Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "mentally-ill-protagonist"
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1. Joker (I) (2019)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy
Votes: 1,488,426 | Gross: $335.45M
2. Fight Club (1999)
R | 139 min | Drama
An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier
Votes: 2,323,505 | Gross: $37.03M
3. Scream VI (2023)
R | 122 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In the next installment, the survivors of the Ghostface killings leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter in New York City.
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett | Stars: Courteney Cox, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown
Votes: 119,344
4. Scream (I) (2022)
R | 114 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
25 years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, Calif., a new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past.
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Melissa Barrera
Votes: 158,851 | Gross: $81.64M
5. Carrie (1976)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery
Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta
Votes: 206,649 | Gross: $33.80M
6. Marrowbone (2017)
R | 110 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A young man and his three younger siblings, who have kept secret the death of their beloved mother in order to remain together, are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor in which they live.
Director: Sergio G. Sánchez | Stars: George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth
Votes: 39,453 | Gross: $0.00M
7. The Babadook (2014)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney
Votes: 247,222 | Gross: $0.92M
8. Nomads (1986)
R | 91 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A French anthropologist specializing in nomadic groups moves to Los Angeles with his wife, and starts following a group of sinister street punks who seem to live and move around in a black van. But they aren't what they seem.
Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Lesley-Anne Down, Pierce Brosnan, Anna Maria Monticelli, Adam Ant
Votes: 5,333 | Gross: $2.28M
9. Frankenhooker (1990)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A medical student sets out to recreate his decapitated fiancée by building her a new body made of Manhattan street prostitutes.
Director: Frank Henenlotter | Stars: James Lorinz, Joanne Ritchie, Patty Mullen, J.J. Clark
Votes: 13,502 | Gross: $0.21M
10. The Pledge (I) (2001)
R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A retiring police detective pledges to catch the killer of a young child.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Benicio Del Toro, Patricia Clarkson, Beau Daniels
Votes: 67,700 | Gross: $19.72M
11. Images (1972)
R | 104 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Whilst writing a children's book, a woman interrupted by images unsure if they may, or may not be real
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais
Votes: 7,751
12. May (2002)
R | 93 min | Drama, Horror
A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.
Director: Lucky McKee | Stars: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval
Votes: 40,494 | Gross: $0.15M
13. Excision (2012)
Not Rated | 81 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
A disturbed, delusional high-school student with aspirations of a career in medicine goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother.
Director: Richard Bates Jr. | Stars: AnnaLynne McCord, Roger Bart, Ariel Winter, Traci Lords
Votes: 24,613
14. The Snowtown Murders (2011)
Not Rated | 119 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.
Director: Justin Kurzel | Stars: Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris, Bob Adriaens
Votes: 20,614 | Gross: $0.01M
15. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 70,048
16. Benny & Joon (1993)
PG | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik | Stars: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn, Julianne Moore
Votes: 62,071 | Gross: $23.20M
17. Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988)
R | 80 min | Comedy, Horror
A sex-changed slasher returns as a camp counselor.
Director: Michael A. Simpson | Stars: Pamela Springsteen, Renée Estevez, Tony Higgins, Valerie Hartman
Votes: 13,344
18. Unsane (2018)
R | 98 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A young woman is involuntarily committed to a mental institution, where she is confronted by her greatest fear - but is it real or a product of her delusion?
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah, Juno Temple
Votes: 49,923 | Gross: $7.73M
19. Trilogy of Terror (1975 TV Movie)
Unrated | 72 min | Horror, Thriller
Three bizarre horror stories, all of which star Karen Black in four different roles playing four tormented women.
Director: Dan Curtis | Stars: Robert Burton, John Karlen, George Gaynes, Jim Storm
Votes: 8,711
20. What the Peeper Saw (1972)
R | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A wealthy author's second wife begins to suspect that her 12-year-old stepson may have murdered his mother, who mysteriously died in a bathtub accident.
Directors: James Kelley, Andrea Bianchi | Stars: Mark Lester, Britt Ekland, Hardy Krüger, Lilli Palmer
Votes: 1,692
21. Scorned (1993)
R | 100 min | Drama, Thriller
A vengeful widow is out to seduce the relatives of the man she blames for her husband's death.
Director: Andrew Stevens | Stars: Andrew Stevens, Shannon Tweed, Kim Morgan Greene, Daniel McVicar
Votes: 2,028
22. Martin (1977)
R | 95 min | Drama, Horror
A young man, who believes himself to be a vampire, goes to live with his elderly and hostile cousin in a Pennsylvania small town where he tries to redeem his blood-craving urges.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel, Christine Forrest, Elyane Nadeau
Votes: 12,600 | Gross: $0.10M
23. Carrie (2002 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Carrie White is a lonely and painfully shy teenage girl with telekinetic powers who is slowly pushed to the edge of insanity by frequent bullying from both her classmates and her domineering, religious mother.
Director: David Carson | Stars: Angela Bettis, Patricia Clarkson, Rena Sofer, Kandyse McClure
Votes: 11,462
24. Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)
R | 77 min | Comedy, Horror, Musical
Courtney Bates, the younger sister of Valerie, and her friends go to a condo for a weekend getaway, but Courtney can't get rid of the haunting feeling that a supernatural rockabilly driller killer is coming to murder them all.
Director: Deborah Brock | Stars: Crystal Bernard, Jennifer Rhodes, Kimberly McArthur, Patrick Lowe
Votes: 7,413
25. Wolf (II) (2021)
R | 99 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Young Jacob who suffers from zoanthropy believes he is a wolf and is committed to a mental asylum following an attack on his brother. There he meets and befriends the other patients and witnesses the brutal methods of treatment.
Director: Nathalie Biancheri | Stars: George MacKay, Stuart Graham, Helen Behan, Lily-Rose Depp
Votes: 12,649
26. The Beaver (2011)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama
A troubled husband and executive adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communication.
Director: Jodie Foster | Stars: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Cherry Jones
Votes: 50,749 | Gross: $0.97M
27. Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
R | 80 min | Comedy, Horror
After murdering a young girl, Angela Baker assumes her identity and travels to Camp New Horizons, built on the grounds of the camp she terrorized the year before, and starts killing again.
Director: Michael A. Simpson | Stars: Pamela Springsteen, Tracy Griffith, Michael J. Pollard, Mark Oliver
Votes: 9,426
28. Toc Toc (2017)
TV-MA | 90 min | Comedy
The adventures and misadventures of a group of patients with OCD appointed at the same time.
Director: Vicente Villanueva | Stars: Paco León, Alexandra Jiménez, Rossy de Palma, Nuria Herrero
Votes: 21,523
29. A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)
Not Rated | 95 min | Mystery, Thriller
The potentially unhinged daughter of a British politician is accused of killing her hedonistic neighbor after she witnesses the murder in a dream.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Florinda Bolkan, Stanley Baker, Jean Sorel, Silvia Monti
Votes: 5,788
30. Cutting Class (1989)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A murderer is loose in a high school in this 'whodunit' movie.
Director: Rospo Pallenberg | Stars: Donovan Leitch Jr., Jill Schoelen, Brad Pitt, Roddy McDowall
Votes: 5,911
31. The Ruling Class (1972)
PG | 154 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A member of the House of Lords dies, leaving his estate to his son. Unfortunately, his son thinks he is Jesus Christ. Their other, somewhat more respectable family members plot to steal the estate from him; murder and mayhem ensue.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim, Arthur Lowe, Hugh Owens
Votes: 6,804
32. A Quiet Place in the Country (1968)
R | 106 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
After moving into a dilapidated rural villa to reinvigorate his creative energies, a neurotic artist becomes obsessed with a beautiful countess who died there many years prior.
Director: Elio Petri | Stars: Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, Georges Géret, Gabriella Boccardo
Votes: 2,040
33. The Last Circus (2010)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
A young trapeze artist must decide between her lust for Sergio, the Happy Clown, or her affection for Javier, the Sad Clown, both of whom are deeply disturbed.
Director: Álex de la Iglesia | Stars: Carlos Areces, Antonio de la Torre, Carolina Bang, Manuel Tallafé
Votes: 15,229 | Gross: $0.04M
34. The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A young man who has spent his life as a member of an ultraconservative Christian cult loses his parents and becomes disoriented, wandering into a forest and meeting a coffin transporter, a caring woman, her mute boyfriend, and his mother.
Director: Philip Ridley | Stars: Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd, Viggo Mortensen, Loren Dean
Votes: 4,211
35. System Crasher (2019)
125 min | Drama
9-year-old Benni is a toss-up between institutions that cannot tackle her outbursts. She wants to move in with her mother, but she can not handle her wild daughter. After Micha is hired Benni slowly opens up and attaches herself to him.
Director: Nora Fingscheidt | Stars: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide, Lisa Hagmeister
Votes: 14,773
36. Room for Rent (2019)
81 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
Lonely widow Joyce rents out a room in her house and becomes dangerously obsessed with one of her guests.
Director: Tommy Stovall | Stars: Lin Shaye, Oliver Rayon, Valeska Miller, Ryan Ochoa
Votes: 4,078
37. Bad Ronald (1974 TV Movie)
Unrated | 74 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A perverted teenage boy who lives in the walls of a house finds the house sold to a family after his mother dies, then he falls for one of the new residents.
Director: Buzz Kulik | Stars: Scott Jacoby, Pippa Scott, John Larch, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 2,413
38. Infinitely Polar Bear (2014)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A father struggling with bipolar disorder tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility of their two young, spirited daughters, who don't make the overwhelming task any easier.
Director: Maya Forbes | Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, Ashley Aufderheide
Votes: 17,038 | Gross: $1.43M
39. Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970)
GP | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A cleaver-wielding bridal designer murders various young brides-to-be in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma.
Director: Mario Bava | Stars: Stephen Forsyth, Dagmar Lassander, Laura Betti, Jesús Puente
Votes: 4,324
40. Fade to Black (1980)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A shy, lonely film buff embarks on a killing spree against those who browbeat and betray him, all the while stalking his idol, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike.
Director: Vernon Zimmerman | Stars: Dennis Christopher, Tim Thomerson, Gwynne Gilford, Norman Burton
Votes: 4,995
41. Straight on Till Morning (1972)
R | 96 min | Thriller
A timid, withdrawn woman meets a man she believes is finally the love of her life, unaware that he is a vicious serial killer.
Director: Peter Collinson | Stars: Rita Tushingham, Shane Briant, James Bolam, Katya Wyeth
Votes: 1,426
42. The Last Horror Film (1982)
R | 87 min | Comedy, Horror
A New York taxi driver stalks a beautiful actress attending the Cannes Film Festival, which coincides with a series of violent killings of the lady's friends.
Director: David Winters | Stars: J'Len Winters, John Kelly, Joe Spinell, Simone Overman
Votes: 2,221
43. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
R | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy
A disturbed, institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Director: Anthony Page | Stars: Bibi Andersson, Kathleen Quinlan, Ben Piazza, Lorraine Gary
Votes: 1,555
44. Frightmare (1974)
R | 88 min | Horror
After escaping a death sentence for her hideous crimes, a seemingly rehabilitated woman settles in an isolated farmhouse with her husband, only to ache, once more, for blood, and a crash-course in surgery. Is, indeed, her old self back?
Director: Pete Walker | Stars: Rupert Davies, Sheila Keith, Deborah Fairfax, Paul Greenwood
Votes: 2,657
45. Prevenge (2016)
TV-MA | 88 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Widow Ruth is seven months pregnant when, believing herself to be guided by her unborn baby, she embarks on a homicidal rampage, dispatching anyone who stands in her way.
Director: Alice Lowe | Stars: Alice Lowe, Dan Renton Skinner, Jo Hartley, Tom Davis
Votes: 8,614
46. Play It As It Lays (1972)
R | 99 min | Drama
A Hollywood actress undergoes a psychic breakdown and recalls the traumatic events which led to her stay at a sanitarium.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Tuesday Weld, Anthony Perkins, Tammy Grimes, Adam Roarke
Votes: 783 | Gross: $0.47M
47. The Fan (1982)
Unrated | 92 min | Drama, Horror, Music
The hero-worship that Simone has for a pop singer is built to a crescendo until she passes out when she finally sees him up-close in a crowd of fans. She is later shocked when he lets her know that he does not love her.
Director: Eckhart Schmidt | Stars: Désirée Nosbusch, Bodo Staiger, Simone Brahmann, Jonas Vischer
Votes: 1,921
48. Teenage Dirtbag (2009)
Not Rated | 106 min | Drama
Based on a true story, this high school drama centers on the unlikely friendship between a cheerleader and a bad boy.
Director: Regina Crosby | Stars: Scott Michael Foster, Noa Hegesh, Chris Ellis, Michael Bradley
Votes: 3,044
49. I, Olga Hepnarova (2016)
Not Rated | 105 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Based on the true life of Olga Hepnarová, a young Czech woman who became a rampage killer in 1973.
Directors: Petr Kazda, Tomás Weinreb | Stars: Michalina Olszanska, Martin Pechlát, Klára Melísková, Marika Soposká
Votes: 2,720
50. A Fine Madness (1966)
Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Samson Shillitoe, mad genius of a poet irresistible to women, but plagued by writer's block, agrees to see a psychiatrist, and his beautiful wife.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Sean Connery, Joanne Woodward, Jean Seberg, Patrick O'Neal
Votes: 1,523