10 Most Disturbing Psychological Film Thrillers

10. Cape Fear

The 1962 original is the slicker, tighter film, but, for pure queasy scares, the Robert De Niro-starring Martin Scorsese remake takes some beating. It’s built around real adult fear, of your past coming back to haunt you and your decisions putting your family at risk, and anchored by a De Niro turn that stays just on the right side of camp.

Nick Nolte stars as a lawyer who deliberately withheld evidence that would support his heinous client Max Cady (De Niro). While serving hard time, Cady came to realise his attorney’s treachery, and 14 years later is out for revenge on Nolte and his wife and daughter (Jessica Lange and a revelatory Juliette Lewis, respectively).

The North Carolina heat is suffocating throughout, as is Cady himself, a villain fuelled by rage but with a far greater intellect than his targets imagine until it’s too late. The brutality is eye-watering, although the truly terrifying aspect is Cady’s Machiavellian nous, using the law against his former lawyer and playing with his prey, knowing he can strike at any moment.