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Ever watched a movie that made you double-check your locks, look over your shoulder, or question reality itself? In this countdown, we’re ranking the most unsettling films that will leave you feeling paranoid long after the credits roll. From psychological thrillers to intense conspiracy tales, these movies will get inside your head — and stay there.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 movies that will
00:17make you paranoid. 20. 1984
00:31There's been much discussion about exactly how far has society gone into mirroring the events
00:38fictionalized in George Orwell's novel 1984. The paranoia in this film adaptation deals with,
00:45among other things, constant surveillance from Big Brother and the destruction of individuality.
00:50The complete hopelessness that goes along with the plot of 1984, as well as the tragic love story
00:56of protagonists Winston and Julia, not only makes us paranoid about the future, it honestly just
01:01makes us depressed. Still, that takes nothing away from the cautionary tale of 1984,
01:14nor how effective writer-director Michael Radford was at bringing this book to the screen.
01:2019. Gone Girl
01:22Psychological thrillers are called this for a reason. They create an insane amount of nail-biting
01:31tension for the audience, and we wouldn't want it any other way. Gone Girl is one such thriller,
01:37a film where no one's motives are exactly what they seem, and everyone seems to have an angle.
01:42As a result, the paranoia is palpable, as the mystery behind the disappearance of Amy Dunn
01:48slowly begins to unravel a Russian doll of hidden motivations and secrets.
01:53We just love a good mystery, and the twists in Gone Girl not only keep us on the edge of our seats,
02:06they also make us paranoid. Albeit in the best possible way.
02:10What have we done to each other? What will we do?
02:1618. Vertigo
02:18Alfred Hitchcock was known as the master of suspense, and it's easy to see why,
02:23especially after watching Vertigo. This 1958 classic is widely regarded as one of Hitch's finest works,
02:30if not his absolute best. The film even managed to knock Citizen Kane from its top spot on Sight and
02:37Sounds Magazine's great films of all time list. Obsession is a theme throughout Vertigo, but in
02:49addition to this is the crippling fear of heights possessed by the protagonist Detective John Scotty
02:55Ferguson. This fear is amped up in any scene where Scotty is either recalling his past trauma or
03:01attempting to confront it, and it plays into our own paranoid and deep-seated phobias.
03:06It's misdirection and paranoia done by one of the masters.
03:2017. Taken
03:22Okay, so we realize that the plot of Taken goes down some dark roads, but its basic core is the
03:36same. Who isn't afraid of home invasions or being accosted while on vacation?
03:4218. Now, the next part is very important.
03:47They are going to take you. The paranoia affects us in different ways. The abduction of
03:52Kim Mills from her friend's cousin's apartment occurs in a place that's supposed to feel relatively
03:58safe. Then, there's the fact that Kim is away from home and her family in a country where she
04:03may not speak enough of the language to help if she's in trouble. When trouble does occur,
04:08it's up to her father and his very particular set of skills to save her life. Unfortunately,
04:14not everyone has Liam Neeson available to hunt and catch the bad guys.
04:1916. The Manchurian Candidate
04:22The world of international espionage seems tailor-made for paranoia to strike, especially
04:27when Hollywood comes calling to adapt a popular novel from this genre. The Manchurian Candidate
04:33got this treatment twice, but we're going to look at the OG 1962 version for our list,
04:39a magnificent Cold War-era thriller. The film stars Lawrence Harvey as a Korean
04:44war veteran who's secretly been programmed as a sleeper cell communist agent with plans to assassinate
04:50a leading presidential candidate. The paranoia here stems from just how much we may or may not know
05:04about our neighbors, and exactly how many people behind the scenes pull strings or set wheels in
05:09motion within our political systems. It's chilling stuff.
05:1415. Inception
05:16I guess I thought that the dream space would be all about the visual, but it's more about the feel of it.
05:22Are our thoughts really our own? Or have they been implanted by someone else? This is one of the
05:28questions asked in the 2010 film Inception, a dense and cerebral thriller that could have only come
05:35from the mind of one Christopher Nolan. The film's heavy plot of incepting our subconscious mind could
05:41be more colloquially compared with the process of gaslighting, deliberately subverting another's
05:46mental perception to cause intentional or emotional pain or distress. It's just one way to view how
06:02Inception plays upon this very real problem within relationships, albeit with its own twisted and heavy
06:08sci-fi narrative. 14. Marathon Man
06:19The 1970s were a wellspring for challenging and creative cinema, and just one corner of that
06:24creativity lay within the genre of the paranoid political thriller. 1976's Marathon Man was one of
06:32those films, a harrowing exploration of secret identities and political intrigue peppered with
06:37moments of shocking violence. Themes of persecution and vengeance fit into this film, specifically
06:45with uncovering the identities of Nazi war criminals and just how far the US government will be willing
06:51to go and with whom they're willing to work to track these people down. Oh, and if you're sensitive
06:57to graphical dental mutilation, we, uh, recommend perhaps steering clear of this one.
07:02Is it safe? No, it's not safe. It's very dangerous. Be careful.
07:12To paraphrase one infamous scene, it is not safe.
07:1713. Three Days of the Condor
07:20You're in violation of secure communication procedures, Condor. Listen, you son of a bitch,
07:24I'm telling you, I came back with lunch and it was raining and the whole house was murdered. Everybody is
07:28dead. The paranoia central to many 1970s thrillers has to do primarily with a post-Watergate America.
07:36President Nixon's resignation and a divisive war in Vietnam largely smashed any idealized
07:42versions of the country within the minds of many, especially young people. As a result,
07:47we have films like Three Days of the Condor, where no governmental agent is safe, not even if they push
07:53pencils for a living. Here, the written word becomes deadly as the CIA assassinates all but one member
08:00of its own division, one that's responsible for unintentionally leaking ties to an internal plot
08:06involving oil and the Middle East. It all ties into American cynicism, fear and paranoia during this
08:13difficult time in history. 12. M
08:26One of your neighbors is responsible for a heinous, horrible crime. But which one?
08:32This is one of the questions asked in M, a classic slice of German expressionist cinema that remains
08:45deeply affecting and troubling to this day. The story revolves around the abduction of young locals
08:51and the relentless manhunt that occurs trying to root out the suspect.
08:55M plays like a procedural but almost leans into horror at points, so striking is the cinematography
09:05and chilling are the images. Moreover, the everyone's a suspect mentality rises to such a fever pitch
09:13within the bloodthirsty town mob that the hunger for vengeance feels as if it's going to boil over.
09:19You'll never forget this one.
09:2011. Seven Days in May
09:35Seven Days in May may have been released in 1964, but there are some striking and shocking similarities
09:41to some big-name news events in the modern day. This film adaptation of the 1962 novel presents a
09:48White House in turmoil when it's revealed that the Joint Chief of Staff are seeking to overthrow
09:53their sitting president. It's then a race against time to prevent this from happening. All as a
09:59historic nuclear disarmament deal with the Soviet Union is set to be ratified.
10:04If you want to talk about your oath of office, I'm here to tell you face-to-face, President Hyman,
10:08that you violated that oath when you stripped this country of its muscles, when you deliberately played
10:11upon the fear and fatigue of the people and told them they could remove that fear by the stroke of a pen.
10:16There are some chilling parallels to the events of January 6th, 2021. It's surreal and frightening
10:23at the same time.
10:2310. All the President's Men
10:27Follow the money.
10:31What do you mean?
10:33Where?
10:34Oh, I can't tell you that.
10:36But you could tell me that.
10:39No, I have to do this my way.
10:41We mentioned the Watergate scandal earlier, and arguably no film dramatized this incident better
10:47than All the President's Men. The cover-ups, secret sources, and political intrigue going on
10:52within the film all tie into the paranoia of the 1970s. This palpable sense that something was broken
10:59and needed to be fixed. Furthermore, All the President's Men is actually based on the real-life
11:05experiences of journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, whose work with the Washington Post
11:11helps blow the Watergate wide open.
11:13If you're gonna do it, do it right. Here are my notes. If you're gonna hype it, hype it with the facts.
11:17I don't mind what you did. I mind the way you did.
11:19Sure, the film may have made investigative journalism seem more romantic, glamorous,
11:24and dangerous than it actually is. But at the same time, it emphasizes the importance and
11:29necessity of this art form within a free society. 9. The Matrix
11:35You take the blue pill. The story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
11:42You take the red pill. You stay in Wonderland. And I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
11:49It's the sci-fi film that launched a thousand blogs and think pieces. It's The Matrix,
11:55and it helped revolutionize and energize the genre back in the late 90s.
12:00While fans still debate whether the Wachowskis were truly inspired by Dark City while making their
12:06futuristic dystopian action flick, The Matrix stands on its own two feet with regards to its story and
12:12themes. It led its audience to question reality, to wonder about the human experience and how much
12:30value to place on material pleasures of The Matrix versus a search for something greater. There were
12:36both religious and political allegories present within The Matrix, all the while reminding us of
12:41the paranoia that's always lurking in the back of our minds each day.
12:508. The Parallax View
13:04Some of the paranoia we've discussed so far on this list can be chalked to imagination or perception,
13:09but the plot of The Parallax View contains some very legitimate reasons for its characters to be
13:16paranoid. This is because witnesses of a calculated political assassination are being eliminated one by
13:22one by a shadowy organization, and it's up to one determined reporter to find out why.
13:29The Parallax View is an incredibly stylish and creepy film, with a certain austere aesthetic that makes it
13:35truly one of a kind. The Parallax Corporation is actively recruiting assassins, and the scenes
13:41involving their personality profile tests lean into our paranoid obsessions about big business and
13:47their connections to political heavyweights. 7. Blowout
13:51If there was ever an American successor to Alfred Hitchcock's master of suspense tag, it has to be
13:58Brian De Palma. De Palma made a career out of updating Hitch's aesthetic with a more visceral and
14:03voyeuristic touch, inspired by the stylish Italian giallo films of the 1970s. Blowout was De Palma's
14:11reimagining of the 1966 film Blow Up, also out of Italy, and starred John Travolta as a sound effects
14:18engineer who accidentally captures too much on his microphone. From there, it's a story of dangerous
14:24obsession as audio of a political assassination unfurls to include blackmail, intrigue, and tragically,
14:30more murder. There's also an analogy here to the JFK assassination and the paranoia surrounding how
14:36the country's political theater can become so deadly. 6. Buried
14:54This Debbie Downer of a film starred Ryan Reynolds inside a dark, dark coffin in Iraq.
15:07That's right, the American truck driver couldn't be buried alive domestically, it had to be overseas.
15:13Armed with only a flashlight, lighter, a flask, thank god, a pen, a phone, and glorious glow sticks,
15:19Paul Conroy must either decide to get drunk and call it a life, or find his way out of the darkness.
15:35What would you do? Watch the latest WatchMojo clip and then make a phone call? So many options,
15:43just don't ever leave home or you could be buried alive. 5. Contagion
15:49Here's a film that will make you think you're allergic to everything and possibly inspire a life
15:54of seclusion. It all started with a Minnesota woman played by Gwyneth Paltrow, whose character enjoyed
16:15more than just a little Hong Kong during a business trip. What happens? The entire world dies. Or at
16:23least all of your favorite movie stars do. Which is kind of the same thing. What happened to her?
16:29What happened to her? Okay, okay. Steven Soderbergh freaked out the entire world
16:34with Contagion and probably made 70% of the population gluten-free. Don't ask. It's real.
16:42Contagion is coming. Wait a minute, some may argue that it's already here. Is there any way someone
16:47could weaponize the bird flu is how we're looking at? Someone doesn't have to weaponize the bird flu.
16:524. The Conversation
16:54Released during the Watergate scandal, but not in response to the Watergate scandal,
17:00The Conversation chronicled the devastatingly boring lifestyle of a surveillance expert and
17:05the San Francisco couple he's creeping on. He'd kill us if he got the chance.
17:09Harry Call likes jazz, but doesn't like human contact. He'll listen to your conversation,
17:15but will sweat profusely if his ethics are questioned.
17:18Uh, did we mention this film wasn't in response to Watergate?
17:22Why are you following me?
17:24I'm not following you. I'm looking for you. It's a big difference.
17:28Even though director Francis Ford Coppola swore the 1966 blow-up inspired the film,
17:34he believed audiences felt the subject matter was too similar to the presidential scandal to ignore.
17:40While Coppola ended up losing the Best Picture Oscar for this film that year to himself,
17:45the conversation's legacy is secure because Harry Call's paranoia rubbed off on us all.
17:51We know that you know, Mr. Call. For your own sake, don't get involved any further. We'll be listening to you.
17:58Number 3. The Truman Show
18:01Is he looking at us? Jesus, do you think he knows?
18:06Hello? Better call Kristoff. Hello? Come in, Major Burbank.
18:13Oh hey, Truman Burbank. Did we mention your entire life as a sham?
18:19In Peter Weir's The Truman Show, Jim Carrey stars as the unsuspecting title character who enjoys life
18:25on a Los Angeles soundstage. He was born into the figurative hands of a corporation,
18:31which broadcasts his entire life, repeat, entire life, to all of Earth. Keep that in mind,
18:38Mojoholics. As a film that preceded the outstanding cultural gems that are reality TV shows,
18:44The Truman Show made viewers check for cameras at home and question their entire existence.
18:50Maybe we're all living on a grand stage.
18:52Was nothing real? You were real. It's what made you so good to watch.
18:59Number 2. Jaws
19:08It doesn't matter where you swim, it doesn't matter what body of water you're in,
19:13Jaws will swallow you whole. Well, at least that was the general vibe we got from the release of
19:19Steven Spielberg's horrifying film. Though our bodies are mostly made of H2O,
19:27and many of us enjoy a dip in the water from time to time, Jaws ruined everything by making us afraid
19:33of bloodthirsty sharks. Even those poor bastards in Minnesota thought Jaws was roaming their land of
19:4010,000 lakes. Now, that's just a damn shame. Screw you, Jaws. You're not real.
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20:17Okay, so what am I doing? Oh, I'm chasing this guy.
20:23If you can't trust your own memories, what can you trust? The feeling of paranoia is hardwired into
20:35the DNA of Memento right from Jump Street. As it's revealed, our protagonist can't make new memories
20:42and loses them in the short term every 15 minutes. As a result, every character here is unreliable,
20:49even the narrator. As Memento tries to piece together just what happened to Guy Pearce's
20:55character and his wife, while also questioning the motives of nearly every other character.
21:05It's the sort of manic and dizzying narrative we've come to love and respect from Christopher Nolan,
21:11with Memento being the kind of film that simply needs to be viewed multiple times to truly latch on
21:17to the mystery at hand. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are.
21:24I'm no different. What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
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