Year: 2010
Runtime: 89 mins
Language: English
Director: Reg Traviss
The film follows a blood‑thirsty serial killer who terrorizes a secluded environmental camp, leaving a trail of carnage. Years later a horror novelist moves to a quiet English village, only to be tormented by relentless, nightmarish visions of the same massacre, pushing him toward madness.
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Read the complete plot breakdown of Psychosis (2010), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
In 1992, a group of young anarchists determined to protect local wildlife are brutally murdered. The killer, Peck, Ricci Harnett, is later found by the river, collapsed from wounds he sustained while trying to kill a lone surviving anarchist. The scene sets a chilling prelude to the secrets that will unfold.
The story then jumps ahead by fifteen years to 2007, when a successful crime novelist, Susan Charisma Carpenter, moves into a nearby house with her husband David Paul Sculfor. Susan is quickly unsettled by the house itself: she witnesses the gamekeeper, Peck, behaving with unsettling vigor in the woods, and he later exposes himself to her, stamping the home with a sense of danger and intrusion. The atmosphere grows increasingly eerie as Susan begins to experience visions that center on bloody bodies—the same killer from the opening sequence and other figures who seem to appear and vanish at will.
As the hauntings intensify, it’s revealed that Susan has a history of mental instability, the product of previous episodes where she saw and heard things that weren’t really there. This history helps explain why David bought the house in the first place, hoping the setting might spark Susan’s next great work. The tension deepens when David leaves on a supposed business trip—a getaway that is later shown to be a cover for his infidelities.
Left alone, Susanendures a horrific violation when Peck drugs and rapes her. The trauma compounds her fragile psyche, and she confides in a local priest about the depths of her mental illness and the creeping dread tied to the house. The priest brings in a psychic, who proclaims that supernatural entities indeed haunt the property, heightening the sense of danger and doom.
Escorted outside by David, Susan watches a brutal sequence of murders echoing the figures from her visions. The massacre shatters whatever remaining grip she has on reality, culminating in her tragic, unintended killing of Peck as he checks on her. Shaken and broken, Susan is then committed to a mental institution.
What begins as a personal nightmare reveals a startling literary truth: Susan’s visions had been channeled into her latest book, which instantly becomes a bestseller. David is shown reaping the financial rewards, and it’s implied that his marriage to Susan was driven by money, and that Peck’s earlier actions were an attempt to obtain blackmail material for a divorce. David returns to the house one final time to close the sale to a new owner, and the scene reveals the very people Susan had seen in her visions, now assembled as living victims. He is gruesomely murdered by the killer Susan had been seeing all along—a killer who had survived, been incarcerated, and escaped—exposing that Susan’s visions were not a product of insanity but eerie prophecies of future murders to come within the house. The revelation ties together the haunting with a cruel, fateful fate that leaves questions about fate, sanity, and the line between imagination and reality.
Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 15:34
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Stories where sanity slowly fractures under the weight of tormenting visions.If you liked the psychological unraveling in Psychosis, explore these movies about characters losing their sanity. This list features thrillers and horror films where the line between reality and madness blurs, filled with visions, paranoia, and a steady crawl toward a bleak conclusion.
The narrative typically begins with a character in a fragile state, often triggered by trauma or isolation. As unsettling events or visions intensify, their perception of reality becomes increasingly unreliable, leading them—and the audience—to question everything. The journey is marked by paranoia, gaslighting, and a climactic revelation that either confirms their worst fears or leaves them broken.
They are grouped by their shared focus on the internal collapse of a protagonist. The experience is defined by a high-tension, oppressive mood, a steady pacing that builds dread, and a heavy emotional weight centered on psychological distress and the terrifying fragility of the human mind.
Thrillers set in remote locations that amplify psychological terror and dread.Find more movies like Psychosis that trap their characters in remote, claustrophobic settings. These thrillers and horror films use isolation to build unbearable tension, where the quiet environment becomes as threatening as the killer or visions haunting the protagonist, perfect for fans of anxious, slow-burn dread.
The plot often involves a character seeking solitude, only to find that isolation intensifies their vulnerabilities. The confined setting limits external help and amplifies every sound and shadow, turning the environment itself into an antagonist. The narrative leverages this seclusion to create a sustained, claustrophobic tension where the threat feels inescapable.
They share a core atmospheric device: using a remote or confined setting to psychologically trap the characters. This creates a cohesive vibe of claustrophobia and sustained anxiety, with a steady pacing that allows dread to seep in. The experience is defined by feeling trapped, both physically and mentally.
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Track the full timeline of Psychosis with every major event arranged chronologically. Perfect for decoding non-linear storytelling, flashbacks, or parallel narratives with a clear scene-by-scene breakdown.
Discover the characters, locations, and core themes that shape Psychosis. Get insights into symbolic elements, setting significance, and deeper narrative meaning — ideal for thematic analysis and movie breakdowns.
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