They’ll make your blood pressure skyrocket, heart race, and have you gripping your seat with unbearable tension: Psychological thrillers are adrenaline injections in cinematic garb. At their best, these movies take us by the hand and accompany us into the deepest abysses of the human soul.
Shady characters play with the minds of both the protagonists and the viewers. Often the focus is on a question we ask ourselves repeatedly, a question that has burned itself deep into our brains and suddenly makes us see the world through different eyes: Which is real? What is not? Am I real?
Darren Aronofsky likes it curious, weird and scary, but alongside the extremely controversial uproarious “Mother!” starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, “Requiem for a dream” or “Black Swan” almost act like soothing lullabies: “Mother!” centers on an unnamed couple (Lawrence and Bardem) into whose quiet, remote home evil has come to stay. Before watching it, you should not know more about the film because here applies in the best psychothriller-horror mix manner: Ignorance does not protect against nightmares!
This is guaranteed to happen to the viewers when they witness for almost two hours how an initially exciting but conventional psychological thriller turns into an indulgent as well as nihilistic horror trip that relentlessly surrenders more and more to the mania of madness and, towards the end resembles a sadistic orgy, the horror of which takes on surreal, exaggerated porn film-like modes of representation. Tension rises slowly and finally discharges in a mindfuck scream, so interpretative in its pain that your ears buzz. Lawrence is disturbingly good!
