Psychological horror is another sub-genre of the horror genre that mainly revolves on characters’ fears, beliefs and conscious using eerie and tension filled music to build up a sense of danger and suspense. It also uses emotional instability to build up tension and to add depth to the plot. Psychological horror doesn’t use monsters, or notorious serial killers like the Slasher sub-genre does, it uses normal human being that has a horrific or twisted identity, which is only ever seen towards the end of the movie.
The aim of a psychological horror is to frighten the audience mentally.
Psychological horror is not as graphic as other sub-genre’s of horror, it is more subtle, and contains less blood and physical harm. Psychological horror mainly aims at targeting the mental state of its audience, rather than the display of violence. It is known to discomfort its audience by showing and expressing common fears that people have. The things that happen in psychological are not far from reality, that’s what makes it that, much scarier for the audience. The experiences of a character in this sub-genre of film are not something in which an ordinary audience member could not go through. They’re not specifically and typically untrue; they’re something that could happen to anybody.
‘The Exorcist’ is a very famous psychological horror movie. It was made in 1973 by William Friendkin. The reason this film was such a big hit in the 70’s because religion was used as a main factor in this. Psychological films aim to use real life issues that affect the everyday person to enforce a factor of fear. 
Another famous example is a film called ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ about a lady that gives birth to the devil’s child. This was effective because it puts fear into the mind of women. It puts a “what if?” fear into people.
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