (or have anything against) Asian horror? Because it sounds like a lot of it is the kind of thing you're looking for. Granted, the "ghost girl" formula might be getting a little old and repetitive, but it's still worth checking out the cream of the crop: "Tale of Two Sisters", "Dark Water", "Ringu", "Cure", "Pulse". There are good recent movies like "Infection" and "Premonition", and nice oldies like "Onibaba".

BTW, Santa Sangre is one of my favorite movies. There's a terrific 2-disk SE DVD for import. There's some psychological horror aspects -- and a lot of other things all mixed together in a weird and unique package.

"Aftermath? Are you talking about the 30-minute gore short about a guy who has sex with a corpse after an autopsy? If so, that's about the furthest thing I'd think of from what the OP was looking for." - brainee

Actually I was, and while I'll agree with your POV, I think its interesting to try to read Pep Tosar eyes to get into his character's psychology or why he did that. And the theme of what Cerda was talking about.

But hey, I'll admit it might be a stretch.

REPULSION!
I can't believe no one's said it

If you can handle the whole J-Horror craze, then may i suggest Pulse. that movie litterally gave me nightmares. (watched it a few days ago.)

I was gonna say the same thing.

My best friend had never seen it so we watched it not so long ago. He really liked it.. which was a nice surprise.

The Devil's Backbone

IMO, a very spooky and well thought out film.

My favorites:

The Shining
Session 9
The Changeling
Event Horizon
Don't Look Now

Dead Ringers

I'm not seeing it in "Tetsuo", personally. That's cyberpunk territory. Solid psychological horror in my opinion would be "Haute Tension". Many people claim it was predictable, I wasn't one of them. A total mindfuck.

Videodrome

Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers" would definitely have to top my list. "Don't Look Now" is an excellent example, too. What about (don't laugh) Bill Paxton's "Frailty", starring him and (again, don't laugh) Matthew McConaughey? That film, for me, came out of nowhere and really delivered, way beyond my expectations. Very haunting, deeply disturbing stuff.

I suppose I'm the only person who thinks 'Event Horizon' was complete garbage.

Event Horizon is quite over-hyped on the internet; its an okay movie with great actors.

Uzumaki

I loved the general concept and the build-up/1st half. Once it turned into a gorefest in the 2nd half it went downhill quickly IMHO :(

Picnic At Hanging Rock

It scared the SH*T out of me when I was a teenager. The juxtaposition of the romantic, feminine yearning aspect with the seemingly unlimited, primal and nearly Lovecraftian horror (my perceptions) of what happened to the girls who had gone missing totally spooked me. I think the amazing direction by the great Peter Weir had a lot to do with that.

I'd reverse those two, because as good as the original The Haunting is, The Innocents is better.