Psychological thriller is a
thriller story which emphasizes the
psychology of its characters and their unstable
emotional states. In terms of classification, the category is a
subgenre of the broader ranging
thriller category, with similarities to
Gothic and
detective fiction in the sense of sometimes having a "dissolving sense of reality", moral ambiguity, and complex and tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters. Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of and overlap with
mystery,
drama,
action, and
horror, particularly
psychological horror. They are usually books or films.