10 Most Disturbing Psychological Film Thrillers

This grim and moody 2013 thriller taps into the deepest fear of any parent, then takes that unimaginable horror and runs with it for a pitch black two and a half hours. A cleverly structured movie, the tragedy takes place early - two little girls go missing, leaving two families distraught - and then wades ever further into the murk.

Hugh Jackman is given the tricky job of sustaining and building on the anger and fear of the bereft father who doesn’t know what to do with himself. He rages outwards at first, finding a local character on whom he pins the blame, and later inwards, turning to the bottle and isolating his family.

The central concept is disturbing enough, but director Denis Villeneuve takes the film to ever-darker places. Jackman is convinced that the culprit is a developmentally challenged man played by Paul Dano, and when his target doesn’t volunteer any information, he resorts to tactics that would violate the Geneva convention many times over.

An epic of sorrow with plenty of twists and turns, Prisoners is as cheerless as the name suggests, but handles an emotive topic with appropriate gravitas and a chilling finale.