10 Psychological Thrillers That Genuinely Mess With Your Head
4. The Machinist
Made famous by Christian Bale's unbelievable physical commitment to his role as Trevor Reznik, The Machinist is a dark and uncomfortable ride that will never fail to mess with someone's head.
The Machinist follows Trevor, a troubled blue-collar worker who is shunned by his colleagues for his shocking thinness triggered by repeated bouts of insomnia. His world begins to really fall apart when he is deemed responsible for an accident at work that leads to his colleague losing an arm. Blaming it on a fellow worker named Ivan that no one else can see, The Machinist is stacked full of mysterious imagery and tense atmospheres that end up driving Trevor towards paranoia of the seriously unhealthy degree.
Pushing the boundaries on just how far a person's mental and physical being can deteriorate, The Machinist is a wonderfully dark thriller that will always leave an audience feeling shaken up. The revelation of Trevor's backstory, the reasoning behind his worsening condition, and how he came to go an entire year without sleep is a shocking thing to sit through and helps round off one of the most impressive performances in Bale's entire career.