‘Twitch Psychological Thrillers’ are a subgenre of the greater psychological thriller category. Instead of only focusing on mental or ideological tension, TPT’s involve a protagonist’s whose conception of reality or self-identity is revealed to be mistaken. The movie’s plot consists of the hero’s attempt to figure out why they have such a distorted vision of the truth, and the plots often involve some aspect of the protagonist’s past.
Typical plot devices in a TPT consist of, but are not limited to, the following: hallucinations, drugs, mental illness, mind control, emotional distress, guilt, suppression, amnesia, memory, surrealism, time-travel, brainwashing, dreams and death.
The problem with this genre is that once you’ve watched some TPTs, it often becomes easy to guess the plot or ending, since they all revolve around the same general phenomenon.
Warning: This subgenre is often unpopular.
Secret Window. TPT Device: Identity, Emotional Distress
A Beautiful Mind. TPT Device: Mental Illness, Reality
Fight Club (Two-Disc Collector's Edition). TPT Device: Identity
Vanilla Sky. TPT Device: Dreams, Reality
The Number 23. TPT Device: Identity, Memory, Mental Illness
The Machinist. TPT Device: Emotional Distress, Memory
Boxing Helena. TPT Device: Dreams, Mental Illness
The Science of Sleep. TPT Device: Dreams, Reality
The I Inside. TPT Device: Memory, Reality, Time Travel
Identity. TPT Device: Identity, Mental Illness
Lost Highway [Region 2]. TPT Device: Identity, Reality, Open to Interpretation
Mulholland Drive. TPT Device: Dreams, Reality, Emotional Distress
Sublime (Unrated Edition). TPT Device: Reality, Dreams
Jacob's Ladder. TPT Device: Death, Reality
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [Region 2]. TPT Device: Memory (Not a true TPT)
Memento (Widescreen Two-Disc Limited Edition). TPT Device: Memory
A Scanner Darkly. TPT Device: Drug Use, Identity
Dreamland. TPT Device: Time Travel, Open to Interpretation
Hide and Seek (Widescreen Edition). TPT Device: Identity, Memory, Mental Illness
Gothika (Widescreen Edition). TPT Device: Mentall Illness, Supernatural
Unknown. TPT Device: Memory, Identity
Paycheck (Special Collector's Edition). TPT Device: Memory
Stay. TPT Device: Death, Dreams, Reality
The Others (Two-Disc Collector's Edition). TPT Device: Death, Supernatural
The Sixth Sense (Collector's Edition Series). TPT Device: Death, Supernatural
David Lynch's Inland Empire (Limited Edition Two-Disc Set). TPT Device: Open to Interpretation
Stealing Time. TPT Device: Dreams, Death, Time
eXistenZ. TPT Device: Reality
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Jestr451
17 years ago
stalker
werkmeister harmonies
While not exactly what you were looking for in this list, I consider them to be interesting in the way in which a object, or area, has such a huge effect upon the people in or surrounding it; yet the thing itself fails to act. All of the actions are committed by the characters reacting to what they believe is going to happen if they fail to act.
And of course you might as well add holy mountain for a more typical sense of surrealism.
I could also argue that Lynch doesn't belong on this list as his films are more like dreams and exist inside of that world more so than the active world. So it can thus be assumed, for some of his films at least, that the only blending of worlds is the blending of previous days events inside of someones sleep; but since the world, dream, being created never had a solid path before the lines cannot be falling apart. I guess I should say, think of it in terms of some fantasy movie - because the world contains elves, swords, dragons and all such things it isn't unusual for someone to suddenly jump onto a broomstick and fly off. There isn't any sort of substantial material to that action. Now if you consider the same act, someone getting onto a broomstick and flying off, inside of a film which would have, up to that point, been considered realist then that same action has a much more significant impact upon the events in the story. And I suppose this is what I'm getting at. Lynch blurs everything so quickly in his films these days, (Blue Velvet worked into the dream world slowly and nicely; although it is a dream world think about the ear) that when another odd event occurs it doesn't have the impact it could have had. I like how he does this, and for the most part I like the feel of his films. But I do think they they should not exist in a list of films which are blurring the lines between reality and other. They clearly exist entirely in the other.
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gofrobro18
17 years ago
excellent films on this list but i must add Jeff Daniel's Chasing Sleep which is a pretty independent film made a few years ago. check it out
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