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May 13, 2024 · From psychological thrillers to horror, the films that tackle madness transport audiences to the brink of sanity and back again. Depictions of insanity in cinema take many forms, but some movies about madness truly stand out as masterpieces that vividly evoke the complexities of mental unraveling.
The best movies about INSANITY. by mladen-stajic • Created 9 years ago • Modified 8 years ago. List activity. 102K views. 42 this week. Create a new list. List your movie, TV & celebrity picks. 153 titles. Sort by List order. 1. A Clockwork Orange. 1971 2h 16m R. 8.3 (886K) Rate. 77 Metascore.
- A Woman Under the Influence (1974) John Cassavetes directs his wife Gena Rowlands in this portrait of a wife and mother who struggles with mental illness.
- Repulsion (1965) Roman Polanski’s Repulsionis perhaps the best film (although stiff competition from Spiderand many of the works of David Lynch) at conveying what it might feel like to be inside the mind of someone going insane.
- Spider (2002) David Cronenberg’s Spider is right up there with Repulsion for putting us into the head of someone slipping into madness. Both films create worlds where we can’t tell what’s real and what’s in the character’s head.
- Frances (1982) This biography of actress Frances Farmer is chilling in the way it portrays the mental health world of the recent past when lobotomy was considered acceptable treatment for someone who might have just been stubborn, strong-willed, opinionated, and just not willing to conform to a conventional lifestyle.
- M (Fritz Lang, 1931) Easily one of the most widely known and influential films of all time, Fritz Lang’s M is a German crime thriller released in 1931.
- Black Narcissus (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1947) Released in 1947 by directing dream team Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, first time viewers could be forgiven for not expecting much from Black Narcissus.
- I live in Fear (Akira Kurosawa, 1955) Whilst probably, one of Kurosawa’s lesser known classics, I Live in Fear is certainly not any less influential.
- The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962) Directed by Spanish film master Luis Bunuel, The Exterminating Angel is a 1962 fantasy drama that is as baffling as it is humorous.
- Bedlam (1946) | Mark Robson
- Don Juan Demarco (1994) | Jeremy Leven
- Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) | Werner Herzog
- House of Fools (2002) | Andrei Konchalovsky
- Girl, Interrupted (1999) | James Mangold & Jonathan Kahn
- Unsane (2018) | Steven Soderbergh
- Dogra Magra (1988) | Toshio Matsumoto
- Brainstorm (2001) | Laís Bodanzky
- Session 9 (2001) | Brad Anderson
- I’m A Cyborg, But That’S OK (2006) | Park Chan-Wook
One of 18thcentury England’s greatest shame was the insane asylum, commonly referred to by Londoners as ‘Bedlam.’ Mark Robson’s horror thriller tracks the experiences of a spirited young girl, Nell’s (Anna Lee) efforts to expose the cruelty & reform ‘bedlam’. But, the sadistic Sims (Boris Karloff), running the asylum, commits the girl into the inst...
In Jeremy Leven’s oddball fantasy, Johnny Depp plays a delusional young man who is convinced that he is the world’s greatest lover, Don Juan. His magnetic eyes and steamy words make some women believe that, including the nurses at the psychiatric institution, he has been committed to (“Have you ever loved a woman until milk leaked from her?”asks Do...
Werner Herzog’s controversial picture is largely set inside the confines of an institution that’s situated in a small island town with a barren landscape. It doesn’t mention what kind of institution its inmates are rebelling against. Some interpret it as a penal institution, and some consider it a mental asylum. But that’s just one of the metaphori...
An anti-war allegory employing the inmates of an abandoned asylum is, of course, not a fresh cinematic subject. Philippe de Broca’s famous quirky comedy King of Richards (1966) is set in a deserted small town where the neglected inmates of a psychiatric institution take over the town. The scenario gets playful when a lone Scottish soldier is sent t...
American author Susanna Kaysen’s memoir relates her brief stay (during the 1960s) in a psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. In James Mangold’s movie adaptation, Winona Rydergives the powerful angst-ridden portrayal of Susanna, while Angelina Jolie plays the charming sociopath Lisa.
Steven Soderbergh’s taut iPhone-shot thriller, embellished with a yellowish color palette, perfectly brings out the dread of the central character stuck in a psychiatric institution. Claire Foy plays Sawyer Valentini, who moves and gets a new job to escape her stalker. But an unexpected turn of events leads Sawyer to be involuntarily committed to a...
Based on Yumeno Kyusaku’s famous novel, the movie version, directed by Toshio Matsumoto, deals with the experiences of a young insane man, Kure Ichiro, confined to an Eastern philosophy talking psychiatric doctors of a mental asylum. Like the young protagonist who killed his fiance on the day of marriage, we are also haunted by many unanswered ques...
Brazilian film-maker Lais Bodanzky’s painful docu-drama, similar to “Girl, Interrupted”, chronicles author Mr. Carrano’s stay in a hellish mental asylum for a detox program. Middle-class teenager Neto (Rodrigo Santaro—played as Xerxes in “300”) is a normal boy, but feels alienated from his family and hangs out with friends for music & drugs. The fa...
Brad Anderson’s horror/mystery is like his future work “The Machinist,” which is a peek into the dark side of human psychology. But, the majestic & rotting Danvers State Hospital plays a vital role in its protagonist’s sinistral downfall. It is almost inconceivable to think of the film’s effectiveness without the terrifying atmosphere of the asylum...
Acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook’s offbeat romantic drama, set in a mental asylum, tells the story of Young-goon, who, driven crazy by her assembly line work, thinks of herself as a cyborg and tries to charge herself by plugging into the mains. In the mental hospital, she stubbornly refuses food in favor of a battery charge. In comes anoth...
3 days ago · From nerve-racking psychological thrillers like Taxi Driver, Whiplash, and Nightcrawler to nail-biting horror films like Alien, Hereditary, and The Exorcist to heart-stopping crime dramas like Prisoners, Se7en, and Zodiac, each and every intense movie on this list will leave audiences hanging on the edge of their seat with baited ...
Feb 2, 2023 · Here are some of the best films about insanity and madness you can watch: 1. Perfect Blue. Watch The Movie Trailer. Details. Release Date: July 25, 1997. Genre: Animation, Anime, Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller. Runtime: 81 minutes. Rating: R.
