"Best Mind F*** movie you've seen?" Topic

"mind·

VULGAR SLANG,
noun,
noun: mind ,

"a disturbing or extremely confusing experience, in particular one that is caused by deliberate psychological manipulation."

OK, I'm looking for one that was a positive experience. Not one that finished and you're pissed off because you have no clue what just happened (I'm looking at you, "Lost Highway").

I've got a couple suggestions but please contribute your own.

Donnie Darko
The 6th Sense
Hereditary
Memento
The Shining
Fight Club
The Dead Zone
The Others
Inception
Source Code

Eraserhead

Inception.

There are countless mind s that for some strange reasons twisted my mind to watch them as great films/classics/cult and turned out to be a total bust.

Nevertheless, besides the ones you already mentioned, I fondly remember the following ones, among a few others:

Jacob's Ladder

Se7en

Pi

Spider

The Machinist

Oldboy

Possum

Martyrs

True Detective – Season 1 (And just season 1)

Midsommar

Lynch's twist is, the fourth wall is part of the dream you are in.

Definitely 6th Sense.

Crying Game, anyone?

The Ring

Time Lapse

World War Z

Brazil

6th Sense

The Adjustment Bureau

Marathon Man

No Way Out

The Sting

Trading Places

I might suggest the 1961 version of The Mask, but I had to shut it off after only about 45 seconds.

I might suggest the 1961 version of The Mask, but I had to shut it off after only about 45 seconds.

I suppose 45 seconds after the opening credits, although its score is already quite dramatic…
The Mask (1961) – On Vimeo

Now or never, the time has come….

no one mentioned Zardoz?

no one mentioned Zardoz?

First rule of the film club:
Do not pay attention to the film behind the curtain, Dorothy.

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.
Naked Lunch.
Dark City.
Reanimator.
Event Horizon.
Run Lola, Run.
The Lair of the White Worm.
The Ninth Gate.

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.

Didn't knew this one.

Which, along with 'Midsommar', of course invokes The Wicker Man

Nothing but Trouble.
Along with the Gods. (not a mind but a gut punch)
Snowpiercer.

Lady in a Cage.
The Sentinel.
Battlefield Earth.
Hansel and Gretel. 2020

"Battlefield Earth" that's more of an eyeball ****, as it hurts to watch it.

I see dead people. Did not see that coming!

The Cell
youtu.be/eIpy4p_yMV0

Kill Bill

Mulholland Drive

Inception.

The 6th Sense gives us a funny family story. We are flying to Europe and the in flight movie is just about over so Mrs Elmo goes to the bathroom and returns asking "Did I miss anything?" 🤦‍♂️

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Moon
Sliding Doors

Oh, and maybe it wasn't intentional, but Back to the Future 2 left my wife and I going "what the heck???"

The Matrix.
Just about any of the original Twilight Zone episodes. (Yes, I know they're not movies, but they're so well done.) How to serve mankind, anyone?

Maybe not quite the fit, but Ghost Dog is one of my all time favs

The Number 23.

Diabolique (1955, the original was so good that I didn't bother to watch the 1996 remake.)

The Sting (1973)

Sole Survivor (1970, William Shatner).

I Bury The Living (1958)

From Dusk til Dawn, You thought it was going to be one type of movie, then it became another. Both disturbing milieu.

In the Mouth of Madness

I'll add "eXistenZ"

The Cube.

Tenet, although I think the fact that re-watching improved the experience even further was a canny marketing technique…

etotheipi:

You thought it was going to be one type of movie, then it became another.

By this criteria,

Rushmore.

I didn't include it in my original list but at the time it came out I think "Clockwork Orange" might fit the bill.

A Beautiful Mind.

As I remember it, "A Clockwork Orange" was a very contentious film; it was highly praised & also seen as a symptom of the debasement of modern cinema; it definitely penetrated some folks' mind in a disturbing manner. It's one of my all-time favorites.

Ex machina and the sting

How can we have overlooked Usual Suspects?

Bad Timing – Sometimes I think I'm one of the few people in the US who actually watched this at the cinema.

The General's Daughter

Mandy (2018)
Liked it, but didn't quite understand it until the last scene, which put it all into context…

The Empire Strikes Back:
No… I am your father!

I've never seen it, but I've heard that Requiem for a Dream is pretty messed up.

Burning (2018) Korean Movie from a Murakami short story.

Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People)

+1 Attack of the Mushroom People. They must have spent a fortune on that derelect ship set.

The First Man into Space.

Gas-s-s-s

Head

Yellow Submarine

Jacob's Ladder and The Sixth Sense turn out to be versions of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (1890), and I figured that out way too early to be properly mind-effed, so I ended up kind of bored.

Requiem for a Dream (2000), directed by Darron Aronofsky is one of the darkest movies ever. Watch it when you feel like you're too happy and need to be brought down.

Brazil (1985), directed by Terry Gilliam, is almost equally dark, but it's kind of a fantasy story, which Requiem for a Dream is not.

Pi (1998), is another Aronofsky masterpiece that will mess you up if you pay close attention, and especially if you have any knowledge of Judaism.

The Omen (1976), directed by Richard Donner, is also disturbing. Don't watch it if you're really high and it's very late at night and you're alone.

Requiem for a Dream I found fantastic while Pi I struggled to make it through. Both valid candidates though.

Jacob's Ladder I quite enjoyed and it sent me down the rabbit hole looking for real life occurrences that influenced the movie.

The original Total Recall, (I haven't seen the remake). Did the movie happen, or is he still strapped into a chair and a total vegetable?

Shutter Island