15 Best South Indian Psychological Thriller Movies

Every single time, the Indian South comes up with the most eccentric and brilliant ideas that get incorporated in films to receive millions of supporters across the entire nation. On that note, for people who are completely obsessed with mystery, murder cases, and thriller drama, we are presenting you with the top 15 best south Indian psychological thriller movies of all time. All you have to do is stay still as these nail-biting suspense movies will keep you on the edge of your seat and do not allow you to rest your mind keeping you thinking for hours after the movie.

As most of you are probably exhausted and bored in this quarantine, the best watches from Bollywood will come to the rescue for those who have a language barrier with Hollywood movies. In fact, Bollywood has made numerous movies in this genre and they are quite good as they emphasize the psychology of the characters as well as their unstable emotional state. Without further ado, here are the best south Indian psychological thriller movies that will suck you into a complete roller-coaster of theories.

Best South Indian Psychological Thriller Movies

1. Vikram Vedha

It is one of the best south Indian psychological thriller movies that was directed and written in the Tamil language by the duo Pushkar and Gayathri. This neo-noir action thriller movie’s producer, S. Sashikanth made it under his banner Y NOT Studios. Originally, it features the actors Madhavan, Shraddha Srinath, Vijay Sethupathi, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, and Kathir in the lead roles. However, the supporting roles involve Prem, Hareesh Peradi, Achyuth Kumar, and Vivek Prasanna.

The film is inspired by Baital Pachisi, an Indian folktale and the former tells the story of a power struggle between a criminal mastermind named Vedha, and a ruthless, no-nonsense cop who is chasing him and willing to bend the rules to get to him. On that note, the movie has a series of events that keep everyone on the edge of their seats.

2. Irumbu Thirai

This particular film is one of the fewest ones on cybercrime which makes it one of the best south Indian psychological thriller movies of all time. As a matter of fact, this film holds an increasing social relevance in the context of ongoing Facebook and Aadhar leaks. The plot revolves around a temperamental army man chases the person responsible for hacking essential defense information that put his career and the whole country’s security in jeopardy.

3. Mumbai Police

This is an Indian psychological crime thriller film which was written by Bobby and Sanjay in the Malayalam language, and it was directed by Rosshan Andrrews. The plot of the film revolves around a crime that has been committed where the good guy figures out who the villain is and the latter pays for everything he did; i.e., a regular everyday thriller mystery tale.

Nonetheless, what makes it different from the others is that Antony loses his memory after he finds the murderer of his friend. Therefore, he restarts his journey of tracking him down once again hoping to remember something along the way. This twist led the film to become the most remarkable box-office success of the year and one of the best south Indian psychological movies of all time. Moreover, the lead stars involve Prithviraj Sukumaran, Rahman, and Jayasurya. However, the supporting roles include Kunjan, Deepa Vijayan, Aparna Nair, and Hima Davis.

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Both written and directed by Prawaal Raman, this film is the Hindi language one that revolves around a professor who believes that everything has a scientific explanation. Eventually, the series of events leads this theory to be put to test and it reveals new information that could be supernatural. Evidently, the film enables you to make up your mind about these events that are occurring and the conclusion which is not force-fed.

Some of the lead roles of this film include Imaad Shah, Rajvvir Aroraa, Nishikant Kamat, Satish Kaushik, and Tisca Chopra. Notably, it is amongst the top 15 best south Indian psychological thriller movies of all time.

5. Maheshinte Prathikaram

It is an Indian drama thriller film produced by Aashiq Abu and directed by Dileesh Pothan, in his directorial start. The film is written by Syam Pushkaran in Malayalam language and it was first premiered in 2016. Concerning the lead stars of the film, it features Fahadh Faasil, Alencier Ley Lopez, Anusree, Soubin Shahir, and Aparna Balamurali.

Further, the story is set in a small village based on an incident in Thampan Purushan’s life from Thuravoor, Cherthala. A photographer, Fahad Faasil, tries to diffuse a street row but he ends up being knocked to the ground, insulted and defeated. Eventually, he takes a vow of avenging this humiliation before wearing his slippers again. Obviously, this turns a basic revenge thriller on its head. Nonetheless, the film comes across as entertaining instead of the elements of hatred and anger. This means that it is a bone-tickling endeavor of a movie. Malayalam film is definitely one of the most talented industries that have exalted one of the best south Indian psychological thriller movies over the years.

6. Awe!

Definitely, Awe is among the most suggested and best south Indian psychological thriller movies. It is both directed and written by Prasanth Varma and it is made in the Telugu language. Nani and Prashanti Tipirneni produced this film under their production banner of maiden Wall Poster Cinema. Moreover, it stars an ensemble cast composed of Nithya Menen, Kajal Aggarwal, Eesha Rebba, Regina Cassandra, Srinivas Avasarala, Murali Sharma, and Priyadarshi Pullikonda.

Concerning the storyline of the film, it deals with social problems as well as psychological issues all including sexual, drug, and child abuse. All in all, it is based on a Hollywood identity. Notably, it premiered worldwide on the 16th of February 2018.

7. Anjaam Pathiraa

This is one of the latest and best south Indian psychological thriller movies currently. It is both written and directed by Midhun Manuel Thomas in the Malayalam language. In 2020, the movie first launched with the stars Kunchacko Boban, Unnimaya Prasad, Sharaf U Dheen, Sreenath Bhasi, and Jinu Joseph in the substantial cast.

The plot of the movie revolves around a faceless serial killer who is going on a rampage and brutally slaying his victims who are mainly policemen. Therefore, a squad of police sleuths aided by a consultant criminologist called Anwar Hussain attempt to unveil his identity and understand his tactics.

8. Visaranai

It is an is Indian Tamil language crime thriller movie released in 2015, both written and directed by Vetrimaaran. Initially, the movie is an adaptation of M. Chandrakumar’s novel Lock-Up. The film was first launched in the Orrizonti section of the 72nd Venice Film Festival which led to it winning the Amnesty International Italia Award along with highly positive reviews from both the fan base and critics. Nonetheless, it also arose a few issues concerning the movie in Tamil Nadu among the police force.

Further, the film won three honors, namely, Best Supporting Actor for Samuthirakani, Best Feature Film in Tamil, and Best Editing for Kishore Te at the 63rd National Film Awards. It should be noted the movie was selected as India’s official entry at the 89th Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film but it was not nominated.

The film features Anandhi, Aadukalam Murugadoss, Dinesh, Samuthirakani, Kishore, Silambarasan Rathnasamy, and Pradheesh Raj in the lead roles. In general, the film revolves around the lives of two men before and after being thrown into a kafkaesque scenario where they get tortured to confess.

9. Ugly

It is an Indian thriller film written in Hindi language and directed and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap. The film was first released in 2014 with Rahul Bhat, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Ronit Roy, Vineet Kumar Singh, Surveen Chawla, Girish Kulkarni, and Anshika Shrivastava as the lead actors. This is regarded as one of the best south Indian psychological thriller movies that follow the story of a struggling actor Bhat whose daughter Kali disappears, and the series of this terrible tale of corruption events follow.

Besides, the movie explores the psyche of the mother who is suffering from depression, as well as the father and the stepfather who are constantly attempting to be distant from each other while trying to find the missing daughter. It should be noted that the systematic violence and indifference begin and the supporting roles of the movie all seem to have an ulterior motive.

10. Psycho

Psycho is an Indian psychological thriller film written in Tamil language and directed by Mysskin. Originally, the production started in September 2018, but the movie launched on 24th January 2020 worldwide. Further, Arun Mozhi Manickam produced the mentioned film under Double Meaning Production. The movie stars Nithya Menen, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Rajkumar Pitchumani, and Aditi Rao Hydari as the main roles. Nonetheless, the supporting roles include Renuka, Ram, Singampuli, Shaji Chen, Aadukalam Naren, and many more.

As this is amongst the best South Indian psychological thriller movies, it is a bit darker and disturbing since it has a lot of twists and turns as well as suspense. Also, it makes the watcher feel a sense of discomfort because the characters invade their headspace, adding fear, drama, and anxiety.

11. Karthik Calling Karthik

This one is amongst the best south Indian psychological thriller movies of all time. It is written and directed by Vijay Lalwani whereas Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani produced it under the banner of Excel Entertainment and Reliance Big Pictures. Back in 2010, the movie was first released with Deepika Padukone and Farhan Akhtar in lead roles. However, the supporting roles of the film include Shefali Shah, Ram Kapoor, and many more.

Concerning the plot of this film, it revolves around an under-confident man called Karthik whose life goes upside down when he starts receiving calls from another man with the same name “Karthik”. Consequently, the series of these mysterious calls make up the storyline of the film.

12. Ratsasan

Ratsasan is an Indian Tamil language action, psychological crime thriller, and mystery film, directed by Ramkumar of Mundasupatti fame. Initially, the movie was released back in 2018 featuring Amala Paul, and Vishnu Vishal in the lead roles whereas Ramdoss, Saravanan, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, and Kaali Venkat playing the supporting characters.

Essentially, Arun (Vishnu) is an inspiring film director who focused on making a movie that tells the story of a serial killer but he turns into a police officer after the death of his father and tries to track him down. Ramadoss is also a cop who worked with his father and guides him in the department.

Later on, Arun gets involved with the case of a girl killed in an extremely unpleasant way and he assumed that this murder case could be connected to the previous one. Therefore, he begins the investigation where he finds very few clues from the serial killer. So if you are interested in the rest of the story, you should consider watching it on the big screen. Without a doubt, this movie received several positive reviews and got a Blockbuster Hit.

13. U-Turn

U-Turn is an Indian mystery and thriller film written and directed by Pawan Kumar in 2018. Also, Srinivasa Chitturi and Rambabu Bandaru produced it under the following three banners: BR8 Creations, Srinivasa Silver Screen, and V. Y. Combines. Moreover, the film stars Aadhi Pinisetty, Samantha Akkineni, Rahul Ravindran, and Bhumika Chawla. Further, the initial filming phase commenced in February 2018 and finished in June the same year.

The movie is a songless one that features a background score composed by a promotional song by Anirudh Ravichander as the composer, as well as Poornachandra Tejaswi. It should be noted that the initial release was on 13th September 2018 where it coincided with the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. That was a major contributor to it receiving positive reviews from critics as well as becoming more successful and gaining a fan base.

Considering the plot of the movie, it centers on the death of motorists who break a traffic rule at a certain fly over. Subsequently, he ends up pinning down the culprit by a police inspector and an intern journalist duo. All in all, the movie was a remake of the director’s Kannada film in 2016 of the same name which was filmed simultaneously in both Telugu and Tamil languages.

14. Anniyan

This is an Indian psychological action thriller film that was made in 2005. Produced by V. Ravichandran, and Written and directed by S. Shankar, the movie is in Tamil language. To begin with, the storyline of the movie revolves around a disillusioned man who gets frustrated at what he sees both increases public negligence and social apathy. Eventually, this leads to a split personality of him trying to right the system.

In the movie, Vikram stars as Ambi who is a law-abiding, idealistic lawyer. Besides, he suffers from a multiple personality disorder and then develops two other identities. To elaborate on these two, the first one a metrosexual fashion model called Remo, whereas the second is a murderous vigilante called Anniyan. In addition, Sadha plays his love interest in this film, Nandini. Some of the other actors featured in the film are Nedumudi Venu, Prakash Raj, Vivek, and Nassar as well.

15. Memories

It is an Indian Malayalam crime thriller film directed and written by Jeethu Joseph in 2013. This movie stars Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead role, Miya, Suresh Krishna, Vijayaraghavan, Meghana Raj, and S. P. Sreekumar. Besides, P. K. Muralidharan and Santha Murali produce this film under the banner of Anantha Visions. It should be noted that the movie was remade as Aarathu Sinam in Tamil in 2016.

Moreover, the film covers the story of Sam Alex (Prithviraj), an alcoholic police officer, who is forced to investigate a series of murders when he was on a long leave due to personal tragedy. To be precise, both his wife and daughter were murdered. Before the occurrence of this tragedy, he was widely known as an encounter specialist who made the state proud. Therefore, when his mother was worried about his drinking problem, she attempts to encourage him to track down a serial killer.