The Best 2000s Psychological Thriller
by pere-25366 | created - 01 Sep 2018 | updated - 08 Oct 2019 | PublicThese films showed us characters suffering huge breakdowns and as a viewer, we were sucked right into their crumbling worlds along with them. Tense, provoking, mind-bending; these are the best psychological-thriller films of the 2000s.
Which of these 2000s psychological thrillers are you most likely to remember?
After voting, you may discuss the poll here.
1990s <<< Also Vote on Best Psychological Thriller >>> 2010s
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1. Memento (2000)
R | 113 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 1,321,263 | Gross: $25.54M
2. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 383,293 | Gross: $7.22M
3. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
R | 102 min | Drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Votes: 897,424 | Gross: $3.64M
4. Donnie Darko (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Votes: 849,055 | Gross: $1.48M
5. The Prestige (2006)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine
Votes: 1,439,050 | Gross: $53.09M
6. Flightplan (2005)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet, the child vanishes, and nobody will admit she was ever on the plane.
Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Kate Beahan
Votes: 171,684 | Gross: $89.71M
7. American Psycho (2000)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
Director: Mary Harron | Stars: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage
Votes: 713,644 | Gross: $15.07M
8. Identity (2003)
R | 90 min | Mystery, Thriller
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Votes: 266,837 | Gross: $52.16M
9. Hannibal (2001)
R | 131 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Living in exile, Dr. Hannibal Lecter tries to reconnect with now disgraced F.B.I. Agent Clarice Starling, and finds himself a target for revenge from a powerful victim.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta
Votes: 292,848 | Gross: $165.09M
10. Unbreakable (2000)
PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark
Votes: 440,862 | Gross: $95.01M
11. Mystic River (2003)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The tragic murder of a 19-year-old girl reunites three childhood friends still living in Boston--the victim's gangster father, a detective, and the disturbed man they both suspect of killing her.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Emmy Rossum
Votes: 485,373 | Gross: $90.14M
12. The Butterfly Effect (2004)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber | Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson
Votes: 520,552 | Gross: $57.94M
13. The Machinist (2004)
R | 101 min | Drama, Thriller
An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity.
Director: Brad Anderson | Stars: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, John Sharian
Votes: 415,086 | Gross: $1.08M
14. Hard Candy (2005)
R | 104 min | Drama, Thriller
Hayley's a smart, charming teenage girl. Jeff's a handsome, smooth fashion photographer. An Internet chat, a coffee shop meet-up, an impromptu fashion shoot back at Jeff's place. Jeff thinks it's his lucky night. He's in for a surprise.
Director: David Slade | Stars: Patrick Wilson, Elliot Page, Sandra Oh, Odessa Rae
Votes: 167,971 | Gross: $1.01M
15. Zodiac (2007)
R | 157 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Between 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards
Votes: 597,365 | Gross: $33.08M
16. The Number 23 (2007)
R | 98 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston
Votes: 212,453 | Gross: $35.19M
17. Orphan (2009)
R | 123 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she appears.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder
Votes: 251,944 | Gross: $41.60M
18. What Lies Beneath (2000)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost - or that she is losing her mind.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Katharine Towne, Miranda Otto
Votes: 135,590 | Gross: $155.46M
19. The Others (2001)
PG-13 | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann
Votes: 392,793 | Gross: $96.52M
20. Frailty (2001)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A mysterious man arrives at the offices of an FBI agent and recounts his childhood: how his religious fanatic father received visions telling him to destroy people who were in fact "demons."
Director: Bill Paxton | Stars: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O'Leary
Votes: 91,212 | Gross: $13.10M
21. The Experiment (2001)
R | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
For two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Möhring
Votes: 96,064 | Gross: $0.14M
22. Session 9 (2001)
R | 97 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.
Director: Brad Anderson | Stars: David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas
Votes: 62,826 | Gross: $0.38M
23. Exam (2009)
Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
Eight candidates for a highly desirable corporate job are locked together in an exam room and given a final test with just one seemingly simple question. However, it doesn't take long for confusion to ensue and tensions to unravel.
Director: Stuart Hazeldine | Stars: Adar Beck, Gemma Chan, Nathalie Cox, John Lloyd Fillingham
Votes: 125,093
24. Joy Ride (2001)
R | 97 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychopathic killer.
Director: John Dahl | Stars: Steve Zahn, Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski, Jessica Bowman
Votes: 75,813 | Gross: $21.97M
25. Disturbia (2007)
PG-13 | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
When a teenager is placed under house arrest, he succumbs to despair and starts spying on his neighbors, hoping to spice up his life. This, however, leads him to witness a serial killer on the loose.
Director: D.J. Caruso | Stars: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sarah Roemer
Votes: 247,911 | Gross: $80.21M
26. Secret Window (2004)
PG-13 | 96 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A successful writer in the midst of a painful divorce is stalked at his remote lake house by a would-be scribe who accuses him of plagiarism.
Director: David Koepp | Stars: Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, John Turturro, Timothy Hutton
Votes: 209,338 | Gross: $48.02M
27. Derailed (I) (2005)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, the two must turn the tables on him to save their families.
Director: Mikael Håfström | Stars: Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston, Vincent Cassel, Addison Timlin
Votes: 76,325 | Gross: $36.02M
28. The Uninvited (2009)
PG-13 | 87 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Anna returns home after a stint in a mental hospital, but her recovery is jeopardized by her father's new girlfriend and ghastly visions of her dead mother.
Directors: Charles Guard, Thomas Guard | Stars: Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks, David Strathairn
Votes: 84,987 | Gross: $28.57M
29. Mr. Brooks (2007)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A well-respected businessman is sometimes controlled by his murder and mayhem-loving alter ego.
Director: Bruce A. Evans | Stars: Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, William Hurt, Dane Cook
Votes: 156,192 | Gross: $28.48M
30. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
R | 114 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
After being institutionalized in a mental hospital, Su-mi reunites with her sister, Su-yeon, and they return to live at their country home. But strange events plague the house, leading to surprising revelations and a shocking conclusion.
Director: Jee-woon Kim | Stars: Lim Soo-jung, Yum Jung-ah, Kim Kap-su, Moon Geun-young
Votes: 68,193
31. Awake (2007)
R | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A wealthy young man undergoing heart transplant surgery discovers that the surgical team intend to murder him.
Director: Joby Harold | Stars: Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Lena Olin
Votes: 80,503 | Gross: $14.38M
32. Funny Games (2007)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two psychopathic young men take a family hostage in their cabin.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Votes: 103,734 | Gross: $1.29M
33. Along Came a Spider (2001)
R | 104 min | Drama, Thriller
When a senator's daughter under Secret Service protection is kidnapped from a private school, detective Alex Cross investigates the case even though he's recovering from the loss of his partner.
Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Michael Wincott, Monica Potter, Dylan Baker
Votes: 95,782 | Gross: $74.08M
34. Triangle (2009)
R | 99 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Five friends set sail and their yacht is overturned by a strange and sudden storm. A mysterious ship arrives to rescue them, and what happens next cannot be explained.
Director: Christopher Smith | Stars: Melissa George, Joshua McIvor, Jack Taylor, Michael Dorman
Votes: 129,544
35. 88 Minutes (2007)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
On the day that a serial killer that he helped put away is supposed to be executed, a noted forensic psychologist and college professor receives a call informing him that he has 88 minutes left to live.
Director: Jon Avnet | Stars: Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Ben McKenzie, Leelee Sobieski
Votes: 78,286 | Gross: $16.93M
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