Mainstream media for the longest time has dictated the creative paths most artists decide to take to try and guarantee success. Recently a new road to success has been built, and it leads into the film industry.

Media conglomerates are taking a chance at producing and sponsoring movies that take on a nontraditional genre: psychological thrillers.

Saltburn, Don’t Worry Darling, The Menu, and Midsommar are a few more recent films that have gained the attention of mainstream media. These films are notorious for their outrageous scenes and overwhelmingly confusing plots. 

Movies are no longer being filled with headache-provoking action or nauseating romance; instead, they are being replaced with delicately written complex characters, plot twists that leave you gasping for air, and room for analysis.

What is a psychological thriller?

A psychological thriller is a subgenre of the thriller genre. It takes the excitement and anxiety-provoking aspects of the thriller category and intertwines it with a questioning of reality. Most psychological thrillers are told from the viewpoint of a character with mixed perceptions and personalities that make the audience question the validity of the story being told. This questioning of reality is what intrigues, scares, and engulfs viewers into wanting more. 

True art leaves room for conversation. 

Psychological thrillers provide the conversations that mainstream Marvel movies simply cannot provide. They hold a deeper message. 

Saltburn, A 2023 film directed by Emerald Fennell and distributed by both MGM Studios and Warner Brother Pictures, which brought in a box office of 21 million dollars, acts as a metaphor for greed within the rich. The film itself is the absolute epitome of what a psychological thriller should entail, the most prominent feature of this being the bizarre scenes. Scenes that are so strange you simply can not look away from them. These scenes, like the famous Saltburn bathtub drinking scene, are what get audiences to talk.

Don’t Worry Darling, an Olivia Wilde-directed film starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles is a psychological thriller that was distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. It brought in a box office of over 87.6 million dollars. 

In this film, a utopian experimental society is used as a metaphor for the dangers of perfection and how far people are willing to go to obtain their version of perfection. 

The outlandish nature of these films forces viewers to talk online creating free PR and even more money for the film.

Unorthodox films like psychological thrillers are one of the best ways for media companies to distinguish and diversify their brand. Along with helping them differentiate from other forms of media, they have a built-in formula for virality which overall leads to even more money to be made.