10 best female-led psychological thrillers like Gone Girl

A great psychological thriller always brings you closer, twists your confidence, and shows you a darker truth. 2014's Gone Girl did this with a keen look at marriage, media, and motives.

So, if you are looking for a clever lead, secrets behind a smile, and a story that keeps you guessing, this list gives you 10 psychological thriller films with women at the center and mind in motion. Here, you will experience unreliable memories, messy love, and crimes that start at home. Some titles lean into noir, while others lean into grief or obsession. All keep the focus tight and the tension high.

Ready for a night of sharp turns and sharp women? Here are the best psychological thriller picks for you, and let's know why they work.

Top 10 female-led psychological thrillers like Gone Girl

1) The Girl on the Train (2016, dir Tate Taylor)

Emily Blunt anchors this tale of a woman who drinks, rides a train, and watches strangers. She thinks she sees a crime. She tries to help and lands in a knot of lies. The psychological thriller film shares the “did I see the truth” pull of Gone Girl. It also probes how pain and self-image twist memory. Stay for the hard final act and the bruised, honest lead.

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2) A Simple Favor (2018, dir. Paul Feig)

Anna Kendrick plays a sunny vlogger in this psychological thriller movie. Blake Lively plays her rich, secretive friend. One day, the friend vanishes. The tone is witty, but the puzzle is sharp. Fashion, fraud, and past lives mix into a candy-colored trap. You get the missing-woman hook and the sense that charm can hide a blade.

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3) Before I Go to Sleep (2014, dir. Rowan Joffé)

Nicole Kidman wakes with no memory. Her husband, played by Colin Firth, fills the gaps. A doctor tells her to keep a video diary. Then she learns a detail that flips her world. Amnesia stories rise and fall on the lead, and Kidman holds the screen. The psychological thriller film poses a simple question and pays it off: Who can you trust if you cannot trust your own mind?

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4) Side Effects (2013, dir. Steven Soderbergh)

Rooney Mara plays a woman who starts a new drug. Jude Law plays her psychiatrist. A violent act follows, and motives blur. Money, medicine, and control meet in cool frames. This one mirrors Gone Girl in how it plays fair and still fools you. Watch the small tells. The final reveal lands clean and cold.

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5) The Woman in the Window (2021, dir. Joe Wright)

Amy Adams stays inside her home and watches the street. She swears she sees an attack next door. As usual, no one believes her. The film riffs on Rear Window with a twist of modern anxiety. Is the threat real or part of her fear? The heroine’s isolation builds dread scene by scene throughout this psychological thriller.

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6) The Invisible Man (2020, dir. Leigh Whannell)

Elisabeth Moss escapes an abusive partner. He “dies” and still haunts her life. She fights a presence no one can see and a system that doubts her. This psychological thriller film is tech-smart and tight. The central idea is simple and cruel. Gaslighting gets a literal shape, and Moss sells every beat of panic and resolve.

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7) Black Swan (2010, dir. Darren Aronofsky)

Natalie Portman plays a dancer who seeks perfection in art. Pressure grows. A rival appears. Her body and mind split under the strain. The story is about control and its cost. Like Gone Girl, this psychological thriller shows how an image can consume a person. The mood is fever-bright. The last shot stays with you.

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8) Greta (2018, dir. Neil Jordan)

Chloë Grace Moretz finds a lost bag and returns it. Isabelle Huppert plays the owner, who is lonely and oddly intense. A sweet bond shifts into a trap. The film is sleek and mean in the best way. It explores need, boundaries, and the danger of being too kind to a stranger with plans.

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9) Thoroughbreds (2017, dir. Cory Finley)

Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke play two teens in a rich suburb. One has a stepfather she hates. The other feels nothing and studies people like puzzles. They talk, plan, and push each other past a line. The film builds tension with quiet rooms and cool words. It shares Gone Girl’s interest in masks and moral voids behind pretty faces.

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10) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011, dir. David Fincher)

Rooney Mara’s Lisbeth Salander is a hacker with a brutal past. She joins a case about a missing heir and a wealthy but rotten family. The snow, the files, the slow peel of secrets all work. This psychological thriller movie is colder and more procedural than Gone Girl, yet the lead drives it with grit and edge. Fincher’s touch brings the same clean menace.

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How these films scratch the same itch

Each of these psychological thrillers centers on a woman who drives the story. Some want love or safety. Some want truth or payback. All face men or systems that doubt them. That doubt fuels suspense. The plots pull from real fears. Think of a spouse who lies, a friend who is a stranger, a doctor who crosses lines, or a room that is not safe. You see normal life first. Then the normal cracks. That simple slide makes the shocks feel close to home.

Tone matters too. Gone Girl is sleek and icy. Many titles here use a similar clean style. Side Effects and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo keep cool frames and precise cuts. The Invisible Man and Black Swan push dread with sound and space. A Simple Favor brings humor, but it keeps the knife sharp. You get variety, yet the core feeling stays: trust no one, watch every detail, read every look.

Do these films cheat? No. The best twists hide in plain sight. You can rewatch and spot clues. The Girl on the Train plants small visual tells. Before I Go to Sleep uses the diary smartly. Thoroughbreds makes talk feel like action. The reveals feel earned. That honesty is why the endings hit hard.

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Why female leads matter here

A female lead often changes the angle of threat and power. These psychological thriller stories show how charm, fame, or systems can mute a woman’s voice. They also show women outthinking the trap. That mix gives the genre a fresh bite.