SerpApi.Org
Cinema audiences love the adrenaline rush that psychological thrillers provide, but some of the most notable movies in this genre have managed to capture our imaginations within their first 10 minutes. The thriller genre encapsulates many different stories; sci-fi thrillers such as Inception, legal thrillers like A Few Good Men, and spy thrillers such as The Bourne Identity all explore different corners of the genre. Psychological thrillers, however, give audiences something that many other subcategories of the genre don't.
As well as delivering thrilling moments and even terrifying scares, psychological thrillers also play on the mind. They keep audiences on the edge of their seats by exploring human nature and psychology through allegories that also comment on personality, society, and reality. They also often include unexpected plot twists that recontextualize everything we watch, making them some of the most compelling and memorable chapters in cinema history. Some stand out, however, by managing to make an impact in their very first moments.
Gone Girl Opens With a Chilling Narration From Ben Affleck
Widely regarded as one of David Fincher's most powerful psychological thrillers and one of the greatest postmodern mysteries, 2014's Gone Girl was adapted by Gillian Flynn from her own 2012 novel. The movie follows Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), whose curious disappearance makes her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), the prime suspect. Gone Girl's first 10 minutes introduce these central characters perfectly while establishing the movie's moody atmosphere and chilling mystery.
The movie opens with Affleck's narration as Nick suggests he imagines cracking open his wife's skull and "unspooling her brains" to try to get answers. He wonders what she might be capable of doing to him, which then transitions beautifully into the realism of the moment he realizes she has disappeared. Gone Girl's opening moments are dark, gloomy, and creepy, which sets the tone for the entire story and firmly cements it as one of the best psychological thrillers in recent memory.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer Plays With Yorgos Lanthimos' Style Perfectly
This isn't for the faint of heart, as The Killing of a Sacred Deer opens with an up-close look at surgeons performing open-heart surgery. Yorgos Lanthimos has become one of the most celebrated and distinct filmmakers of our time, and his unique style is put on display immediately in 2017's The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which quickly introduced themes of medical arrogance, emotional detachment, and psychological dread that would define the entire story.
Lanthimos establishes his style straight away in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, using long shots of conversations between Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) and his colleague Matthew (Bill Camp), and later Martin (Barry Keoghan), who masquerades as a friend but attacks Steven's family, as his father died while Steven was operating on him under the influence. The movie is emotionally sterile from the start, exposing the characters' profound apathy, which has wild repercussions later on.
Fight Club's Opening Moments Spotlight the Jagged Storytelling Style
Yet another iconic psychological thriller for David Fincher, 1999's Fight Club follows an unnamed narrator (Edward Norton) who, discontented with his regular life, forms a "fight club" with a soap salesman, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), where men can let out their anger and frustration. After the opening credits sequence, Fight Club opens with the end of the movie, with Tyler holding the Narrator at gunpoint. Fight Club even reveals the biggest twist in its first moments.
Norton's narration, although monotone and subdued, is captivating and something that glues together the whole movie. The opening of the movie also skips through time, taking us from the end of the story to the beginning in sections, allowing Fincher to demonstrate the unlimited potential of his grimy and gritty visual style. The film introduces the Narrator through his IKEA catalog apartment, defining himself entirely by the things he buys, which makes his devolution even more poignant.
Shutter Island Sets Up Its Shocking Twist Immediately
The first 10 minutes of Martin Scorsese's 2010 neo-noir psychological thriller masterpiece, Shutter Island, trap us immediately in the protagonist, US Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels' (Leonardo DiCaprio), paranoid world. Teddy and his partner (Mark Ruffalo) travel to Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island in Boston Harbor, investigating the disappearance of patient Rachel Solando. With claustrophobic visuals and a creepy, inching score, Shutter Island makes us feel as tense as possible in its opening moments.
"Storm's comin'," says the ship's captain, and he couldn't have been more right. The environment of the island itself immediately feels isolating, and something feels off throughout, letting us know that this isn't just a typical detective story. Shutter Island capitalizes on the power of misdirection and offers rewards for viewers who are watching a second time. Viewers buy into Teddy's story without question, making the twist even more shocking.
Get Out Creates An Overwhelming Sense of Unease In Its Opening Moments
Comedian Jordan Peele established himself as one of the most surprising and switched-on filmmakers of our time with his directorial debut, 2017's Get Out. The psychological thriller acted as an important social commentary on racial issues and Black commodification, and its first 10 minutes put these themes front and center. The movie opens with Andre Hayworth (LaKeith Stanfield) being brutally kidnapped and driven away, instantly showing the viewer what could also happen to Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya).
We then drive with Chris and his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), on their way to meet the latter's parents in upstate New York. Peele laces a feeling of unease through every moment, however, especially when Chris and Rose hit a deer with their car, leading to some uncomfortable conversations between Chris and the Armitage family. Get Out is considered one of the best horror films of the 21st century, as well as being one of the defining psychological thrillers of this generation.
Prisoners Bridges the Gap Between Safety & Helplessness
While Denis Villeneuve has since brought his talents to the sci-fi genre with the likes of Arrival and the Dune trilogy, 2013's Prisoners saw him deliver one of the most gripping, gut-wrenching, and compelling psychological crime thrillers in recent memory. Prisoners stars Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, who embarks on an unstoppable mission to find his and his neighbor's young daughters after they are abducted during their Thanksgiving dinner.
Prisoners' first 10 minutes set up the emotional core of the movie by spotlighting the happy and simple lives of the Dover and Birch families. Keller hunts with his son, Ralph (Dylan Minnette), and enjoys Thanksgiving preparations with his wife, Grace (Maria Bello), and their neighbors, Franklin and Nancy Birch (Terrence Howard and Viola Davis). These opening moments act as a bridge between the feeling of everyday safety and the state of complete helplessness, which makes Prisoners' payoff even more visceral.
The Silence of the Lambs Teases the Monster That Is Hannibal Lecter
A masterclass in building suspense, showing not telling, the opening 10 minutes of 1991's The Silence of the Lambs introduce us to Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee who would seek the help of incarcerated psychiatrist and cannibal Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to hunt serial killer "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine). We first see her training by running through the forest, which could easily be construed as her running from something, while the camera follows her like a stalker.
Jonathan Demme's filmmaking style immediately creates a sense of unease before we're thrust into the procedural offices of the FBI's Behavioral Science Services unit. These scenes introduce Clarice Starling as a young, capable woman in a man's world and build up Hannibal Lecter as a monster before we ever meet him. The entire footprint of the movie is laid out in the first 10 minutes, debuting Clarice and detailing her mission, fully immersing the audience in the fleshed-out world and captivating us immediately.
Parasite (2019)
Blending black comedy and psychological thriller themes, the opening 10 minutes of Bong Joon Ho's Academy Award-winning Parasite introduce us to the poor Kim family, who search frantically for a Wi-Fi signal in their basement home before being suffocated by bug spray being blown across the street by their open window. This, along with their loss of income after making mistakes at work, sets up the movie's primary theme of class while forcing the viewer to empathize with the Kim family.
Parasite sets up its story perfectly in its first 10 minutes, giving us insight into the life of the Kim family and introducing the scholar's rock that promises wealth. Bong Joon Ho's filmmaking style captured the audience's imagination in 2019, earning him numerous accolades and allowing Parasite to become the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Parasite is considered one of the best movies of the 21st century and one of the most memorable psychological thrillers in recent memory.
The Menu (2022)
The opening 10 minutes of The Menu is a masterclass of introducing characters and establishing setting and tone, as the movie skips long backstories to instead use quick introductions to show the extreme pretentiousness of ultra-fine dining. It balances sharp, dark comedy with a chilling sense of dread. We immediately get an intimate sense of who wealthy foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his date, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), are—one insufferable and the other refusing to buy into the show.
The Menu brings its characters and the viewer to Hawthorn Island in the movie's first 10 minutes and reveals some of the details of the private island, the exclusive Hawthorn restaurant, and its enigmatic celebrity head chef, Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The film quickly frames the strained relationship between the staff and the guests, while perfectly setting up the dark humor and psychological turmoil of the rest of the story, making it one of the most complex, detail-oriented, and thematically rich moments in recent cinema history.
Black Swan (2010)
Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky's intimate knowledge of surrealism and psychological realism is put on display immediately in the opening moments of 2010's Black Swan. The movie opens with a dream sequence in which Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a young dancer with the New York City Ballet, imagines herself performing as the White Swan in a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The sequence demonstrates her desire for purity and flawlessness, which would carry through the entire movie to disastrous effect.
Aronofsky was partially inspired by understudies in the dance world and the idea of being followed by a doppelgänger. To this end, the first 10 minutes of Black Swan sum up the entire movie—Nina even thinks she sees another version of herself on the train. The opening sets up deep themes of control and obsession, as well as highlighting the dark side of striving for perfection, and establishes Aronofsky's kinetic filmmaking style that makes Black Swan one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time.
