Has anyone ever written a psychological thriller that wasn't cheesy?

[Jaimethekidd]

Hello, Jaime from sinical comics, this is a new account but I'm not new to the platform. I wanted to attempt to create comics separate from me and my partners joint account.

Anyway, now that you know who I am (no one does), I need help with creating a good psychological thriller that doesn't end up sounding like emo me in middle school wrote it. I wanted to write a story about a girl who kinda flips the whole slasher concept on its head, she's a girl who goes out of her way to appear innocent in order to lure her victims, typically men. ever since the first murder that she managed to successfully get away with she's had a lust for killing those that prey on the innocent, but as the story progresses her motive becomes less clear and eventually is killing because she truly enjoys it and can't get enough. this isn't meant to be a "girl power" type story but more about how the cycle of abuse can easily turn sinister and that it's easy to forget who you are by trying to seek out revenge through others. but I also don't want the story to take itself too seriously. something that has something to say but can be humorous at times, like American Psycho but obviously not trying to copy, not that I could lol.

any tips are welcome, I really want my story to turn out good.

also here's the main girl of the comic, I used her in a final at school

[UrMom]

I'm not gonna say too much since I'm typing from my phone, and I'm not good at not taking psychological stuff too seriously. An interesting thing to research and explore would be the possibility of you killer having trauma OCD, obsession with the control she has when killing can be a thing that leads to her eventually enjoying the act over vigilantism. It can also be a way to show this as a growing issue, rather than an unintentional glorification like some fiction has done. -coughSawcough-

[Jaimethekidd]

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[Jaimethekidd]

lmao, i love Saw but you're right. thank you though, I'll definitely look into trauma ocd! it definitely seems like something that would fit

[moontokkym]

I mean you've posted goodbye horses and one of the best psychological thrillers in my book is Silence of the Lambs. There are goofy moments (and some not great parts about trans representation) but it keeps you reading on the edge of your seat the whole way, and the film does a very good job of keeping you tense.

Also if you can stomach it: watch Baby Reindeer. It's a dark comedy/psychological thriller about a failed comedian getting stalked based on the real life of the writer and main character's actor and it's heartwrenching and shows a victim also making decisions that hurt others while allowing the audience empathy for said victim. Although be warned there are multiple r*pe scenes, so make sure you're in a good headspace if you chose to watch.

I think if we're going to be in this girl's head for it not to be "emo" she basically needs 2 things:
- to think like an adult
- to act like a person

Because a lot of "emo cringe" comes from typical teenage overreactions and overblowing feelings compared to the situation. "He dumped me now I'm BROKEN INSIDE I'M NEVER GOING TO FEEL HAPPY AGAIN I'M GOING TO KILL HIS NEXT GIRLFRIEND" and the like. As someone who's an adult who's been through breakups and watching that sort of thing from afar you're like "ok sweetie calm down eat some ice cream and chill, you'll be fine". Like even though you know it hurts you don't empathise as much because the reaction is so extreme.

That brings me to having her act like a person. We have to empathise with her as she escalates her actions and be able to go "if I were in her position with her background, I could see myself wanting to do that". If the audience genuinely empathises with her then even if she does something we don't want her to, we'll still feel for her.

The revenge blinding all other options is really reminiscent of Ellie's arc in TLOU2 so even though it's not a thriller it could be good for you to have a look at how they told that story.

Tl;dr: if you want to write a psychological thriller that can be taken seriously, watch and read psychological thrillers that do that balance of goofy/serious right and work out how they do it and see how you can apply that to your story.

[MK_Wizard]

My current project with is an adaptation of Frankenstein is a pretty serious horror/mystery. It is not cheesy at all though it does have comic relief.

[Jaimethekidd]

Thank you so much! I'll be sure to keep these things in mind lol. the last thing i want is for my stuff to be seen as emo cringe. not that i mind emo cringe but theres always a time in place lmao. but yeah, super helpful

[Jaimethekidd]

do you have a link to your project?