Image credit: USA Films, Framestore, Lions Gate Films, Sony Pictures Classics, XYZ Films, Magnolia Pictures, Icelandic Film, Dimension Films
So you've had your fill of Freddy and Jason, and the Hollywood big shots just aren't cutting it anymore? Here's the list just for you, then.
Here are some of the most underrated 2000s psychological horrors that'll mess with your mind big time.
1. "Session 9" (2001) Gordon, an asbestos remover, takes on a job at an abandoned mental hospital with his crew. Sounds like easy money, right? Wrong. Each crew member starts to unravel psychologically, and they discover old session tapes of a patient with multiple personalities.
As they play the ninth session, shivers run down their spines — it seems the patient's final personality was some kind of malevolent entity. Crew members start dropping like flies, but not from asbestos.
2. "Triangle" (2009) This psychological horror takes place on a freaking yacht. Jess and her friends find themselves in a freak storm and board an empty ship for safety. Except, it's not really empty. There's a masked killer onboard, and let's just say he's not offering room service.
Here's the biggest twist of the movie: time here loops. Jess finds multiple versions of herself and her friends dying over and over. She tries to break the loop but can't seem to escape the nightmare at sea.
3. "Frailty" (2001) Bill Paxton directs and stars as the father of two boys, Fenton and Adam. Dad claims he's been chosen by God to destroy demons disguised as humans. Fenton thinks his dad has lost it, but Adam is a believer. Dad starts abducting people, and he makes his sons bury the bodies.
As the FBI investigates, it's revealed the story is being told by a grown-up Adam who claims his brother Fenton grew up to be a murderer.
4. "May" (2002) May is socially awkward — like, talking-to-her-doll-for-comfort levels of awkward. She tries to make friends and even flirts with the idea of love but always falls flat because, well, she's kinda creepy. Her obsession with body parts leads her to a dark path. After her doll breaks, she decides to make a new friend by stitching together the "best parts" of the people she knows.
5. "Bug" (2006) Agnes, a lonely waitress, starts a relationship with Peter, who claims to be a war veteran. Turns out, he's convinced they're infested with flesh-eating bugs planted by the government.
They isolate themselves in Agnes's motel room, and soon enough it's not clear anymore what's reality and hallucination. Peter's delusion becomes so contagious that Agnes starts believing it too, and they go to extreme measures to rid themselves of the so-called bugs.
6. "The Skin I Live In" (2011) Dr. Robert Ledgard is a brilliant plastic surgeon who invents a synthetic skin that's resistant to burns. Sounds great, right? Well, hold on, because it gets weird. He tests it on a woman named Vera, who's locked in his mansion. You gradually learn that Vera is actually a man named Vicente whom Ledgard kidnapped and forcibly transitioned as a twisted form of revenge.
7. "Timecrimes" (2007) Héctor spots a woman in the woods and, being the curious type, goes to check it out. Bad move. A man with pink bandages attacks him, and he takes refuge in a nearby lab. He hides in a time-travel machine (what luck, right?) and finds himself an hour in the past. What follows is a mess of Héctors trying to fix — or ruin — the timeline.
8. "One Point O" (2004) Simon, a computer programmer, starts finding empty cartons of milk outside his door. Weird, but okay. Then he gets super thirsty, like he can't get enough milk. Turns out he's been implanted with a nano-chip by a corporation to test consumer obedience. As he unravels the truth, his paranoia goes off the charts. And, you know, the ever-present dread of corporate overlords manipulating your life.
9. "Pulse" (2001) A group of Tokyo friends find themselves haunted by ghostly images and videos on their computers. People are committing suicide, spirits are invading the living world, and the Internet becomes a gateway for the dead.
Basically, if you thought your screen time was killing you slowly, this takes it to a whole new level. Before 'The Ring' made tech horror mainstream, 'Pulse' was already pushing the modem of doom.
10. "The Invitation" (2015) Will gets invited to his ex-wife Eden's dinner party. Seems innocuous enough, but Eden and her new husband have been "changed" after a spiritual retreat. They play unsettling games with guests, and the atmosphere becomes increasingly tense. Will is suspicious that they're part of a cult and have nefarious intentions for their guests.
It's a slow burn of dread that keeps you guessing: is Will paranoid, or is the threat real?
_15576.webp)