Need a specefic recomndiation
 

I'm working on a script and I want to watch movies with similar style for direction.

I'm looking for thrillers where the protagonist, now an adult, goes searching for clues in his past, down to his childhood up to adulthood, for some kind of a mystery
concerning a traumatic event.

like: secret in their eyes. batman begins. Incendies. not necessarily fits the bill but close to it.

Check out Lion (2016) with Dev Patel.
There's also The Vanishing (1988), but the event happened when he was a slightly younger adult, so it may not apply.

Re: Need a specefic recomndiation
 

Hanna, 2011 somewhat fits this.

thank you, but I need movies in the thrillers genre.

I updated my post to include The Vanishing. Make sure it's the 1988 version. The 1993 remake is apparently pretty bad.

The absolute best example I can think of off the top of my head is The Tale (2018) by Jennifer Fox with Laura Dern. It’s word-to-word what you want. And if anyone tells me that’s not a psychological thriller, I don’t know what is.

Martyrs (2008).

Not much of a traumatic event in this one, but The Endless (2017).

By the Grace of God (2018).

Sleepers (1996).

I’m curious why you include Incendies, which I almost recommended, but decided against it, before I realised you’d mentioned it. Surely ? It’s still traumatic for them to investigate, but the trauma is not theirs to my mind.

Maybe Don't Tell? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443446/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

Would you possibly count (SPOILERS FOR THE FILM I'M ABOUT TO MENTION, SORRY)

More of a horror/sci-fi, but House at the End of Time. Also in the horror vein, Oculus. Not totally your brief, but The Lodge. Maybe the Orphanage.

I'd add The Endless, Frailty, The Awakening.

Dark Places is this plot, though I didn't love the film itself.

That made me laugh, that makes perfect sense, don’t it? You are the best.

I’ve already mentioned The Endless (petty, I know :) )

Looks like a lot ppl covered most of it but “The Butterfly Effect” fits.

Re: Need a specefic recomndiation
 

That's what Verneuil's The Body of my Enemy is about. I keep mentioning it as one of the best films ever.

There's a bit of that in Eastwood's Mystic River too, if I remember well.

Ultimately Angel Heart (1987) fits.

Oops! And I read your post!

Well, consider it a strong second for The Endless.

Also, I think I misunderstood the request and just put films that have to do with the characters' childhoods, but it seems like it's anything in their own past (even as adults)?

Re: Need a specefic recomndiation
 

Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIBaGIUbXqI

Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again (1991) cleverly twists the formula with reincarnation rather than straight memory, but it is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdKN7njU61A

There might be a slight language barrier, but I read it just the way you did, and the OP does mention “from childhood to adulthood”, so I’d say you were right the first time around.

Cronenberg's Spider (2002).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_UENtiYlT8

John Sayles' Lone Star (1996) is another generational one in that the protagonist is learning about secrets from his father's life, but they have repercussions in the present.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UffK-IHM1B0

The Dry 2020 and ^ Lone Star fit your description perfectly.

Re: Need a specefic recomndiation
 

Since there are already lots of suggestions, I'll go on a tangent. Get a subscription to the Ancestry database and find the dramas in your own past. Everybody has some of those dramas in their past and they can make a plot line that's not already used. I did that and found some that would be script-worthy.

The Tale (2018), starring Jennifer Fox and Laura Dern, is the finest example I can think of right now. It's exactly what you're looking for. And if that isn't a psychological thriller, then I don't know what is.