Research on the psychological thriller

This subtype of the diverse thriller genre incorporates elements of mystery and drama as well as typical traits from the thriller genre. It often also borders into the Horror genre. Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much, if not more so, than the plot.

The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.
Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.

In a psychological thriller the narrative is when the characters are exposed to danger on a mental level rather than on a physical one. Characters are required to rely on their mental skills rather than their physical skills to overcome their enemies. This is unlike most thrillers where characters rely on physical strength.

Themes

Reality – The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative (see Unreliable narrator).
Mind – The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
Existence/Purpose - The object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose.
Identity - The definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity.
Death - The cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death.

Examples of Psychological thrillers are:
Wes Craven – Scream 3, Danny Boyle – The Beach, Tarsem Singh – The Cell, Michael Walker – Chasing Sleep, M. Night Shyamalan – Unbreakable, Brad Anderson – The Machinist, Renny Harlin – Mindhunters, David Koepp – Secret Window, Peter Webber – Hannibal Rising, Jon Avnet – Righteous Kill.