10 Psychological Thrillers That Totally Messed With Your Head

10. Gerald's Game

Given it centres on a single character trapped in one location for an extended period of time, it's only natural that much of Gerald's Game plays out in the protagonist's head.

Director Mike Flanagan's 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's 1992 novel casts Carla Gugino as Jessie, whose marriage to Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) is struggling. In hopes of rekindling the spark, the couple head out to their remote lakeside summer house for (let's not mince words) a dirty weekend.

However, as awkward as events start out, they get significantly worse when Gerald - having handcuffed his wife to the bed - drops dead of a heart attack, leaving Jessie with little chance of escape.

From there, the film flits between Jessie hallucinating conversations with her dead husband, and her own mental projection of herself - as well as suffering flashbacks to a horrendous childhood trauma, memories of which she had long since suppressed.

The line between reality and delusion is blurred further with the presence of the sinister, enigmatic 'Moonlight Man;' although most fans and critics tend to agree this was a weak, largely superfluous element that the film could have done without.