If you are not in the mood for a pure horror film this October but still want to watch a thriller with a bit more psychological bite to it, then you should look no further than Amazon’s Prime Video. The streaming platform has a wide array of compelling, worthwhile psychological thrillers in its film library, including a pair of 70-year-old classics and a 2024 hit that inspired countless online memes. The streamer also has one thriller that flew frustratingly under the radar when it hit theaters earlier this very year.
Here are the seven best psychological thrillers on Prime Video this month.
“The Third Man” (1949)
“The Third Man,” one of the greatest films ever made, is streaming now on Prime Video. This 1949 classic from writer Graham Greene and director Carol Reed follows an American author (Joseph Cotten) who travels to post-World War II, Allied-occupied Vienna to accept a job offer from his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). His trip is sent down a winding, unruly path, though, when he discovers that Harry has apparently died under mysterious circumstances. His investigation into his friend’s demise sends Cotten’s unsuspecting Holly Martins headfirst into a web of deceit, greed and murder, as well as ever closer to Harry’s grieving girlfriend, Anna (Alida Valli).
Joyously constructed by Reed, cinematographer Robert Krasker and composer Anton Karas, “The Third Man” is brimming with love, suspicion, betrayal and murder. It’s a psychological crime thriller that asks how much each of us is willing to compromise, as well as what we are willing to sacrifice in the name of doing what is right. Fair warning: The last shot will take your breath away.
“The Conversation” (1974)
In between making “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II,” director Francis Ford Coppola casually directed another masterpiece, 1974’s “The Conversation.” Written by Coppola and featuring a performance for the ages by Gene Hackman, the film follows a surveillance expert (Hackman) who finds himself in the midst of a terrifying moral dilemma when his illicit recordings seem to reveal a potential murder. Unnerving, appropriately grimy and, at times, disorientingly surreal, “The Conversation” is a film overflowing with Watergate-era paranoia and anxiety.
Its concerns about the dangers of modern surveillance have, unfortunately, aged remarkably well. That fact has allowed “The Conversation” to remain one of the most impactful and unshakable psychological thrillers of the 1970s, a decade that ultimately delivered many political and conspiratorial thrillers of a similar pitch and vein. Few match the power and craft of “The Conversation.”
“Blow Out” (1981)
Like “The Conversation,” “Blow Out” uses sound to unnerve both its protagonist and its viewers. Writer-director Brian De Palma’s ingenious, Hollywood-minded reimagining of Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” follows a sound technician (John Travolta) who accidentally captures audio evidence of a political assassination while he is out recording sounds for a cheap, B-grade slasher movie. As he tries to uncover the truth of what happened, he grows closer to the sole survivor of the assassination attempt (Nancy Allen), who has herself become marked for death.
Violently unflinching and directed with De Palma’s signature, precise style, “Blow Out” is a descent into conspiracy, corruption and cold, uncaring professionalism that leaves a lasting mark. It may not be De Palma’s most crowd-pleasing or well-known film, but it is, perhaps, the best single showcase of his many artistic strengths and Hitchcockian sensibilities.
“The Night of the Hunter” (1955)
A gothic psychological thriller that gets under your skin and stays there, “The Night of the Hunter” is the only feature film that actor Charles Laughton ever directed. As tragic as that is, it seems safe to say that he made the most of his one shot. Based on a 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, this spooky, nightmarish film follows a serial killer (a career-best Robert Mitchum) posing as a preacher, who marries an unsuspecting widow (Shelley Winters) and then begins to stalk her two children in order to find the $10,000 of stolen money left behind by their deceased father.
Mitchum is transformative and terrifying as the film’s unscrupulous serial killer, while Lillian Gish is radiant and commanding as a local woman who looks after lost children. “The Night of the Hunter” finds intense drama and grace in their characters’ clash, emerging along the way as both a tense battle of wills and an affecting thriller about the horrors of the adult world and the beauty of childlike innocence. It’s a must-see.
“Conclave” (2024)
2024’s “Conclave” is the film that inspired many Pope-related memes and entertained even more viewers. Based on a 2016 novel by Robert Harris, this contemporary crowdpleaser follows a humble, conflicted Catholic Cardinal (Ralph Fiennes) who is tasked with leading a conclave to determine the next pope. The election process is complicated, however, by his discovery of secrets, lies and threats that have been planted to rig its results.
Part Agatha Christie-inspired mystery, part political drama, “Conclave” works best as a thriller about the challenges of faith and the importance of fair-minded leadership. It is a remarkably propulsive piece of big-screen entertainment, despite taking place almost entirely in one location, and an unpredictable, frequently surprising thriller. It will keep you on your toes right up until its final few minutes.
“10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016)
Director Dan Trachtenberg’s “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a contained sci-fi thriller with the suffocating intensity of a pressure cooker. This underrated gem follows a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who wakes up from a near-fatal car crash in an underground bunker with two men (John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr.) who tell her that the surface of the Earth has become inhospitable to human life. Trapped, she is forced to not only determine whether or not what she has been told is true, but also learn how to overcome the possessive, tyrannical behavior of Goodman’s Howard.
The film’s reputation has been dinged somewhat by the disappointing turns that the “Cloverfield” franchise took after its release. But if you look past the film’s superfluous franchise connections, you will find that “10 Cloverfield Lane” is an immensely effective, viscerally nerve-wracking psychological thriller in its own right — one that features a co-writing credit from “La La Land” filmmaker Damien Chazelle, no less.
“Black Bag” (2025)
“Black Bag,” one of the year’s best and most underrated films, is an intelligent and sly psychological espionage thriller. Written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film follows a British intelligence officer (Michael Fassbender) who is assigned to uncover the identity of a traitor within Britain’s intelligence services. His skills and resolve are tested when he discovers that his wife (Cate Blanchett), a fellow spy, is one of the potential suspects.
Constructed with Soderbergh’s now-signature, no-nonsense storytelling style, “Black Bag” mines plenty of marital drama and espionage intrigue out of its premise. That it does so while leaving you constantly second-guessing every one of its principal characters’ motivations is almost as impressive as how it manages to make something as seemingly simple as a conversation around a dinner table as exciting as a car chase or shootout.
