This document provides examples and descriptions of key psychological horror films that helped establish the subgenre. It discusses early films like The Black Cat (1934) and Cat People (1942) that featured themes of mental instability, mystery, and the unknown. Iconic directors like Roman Polanski and their films Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby (1968) are highlighted for their surreal visions and influence. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) is described as one of the most famous and terrifying examples that explores the dark parts of human psyche. Later films like Session 9 (2001) and Angel Heart (1987) continue in the tradition with disturbing dreams, murders, and plot twists.

1. • Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction
• It relies on characters' fears and emotional instability to
build tension.
• Psychological horror aims to create discomfort by
exposing psychological vulnerabilities and fears, such as
the shadowy parts of the human psyche which most
people repress or deny.
• Psychological horror relies on the unknown, mystery and
signs to create an ominous feeling, lots of different
events building up the whole picture
• sound effects and music add to the tension

2. The Black Cat (1934)
• American honeymooners in Hungary are trapped in
the home of a Satan- worshiping priest when the bride
is taken there for medical help following a road
accident.
• This and “Cat People” are considered the first few
psychological horror films
• The main couple meet a twisted psychiatrist on the
train
• There are hallucinogens involved
• The priest displays women's dead bodies in glass
cases, a very dark and twisted concept that questions
the priests mental state straight away
• This film builds up to a climax, with lots of other
spooky events coming together to create the storyline

3. Cat People (1942)
• An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who
fears that she will turn into the cat person of her
homeland's fables if they are intimate together.
• This film includes the element of mystery as one
character is stalked by an animal shown only by its
shadow
• The film builds up slowly, lots of different events
contributing to the climax, for instance old spooky
stories, a hissing cat, blood footsteps etc.
• The main protagonist is terrified of herself and what
she could do, a psychological fear of her own
abilities. She doubts reality and doesn’t know if
things that happened are real or not.
• The main character has a psychiatrist

4. Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski directed two films which are considered essential
psychological horror examples
• The film's themes, situations, visual motifs, and effects clearly
reflect the influence of early surrealist cinema as well as horror
movies of the 1950s
• Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected
juxtapositions and lack of meaning
These works where
• Repulsion
• Rosemary's baby

5. Repulsion (1965)
• Left alone when her sister goes on vacation, a young
beauty finds herself besieged on all sides by the
demons of her past.
• This film contains more violence than the previous
two due to its more modern style, containing two
bloody murders by the main character while she is in
an uncontrollable daze
• The main character, Carol, begins to become
deranged and dangerous, she leaves a raw, skinned
rabbit out to rot, and begins to hallucinate, first seeing
the walls cracking, a man breaking in and molesting
her, then hands reaching out to grab and attack her.
This is a clear sign of a psychological horror as the
character deteriorates mentally
• There are Carol has a creepy appearance, her eyes
large and possessed looking showing a complete loss
of sanity

6. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
• A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be
surrounded by peculiar neighbours and occurrences. When the
wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of
her unborn child begins controlling her life.
• The house the couple move to is warned to have disturbing
history involving witchcraft and murder, just one mysterious and
spooky event leading up to the climax
• The main character investigates and confirms that her
neighbours are the leaders of a Satanic coven, and she suspects
they are after her child to use it as a sacrifice to the Devil. Nobody
believes the main protagonist making it seem she is crazy and
paranoid leaving the audience feeling as helpless as the
character, building tension
• There is suicide and drugging involved
• There are strange dreams in which the main character is raped by
a demonic presence. When she wakes, she finds scratches on her
body
• There are strong satanic references throughout, the main
character finally giving birth to Satan's son leaving a scene of her
nursing him at the very end

7. The Shining (1980)
• This is one of the more famous of the psychological horror sub-genre
examples
• It was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and was based on the
novel by Diane Johnson
• Starring famous actors and actresses like Jack Nicholson, Shelley
Duval, Scatman Crothers and Danny Lloyd
• This horror had a budget $19,000,000 and was produced by Warner Bros.
Pictures
• Film director Martin Scorsese ranked it as one of the 11 scariest horror
movies of all time
• The plot consists of a family as they head to an isolated hotel for the
winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into
violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and
of the future.

8. Stanley Kubrick
considered by moviesfilmsmotionpictures.com as Kubrick's top 10 movies of his career
1. The Shining
2. Space Odyssey
3. Full Metal Jacket
4. The Clockwork Orange
5. Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb
6. Spartacus
7. Barry Lyndon
8. Paths Of Glory
9. Eyes Wide Shut
10. The Killing

10. • When family move to hotel and Jack is offered job, Manager Stuart Ullman
warns him that a previous caretaker developed cabin fever and killed his family
and himself (sets up storyline for horror, forewarnings of what's to come)
• Jack's son, Danny, has ESP and has had a terrifying premonition about the hotel
(again a character who is not believed when they are speaking the truth
building tension, especially as it is a young boy)
• All the characters have strange and disturbing dreams and visions, sometimes
they wake up with visible harm (subplots that add to the main storyline and add
confusion and tension)
• Ghosts and premonitions show themselves to the characters, building the
storyline
• Jack begins to start acting strange, violent outbursts and threats
(psychologically he is beginning to not be himself, something else taking over)
• In the ending of the film, Jack has Danny and his mother trapped in the hotel as
he goes on a deranged killing rampage (the fact a father pursues his wife and
child as a deranged murderer is unbelievably disturbing and expresses the dark
and sinister part of the human psyche that this genre explores)

11. psychological haunting story-
The Changeling (1980)
This movie has a very similar genre to
that shown previous however this is a
psychological haunting, slightly different
however sharing many of the same
attributes

12. Angel Heart (1987)
• Considered second best Psychological Horror film of all
time by IMDb
• This film holds many of the attributes of a psychological
horror
1. Murder
2. Voodoo/spirits
3. Satan
4. Horrifying dreams
• The twist in this movie is that as the detective gets closer
to realising who the murderer is, he finally realises it is
himself, a shocking and disturbing end that makes this
most definitely a psychological horror.

13. Session 9 (2001)
• Considered number 1 on IMDb’s “Top 10 Psychological Horror films”
• Directed, produced and written by Brad Anderson
• Starring David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon and Paul Guilfoyle
• This Horror had a tiny budget of $1,500,000and was produced by USA
Films, Scout Productions
• The plot is as Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work
in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be
coming back.
“ I dare a film to ever top this one! Absolutely the best! Subtle, realistic, creepy,
well-acted and directed. I've seen it perhaps a hundred or so times and it still
puts me on edge and I still cry at the end. ” - rivethead808

14. Ben Anderson
Examples of some of his work
• Transsiberian
• Masters of Horror (TV series)
• Session 9
• Happy Accidents
• Next Stop Wonderland
• The Darien Gap

16. • Some of the characters already suffer from various strains and stress before the
psychological tension begins, Gordon, the main character is having family issues as
he previously slapped his wife, Mike is a law school drop out, Phil smokes
marijuana and is bitter from losing girlfriend and Jeff suffers from
severe nyctophobia (strains in characters makes them vulnerable in dangerous
situations concerning possession)
• Tapes are found detailing interviews with a patient named Simon, some are spooky
and an unspoken about incident is brought to the surface (again builds the
storyline and adds a very dark and spooky feeling to the plot, the characters
beginning to become worried)
• One by one the team begin to disappear, all murdered or lost in the massive
asylum (mystery and suspense, the story quickens as the action increases)
• On the last tape, it is found that the voice in the interview is actually a deranged
murderer who killed all of their family. In a flashback, Gordon realises he didn’t just
slap his wife, he in fact murdered her and his daughter under the influence of
Simon (this is again shows the darkness of what can become of a family man like in
the Shining as it expresses the dark and sinister part of the human psyche that this
genre explores)
• The last line of the tape is "And where do you live, Simon?" the man replies, "I live
in the weak and the wounded, Doc”