18 Best Mind Games and Gaslighting Movies On Netflix
Audiences enjoy and feel validated by “mind game movies” – where the narcissistic or toxic characters play mind games with a victim thus revealing the impact of gaslighting or the movie itself plays mind games with the viewer, making them believe a scenario is one way only to reveal shocking hidden truths. Here are eighteen mind game movies currently available on Netflix you should check out.
Intrusion
A seemingly happy couple, therapist Meera and her architect husband Henry Parsons, buy a new dream home only to experience a dangerous home invasion. Following this, strange events begin to occur which makes Meera question her perception of reality – and the motives of her own husband. If you like movies about charming predators being exposed in a slow-burn psychological thriller where both you and the main character feel like you’re going mad, this one’s for you. This movie validates the experience of gaslighting and mind games while also giving viewers a shocking and unexpected plot twist they could not have foreseen.
The Weekend Away
Two best friends, Beth and Kate, go for a vacation in Croatia, only for her friend Kate to go missing. As Beth (played by Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester) investigates her best friend’s disappearance, she comes across many different versions of events and grapples with the true nature of reality and begins to question the people she loves and trusts the most as well as the strangers that offer her help. The movie twists the mind of the viewer as it makes it seem as if we have the full story – only to uncover even more horrifying revelations. The Weekend Away is perfect for anyone who’s ever had a toxic, narcissistic friend (or romantic partner) and anyone who just enjoys a suspenseful thriller with many plot twists.
Secret Obsession
A woman, Jennifer (played by Brenda Song) wakes up in the hospital after a car accident with amnesia. Her husband, Russel Williams, is by her bedside. Russel helps nurse her back to health, but she suspects all is not what it seems to be and does not know whether to trust her own memories. Viewers get an opening scene of a man in the dark chasing Jennifer before she is hit by a car, and as Jennifer begins to get flashbacks of what truly happened that night, Russel plays gaslighting mind games and uses physical isolation to restrain her, preventing her from finding out the truth. Secret Obsession is a great movie that highlights the hurt-and-rescue tactics of narcissistic and psychopathic predators.
Deadly Illusions
Deadly Illusions is a mind-bending thriller with many disorienting and convoluted mind games played on the viewer. Mary Morrison (played by Sex and the City’s Kristin Davis) is a best-selling author of thriller novels who is trying to find the motivation, space, and time to write while raising her kids. She hires a new nanny, Grace, who she starts having sexual fantasies about. She also has visions of Grace cheating with her husband which she cannot tell are real or false. Grace seems to have different sides to her – some of them which are outright deadly. Some critics of the film are dissatisfied with how the film leaves room for multiple interpretations. Whatever you may think of the movie, the themes of the film certainly captures the chaotic crazymaking of twisted mind games.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is based on the real-life story of serial killer psychopath Ted Bundy (played by Zac Efron) and his girlfriend Liz Kendall (played by Lilly Collins). Liz and Ted start a seemingly romantic family life as Ted helps to raise her daughter Molly. However, as multiple young women are murdered, Ted is charged with the crimes and Liz is left to uncover the horrific reality of the man Ted really is and the charming facade he once presented. If you like movies like these, you may also enjoy other movies based on real life stories including Abducted in Plain Sight, The Girl in the Picture, and American Family: Murder Next Door, all of which are also available on Netflix.
May December
Based loosely on the real-life grooming case of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her 12-year old student, May December follows a fictional scenario where a movie star, Elizabeth Berry (played by Natalie Portman) begins to immerse herself into the lives of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (played by Julianne Moore) and her now adult victim, Joe Yoo and their children. Gracie’s pity ploys as a sociopathic predator combined with the Elizabeth’s questionable actions and disturbing, chameleon-like ability to morph into Gracie and live out her life makes for an immersive movie about mind games. Some may argue that May December is an exposé of what occurs when two female narcissists battle for power, but the viewer themselves may feel unsettled by the truth of who is really in power by the end.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads Sing is one of the most poignant movies ever made about the life of a talented outsider targeted by narcissistic individuals and communities. The main character Kya (played by Daisy Edgar-Jones), is abandoned by her abusive father and her family to raise herself in the marshes of North Carolina, and labeled as “Marsh Girl.” After her friend and lover Tate Walker teaches her how to read and write, Kya begins a romantic relationship with popular quarterback Chase Andrews, who love bombs her into sleeping with him by promising her marriage, only for Kya to discover that he is already engaged to another young woman. When Kya attempts to get free of the relationship, however, Chase destroys her home and tries to rape her, retaliating as narcissists tend to do when they lose control. Days later, Chase is found dead and Kya is accused of murder – but no one actually knows if she did it, and neither does the viewer throughout the film. The ending has a twist that leaves viewers riveted right up to the movie’s conclusion.
Where The Crawdads Sing does a remarkable job of showcasing the resilience and resourcefulness of those left to fend for themselves in the midst of exploitative communities, yet it also gently plays mind games with the viewer in that we don’t get the full story of what occurred until the very end. It showcases how the main character Kya is targeted by the narcissistic community around her and how she deals with the predators that prey on her and scapegoat her for being different.
Fear
Fear is a classic psychological thriller about 16-year-old Nicole (played by Reese Witherspoon) who becomes ensnared in the abusive charm of a much older narcissistic psychopath named David (played by Mark Wahlberg) who plays mind games to keep her hooked. As her family tries to protect her from David, Nicole becomes more entrenched in an abusive relationship with David, who develops a fixation on Nicole as she finally ends the relationship after witnessing David’s increasingly unsettling behavior. The movie escalates into a fight for survival as David and his friends plot revenge and stage a home invasion. Fear demonstrates how psychopathic predators ingratiate themselves with their victims while isolating them from their loved ones. It highlights the consequences of getting involved with a manipulator who eventually takes over your entire life.
Berlin Syndrome
Clare and Andi have a one-night stand, and what appears to be an amicable steamy night turns into her worst nightmare when she realizes Andi has locked her in his apartment – with no way out. Berlin Syndrome is a very unsettling thriller that explores what occurs when you trust the wrong stranger, and the resourcefulness required to escape a malignant narcissist who is invested in controlling your every move.
The Woman In The Window
A psychologist plagued by agoraphobia confines herself to her Manhattan brownstone after separating from her husband and spends her time observing her neighbors through her window. A heavy drinker and overmedicated, Anna is quite isolated. She starts a friendship with Jane Russell and her son, Ethan who visit her. One night, Anna witnesses Jane being stabbed to death through her windows. However, when she contacts the police, no one believes her, and mind games ensue to hide the true identity of the killer while Anna begins doubting her own reality and what she saw.
Hypnotic
Jennifer is suffering through a recent miscarriage and break-up when she falls prey to the manipulation of hypnotherapist Collin Meade. Unbeknownst to Jennifer, Meade’s motives go beyond helping her and he has a sinister personal agenda. As Jennifer tries to navigate the disturbing new side effects she faces due to his treatment, she grapples with whether she can truly trust her perception and the reality around her. Hypnotic reminds us that even those in authority can be predatory wolves in sheep’s clothing – and how victims can be more susceptible to falling under someone’s spell when they’re struggling with unhealed traumas.
The Gift
Simon (played by Jason Batman) and his wife Robyn are approached by an old and seemingly generous childhood friend Gordo – or so it seems. As his menacing “friend” seems to play “Simon Says” type mind games and gaslights him and his wife all the way to the end of the film, invading their life with alarming escalation and psychological warfare, we learn the true nature of Simon’s past and why he’s really become a target, revealing Simon’s darkness behind the charming mask. The Gift is a very disturbing film about revenge and accountability that leaves more questions than answers in the end of the film, exposing the bullying tactics of covert narcissists and the victim-turned-perpetrators that they never should have messed with.
Sleeping With the Enemy
Sleeping with The Enemy is a classic depiction of narcissistic and psychopathic abuse starring Julia Roberts. The main character, Laura, fakes her own death to escape a possessive and controlling man named Martin. Martin polices Laura’s actions to isolate her from the world and abuses her when he perceives that she has captured the attention of other men, like their neighbor. Like any other narcissist, he often feigns remorse and engages in mind games, buys her flowers after incidents of abuse to keep her in the relationship. When Laura has finally escaped and finds herself in a loving relationship with a new man, Martin continues to stalk them both. Sleeping with the Enemy is an accurate portrayal of the horrors involved when a malignant narcissist just won’t let go.
Enough
Slim (played by Jennifer Lopez), is an abused wife who learns to defeat her narcissistic abuser through self-defense training in Krav Maga. The love bombing and gaslighting tactics her husband uses to “hook” Slim in the beginning, portraying himself as a caring knight in shining armor only to begin abusing her once she’s “trapped” and has a child with him are classic abuse tactics of the malignant narcissist. The depiction of her narcissistic husband as a predator who feels entitled to abuse, betray, and mistreat Slim and “always gets whatever he wants,” even going so far as to stalk and harass her endlessly when she escapes will resonate with many survivors of narcissists and psychopaths.
Luckiest Girl Alive
The Luckiest Girl Alive, featuring Mila Kunis as Tiffany “Ani” Fanelli will leave you guessing until the very end. Ani is a successful magazine editor engaged to a rich fiancé, Luke Harrison. Through flashbacks, we gradually learn that Ani was gang-raped by three of her male friends, Liam, Dean and Peyton friends at a party while she was in school. Viewers also get an unsettling look into what actually happened shortly after in a school shooting perpetrated by one of her friends, Arthur. Luckiest Girl Alive is a suspenseful thriller about a woman with a seemingly perfect life whose past haunts her — and the power of taking control over your own story after experiencing victim-shaming.
Missing
June Allen is your typical eighteen-year-old who is annoyed with her mother, Grace, for trying to control her life. Her mother goes on vacation in Colombia with her boyfriend, Kevin, only to never return. June realizes her mother is missing and goes on the hunt to find out what really happened to her, uncovering secrets she never expected with help of her computer, Facetime calls, e-mail accounts, iMessages, and online dating profiles. This suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat techno-thriller gives us bits and pieces of the truth and plays mind games with the viewer – giving us crumbs of events to help us think we know what happened, only to constantly place red herrings on our path and derail the viewer from the reality of the situation. If you enjoy movies like Missing, you may also enjoy the techno-thriller movie Searching, which has similar plotlines.
Fractured
Fractured is a psychological thriller that starts out normally enough – with Ray, a father sitting in the waiting room of a hospital after his daughter Peri has taken a fall in a pit. During the long examination process, Ray falls asleep only to awaken in a hospital bed and told that no record of his family exists, and that he has come alone to the hospital to be examined for a head wound. As Ray tries to track down his family, the truth of what really happened eventually is uncovered. Fractured is one of the most heartbreaking and devastating films you will see about what happens to the mind when our trauma clouds our perception of reality.
Cam
For horror fans, Cam is a terrifying mind game psychological horror movie that leaves you on your toes from beginning to end. Partially inspired by the writer’s own experience of being a camgirl, the movie follows Alice Ackerman, who works as a camgirl as “Lola” and tries to raise her rank on the website she offers her services on. However, her attempts are sabotaged when she realizes she can no longer access her account and someone else has taken over her videos – someone who, eerily enough, looks exactly like her. The horror of having your identity stolen and the mind games that ensue are brilliantly illustrated in this provocative film.
