10 Psychological Thrillers That Totally Messed With Your Head

Darren Aronofsky is another filmmaker for whom surrealistic attacks on the audience's psyche are pretty much his stock in trade. The director forged this path with his breakthrough films Pi and Requiem for a Dream, and returned to such territory with similar gusto on last year's mother!

His real tour de force in this capacity, though, is 2010's Black Swan. Natalie Portman, whose powerhouse performance she her win the Best Actress Oscar, portrays Nina, an up-and-coming star ballerina whose determination to achieve perfection plunges her into a mental breakdown.

While shot in a largely realistic, almost fly-on-the-wall manner, Black Swan slowly but surely veers off into a bizarre, nightmarish territory playing deeply on Nina's repressed carnal urges, and both the internal and external pressures on her to excel.

Needless to say, any mild-mannered fans of the ballet anticipating a safe, non-threatening film on the subject were in for a bit of an eye-opening experience.