Top 10 Movie Psychics

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE Counting down cinema's top 10 mind readers to celebrate the release of Red Lights on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download from Momentum Pictures.

10 Professor X and Jean Grey in the X-Men Films

Professor Charles Xavier is the perfect tutor and uses his mental gift to fight Magneto's mutant army. His powers are so strong that he only has one equal - the studious Jean Grey, who is mentally linked to Xavier with an unspoken psychic bond, uniting them together forever in the face of evil. Until she disintegrates him. Bummer.

9 River Tam in Serenity

Summer was subjected to experiments to mould her into the perfect assassin by The Academy, where her brain was "toyed with." Consequently she can read minds using her unique intuitive skills, but has very little control over her emotions! Also, she can kill you with her brain.

8   Lyn Cassady in The Men Who Stare at Goats

Lyn was a student of the New World Army - a secret US military that teaches soldiers to become "psychic spies". Self-confessed "Jedi Warrior" Lyn never quite mastered the art of walking through walls nor reading top secret enemy thoughts, he can lay claim to killing a goat with the power of his mind.

7   Annie Wilson in The Gift

A young woman goes missing in the local town and Annie's services are reluctantly called upon by the police. Annie is a struggling mother of two and uses her psychic gifts to support her family and community. With the help of a ghost and her psychic visions, she is lead to the gruesome murder scene on the property of man who has become her personal adversary. Is the murderer is the town's rebel and wife beater or are there darker forces at work? Excellent for a small town psychic!

6 Tangina in Poltergeist

As memorably portrayed by Zelda Rubenstein, Tangina is one of the weirdest psychics on this list. This film turns American suburb tranquility into a house of horrors. A young family’s home is interrupted by the strange happenings of a poltergeist and it gets serious when five-year-old Carol Anne disappears. Paranormal investigators are called in to expel the evil poltergeist, but it's a task none of them are ready for, nor one they can handle. One of the scariest scenes features a psychic, describing the circumstances of the missing Carol Anne, the psychic informs her parents that there are many arms about her, including those of an evil presence... "to her it is just another child, but to us it is... the beast."

5 Damien i n The Omen Films

A switch at birth places the boy (born of a jackal) in the home of the American ambassador to Great Britain (Gregory Peck, who is always great), and therefore in a position to assume future world power. The boy himself, although capable of some unnerving leers, is rather harmless, but the people and forces at work to protect him will stop at nothing. Great, chilling theme by Jerry Goldsmith. Creepiest scene: It's Damien's birthday party, and his nanny decides to prove her loyalty to him... by hanging herself from the roof.

4 Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone

When a near death car crash puts Johnny in a coma for five years, he wakes up with the psychic ability to see into the past and future of anyone he touches. Johnny uses his new found powers to save the world from nuclear holocaust by attempting to assassinate a Senator. Well, you would too.

3 Nick Marshall in What Women Want

Womanising male Nick wasn't born with his gift; he had an ironic accident in the bath tub with a hairdryer and since gained the ability to read women's minds. Using his new found powers he manages to wrangle a few good looking girls into bed. Once he's learned his lesson - women are people too - Nick's powers disappear and he is a new man.

2  Carrie White in Carrie

Let this be a warning to any school bullies: your next playground victim could grow up to be a raging psychopath. Supernatural telekinetic powers will always win.

Carrie’s teenage alienation and years of rage bottled in creates a deadly psychic ability.

1  Simon Silver in Red Lights

Legendary but elusive blind psychic Simon Silver (De Niro) emerges following a mysterious 30 year absence. Once-fearless psychic investigator Matheson warns her understudy to leave Silver alone for fear that he will retaliate.

Empowered by his obsession to disprove Silver, Buckley enlists the help of his star student Sally Owen (Elizabeth Olsen) and uses every tool at his disposal. As Tom gets closer to Silver, whose magnetism becomes stronger with each new manifestation of inexplicable events, tension mounts, and he is forced to question his own core beliefs.

Dave Golder
Freelance Writer

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.