We love movies that keep us on the edge of our seats, but some can cause serious anxiety. Here are a group of films that might very well have you breathing into a paper bag to calm down.
Rear Window (1954)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stuck at home with a broken leg, Jeff (James Stewart) begins aimlessly spying on his neighbors. Soon, however, he finds he may be a witness to a murder. So many of Master of Suspense Hitchcock's movies are stressful, but there's something about Jeff's helplessness in Rear Window that makes the film extra anxiety-inducing.
Universal Pictures
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Director: Terence Young
A young blind woman named Susy (Audrey Hepburn) is terrorized by criminals trying to break into her apartment. She eventually realizes the only way to put them on an even playing field is to turn off all the lights. You don't have to be afraid of the dark to be stressed out by the film, which is relentlessly suspenseful.
Warner Bros.
Marathon Man (1976)
Director: John Schlesinger
Graduate student Babe (Dustin Hoffman) gets caught up in his government agent brother's attempts to capture a Nazi war criminal. In the film's most famous scene, Babe gets tortured with a dentist drill as the Nazi (Laurence Olivier) asks, "Is it safe?" If you weren't afraid of the dentist before watching Marathon Man, you very well may be after.
Paramount Pictures
Cape Fear (1991)
Director: Martin Scorsese
After being released from prison where he served time for raping a young woman, Max Cady (Robert De Niro) seeks revenge against the public defender he holds responsible for his jail sentence. What makes Cape Fear so stressful is how long it takes Cady to act — for a while, there's nothing anyone can do about his vaguely threatening behavior.
Universal Pictures
