A cerebral thriller can be a difficult genre to define. However, while certain tropes from other genres like horror, mystery, science-fiction, or action are found in cerebral thrillers, the films are doing a lot more than just mashing up genres. A cerebral thriller gets under the skin of the audience. Often the way they're structured or edited makes the audience question the nature of reality or even the nature of truth itself. If they contain a mystery often it isn't solved.
Instead, the films explore the obsessions of those trying to solve it, questioning what drives them and, in turn, the film turns these questions on the audience themselves. Often they can conclude with more questions raised than answered. Yet, if they've done their job well, these are films that will stick in the mind of the audience long after they've finished. Making them relive every moment and eventually bringing them back for a second viewing, hungry to get to the bottom of what it was all about.
10 You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Lynne Ramsay is one of the most interesting filmmakers working at the moment. Often she makes dramas with a very poetic style, making it clear through imagery and sound that there is far more going on inside the heads of the characters than they're admitting to out loud.
In this story about an unhinged hitman, Ramsay's style is almost the perfect example of the best cerebral thrillers can be. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe in a performance which, arguably, is the main reason Joker got made. As Joe gets to work the film shows the immense toll this is having on his mental health and raises deep questions of why it is he chooses to keep killing.
9 Pi (1998)
The directorial debut from Darren Aronofsky was made for a minuscule budget but left a huge impact upon its release. Max Cohen is a mathematician who thinks he's found a unique mathematical algorithm that describes reality perfectly. Thrilled with his own genius Max is ready to make millions by applying the algorithm to his stock market predictions.
However, a chance encounter with a rabbi, who shows him the mathematical nature of the Hebrew language makes him question everything. Thinking he'd cracked reality in defiance of his religion Max starts to lose the plot with science, magic, and faith all starting to collapse in on each other. Deeply thought-provoking and not afraid to get creepy, an amazing first time film.
8 The Prestige (2006)
Christopher Nolan's most underrated film, but some would argue his best. It follows two rival magicians in Victorian London who constantly try to outdo each by improving on the same trick. At first viewing, the film is deceptively simple, and it's only when it's finished that the sheer enormity of the story settles in. For one thing, the film has 146-time jumps and yet it is as comprehensible as any linear story.
This is the film's greatest trick; it dazzles the audience with its story and incredibly intricate structure and yet still manages to slip in a twist that fundamentally changes the whole film and must be watched for a second time. Even more impressive, the twist is actually revealed in the first five minutes and yet it slips by the majority of audience members.
7 Brazil (1985)
Terry Gilliam can organize chaos very well. Often his films are all over the place and yet are still fully understandable. Brazil is his masterpiece because it is a film about organized chaos. Lying somewhere between 1984 and Monty Python, Brazil follows Sam Lowry a bureaucrat who, through some clerical error, becomes public enemy number one.
Sam spends the entire film reeling from one scene to the next, desperately trying to find answers. The problem is there don't seem to be any, in fact, it may be pointless to be asking questions in the first place. With one of the most gut-wrenching, reality-breaking twist endings in all of cinema, Brazil is a cerebral thriller that actively defies definition.
6 Primer (2004)
Time-travel is often notoriously difficult to get right. Too often it is left unexplained or ends up causing huge paradoxes. Shane Carruth is well aware of this and, in fact, it's the driving force behind his indie thriller Primer. Two men build a device in their garage, seemingly out of scrap metal and bits of junk, that they claim is a time machine.
While the men follow strict rules when traveling, it becomes clear that the film itself does not. Like a paranoid thriller, the film soon has the audience questioning exactly when everything is happening and creates an intricate puzzle box that demands repeat viewing.
5 Don't Look Now (1973)
A married couple, who have recently suffered the tragic loss of their child, travel to Venice to try and rebuild their marriage. While the film seems to act primarily as a ghost story its roots run far deeper. In dealing with their grief and their failing romance the couple finds itself, despite both being very rational people, starting to question its own reality.
So complete is their loss, they begin to turn to the supernatural in order to explain their feelings. The film strikes such a chord because it keeps a perfect balance between the rational and the otherworldly. Asking the audience, constantly, to choose which explanation they believe.
4 Mulholland Drive (2001)
Many people have tried to explain Mulholland Drive, but there's really no point. That's not to undersell the film; it is still one of the greatest films ever made, precisely because it makes no sense. The film loosely follows an aspiring new actress as she arrives in Hollywood to fulfill her dreams.
However, the film seems to slip the viewer into a dream themselves, revealing some of the most beautiful and some of the most horrible aspects of life. A film that has its audience laughing one minute and screaming the next. It's a fascinating film that captures the imaginations of everyone who watches it, even if they're just trying to imagine a plot.
3 Triangle (2009)
Taking some inspiration from the legendary Bermuda Triangle, the film follows a small group of pleasure sailors as they accidentally bump into an abandoned cruise ship in some uncharted waters. Their curiosity piqued they decide to climb aboard, only to be quickly attacked by someone with an ax.
While the first act plays like a horror film it soon changes tone as more about the ship is revealed, namely that they all seem to be stuck in a time loop. The plot has plenty of twists to keep the brain engaged and plenty of thrills to keep the adrenaline pumping. A small, but a very solid thriller, featuring an early Liam Hemsworth performance.
2 Good Time (2017)
Before Uncut Gems, the Safdie's made a big splash with Good Time. Two brothers botch a bank job, with one of them landing in jail and the other losing all the money they stole. Robert Pattinson stars as Connie, in a blisteringly good performance, who has one terrible night (it's not good in any way) trying to get his brother back.
The film is very atmospheric and presents very complicated and fascinating characters. At times the film feels like an adrenaline-fueled nightmare with the audience begging to leave, but it's capable of delivering twists that are laugh-out-loud hilarious. A trippy and stressful time that is not for the faint of heart.
1 Burning (2019)
Based on a short story by acclaimed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, Burning is a mystery movie like no other. A murder mystery is the most accurate way of describing it, except both the murder and most of the clues are missing. Instead, the film takes its time establishing its characters, developing the differences between them (often to do with wealth and class) but deliberately leaves their motivations ambiguous.
Despite firmly existing in the real world, the film manages to create a highly eerie atmosphere as both the main characters and the audience try to figure out what is going on. This film in particular has a very magical effect of changing with each viewing as more details are discovered and the unsolvable mystery deepens.
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