Let’s dive into a fun trope of books and films that is also a rewarding trope used in horror: The Unreliable Narrator. 

The Unreliable Narrator is a trope that is often used in books but also in films. Especially the horror genre can make use of it to make a story even more creepy or disturbing. So let’s take a look at what this trope entails and more importantly what it does for the story and us the audience. 

What is an unreliable narrator?

An unreliable narrator (UN) is a storyteller whose credibility is compromised. They can not fully be trusted with what they say and tell us. This can be due to dishonesty. They want to hide the truth from the audience and other characters of the story. That would mean they are deliberately misleading us. More common is the unreliable narrator who sees things from their point of view, take that for the truth and convey that to us and the other characters. This would mean it could have really happened or it was all in their head. 

If we reason from the first option it would be intentional, the UN has something to hide, is selfish and unable to see things from another perspective, or manipulates the audience or other characters on purpose.

If we reason from the latter this can be due to a mental state. Either they have a mental illness, or trauma, or are going through or experiencing some difficult things, and therefore have an altered look on reality, hallucinations, or interpret things not as there are but from a delusional point of view. Or, they could be right…

In horror, be it in books or films, the latter is the most common scenario. When someone already struggles with trauma or mental illness, or goes through some hard times, it’s easy to assume they are delusional and what is happening is not true. However in a horror, it’s probably wise to heed their words. It is a horror after all. 

A common trope in horror

So if this UN is almost always right, why it is so interesting and why do we keep ignoring them if they are right? 

First of all, let’s be clear that the “They”, the UN is almost always a woman. The question is whether this is sexist or are women just more interesting than men and that women are more open to the supernatural. Would a man be immediately believed even if what they say seems preposterous? And if so why would that be? Is a man more emotionally stable, more trustworthy and tends a woman to be hysterical, or delusional? As a woman I think it’s both, it’s sexist and women are more interesting. Without going deeper into this discussion, and leaving real psychology out of it, consider this a thing to remember when you watch a film or read a book with an UN. 

In the 1970s this hype was excessively used as a horror trope. In particular the female paranoia trope. It comes down to a woman who saw something tells someone else, mostly a man who doesn’t believe her. And surprise, surprise, when things get deadly, she turns out to be right all along. 

There a lots of examples of seventies horror films where a woman is the UN like Images (1972), The Haunting of Julia (1977), Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971). That’s why Something Creeping in the Dark (1971) is a welcome exception, where the husband is assumed to be hysterical by the doctor who gives him some calming pills, instead of the wife. 

The unreliable narrator however goes a step further. Mostly told from their perspective, in books the narrative is told from the first person, the I-form. However that’s not always the case, it doesn’t need to be. It can be told in the third person, but always following the main character, the UN, telling what they are experiencing, rather than what the other characters are going through or thinking. Everything we  learn is through the eyes of the UN. A great and classic example is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Which is told by the nanny and we only learn what she sees or does or thinks she sees. It’s her mind that we follow and minds are always subjective, but not necessarily untrue. 

In films it can be achieved to show most of the story from their point of view. When taken to the more extreme that means the camera doesn’t follow other people, and it stays always at her side. The film Undertone (2025) is a recent and perfect example. It even only has the main character on screen. The other main character is only on the phone and we hear his voice. She does interact with another person in person, but she is the only one seen on screen, the other remains off-screen. The story is therefore automatically told from her perspective.

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What does an unreliable narrator mean for the story?

A story with an unreliable narrator poses the question whether there are supernatural events at play or not. While most of us don’t believe in the supernatural, it’s of course more common to doubt the narrator, this especially goes for the other characters. But we as an audience don’t watch supernatural horrors to conclude it was all in her head. We expect it, because we are watching or reading a horror story. That may be but being delusional is in reality a far greater horror than the paranormal. 

What makes this trope so interesting is that it makes us wonder too. It is all real? Or is it all in her head? Or maybe a little bit of both. The most interesting stories are those that end in an ambiguous way. There’s no concrete answer that tells us whether it really happened or that she imagined it all. It can go either way, There can be arguments based on scenes or passages from a book, that can be directed towards the case of the supernatural, while others can be used as proof that it was all in her head. 

There’s also something interesting about the UN themselves, especially in books. While they only tell the events from their perspective, it makes them a little narrow minded. They don’t ask other people their opinion and when they do they don’t trust them. Unreliable narrators aren’t the most likable people. That’s because there’s no third party to reveal their flaws, introduce us to multiple sides of the character, we only learn how this person sees themselves.

Is the unreliable narrator right or not? 

It’s also interesting what you as a reader or watcher are inclined to believe. Do you tend to believe the narrator, or are you a skeptic? And does this directly have to do whether you believe in the supernatural or not? I don’t think that matters much. Because speaking for myself (n=1,  mind you) I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I strongly believe in the supernatural in books and films. Because I like the supernatural, it’s imaginative, and it’s not real. To me it feels like a scary fairytale. So I do believe the UN often. 

There are cases though when I have my doubts. Especially when the story is framed in a way you can’t relate or compare the story’s reality to someone else. To other characters. That happens when a book is written in the I-form and it happens a lot less in films. Your only anchor is the main character. And that makes it fun. Because it’s a story it says a lot about you too. Why do you believe one person and don’t trust the other. It tells you something about how you look at people. Because when only being able to rely on one person’s perspective we tend to believe them more when we like them, or can relate to them. 

The unreliable narrator being framed

The story of, or about, an unreliable narrator means that the character is being framed by the actual storyteller, the director or writer. They frame a story, to create a certain narrative, but the character is also framed, by falsely accusing them of hallucinating, or just being crazy. They use the character either to convey the psychological themes or to make a story even more creepier or dire. While it seems we dive deep into the psyche of the character, it’s actually a nice trick to fool us, to make us work for the story too. Because it’s fun to actively wonder if what is happening is true or not and why. It makes things a bit more interesting and it keeps your attention. It’s a trope that tells us a lot about the main character, the characters around them, about ourselves and even the creators, while at the same time you can’t always be sure. 

Without going too deep into this subject and leaving all kinds of psychological theories out of it, I think it’s an interesting way to look at this kind of trope. I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts about this trope and the next time you come across an unreliable narrator you can enjoy the trope even more. 

Read more of my Editorials:

• Found Footage Horror Films: The Illusion of Reality