Some movies will leave you thinking about the message at the end, and then some movies leave you questioning everything you’ve seen in the film or your own reality. These are the best kind, the ones that lead you to watch it again, seeing if you can notice where everything adds up, and the subtleties you may have missed.
These movies might shake your own reality, causing a question of personal beliefs. Some, you may just not be able to wrap your head around because it’s just that strange. It can happen, and these will take you on a trip to show you how.
Possessor
The definition of “I’m scared, what’s happening?”. Possessor was the feature debut of David Cronenberg’s son Brandon Cronenberg, director of the recent Infinity Pool with Mia Goth. Possessor is stark realistic gore mixed in with a surreal plot.
Revolving around assassins that use possessing others’ bodies through a technological implant, Possessor follows one assassin named Vos who starts to have barriers between her own reality and those of who she inhabits crumble away. Andrea Riseborough plays Vos to perfection when another actor isn’t in possession.
The true mind-bender as always though is the end of the film, where it’s left open as to how much were the strings being pulled versus how much the puppet was in control. There are lingering questions of morality and what it means to be human.
Perfect Blue
It’s an anime, but still, a must-watch film for any cinema fan and Satoshi Kon’s opus. This movie has been referenced and had homage paid to it in nearly everything, with Darren Aronofsky buying the rights just to use one scene in Requiem for a Dream (screaming underwater). It’s like the perfect mix of madness and unreliability that very few have come close to since.
Following a young woman who leaves her life as a singer to pursue an acting career in Japan, and seeing her break down as the pressure of filming, a strange online diary supposedly written by her, and a stalker threatening to shatter the very thin glass between her reality and nightmares. The ambiguous ending will leave you wondering.
Triangle
I’m not spoiling anything about what actually makes this mind-bending, but know that it’s one of the best instances of unexplained cosmic horror put to film.
Jess is a single mom in a dead-end job who wants to get away any way she can, so she jumps at the chance to go sailing on a private yacht with some friends. Until the yacht gets capsized by a freak storm just as a strange deserted ship passes by. Bad decisions are made, they go on the ship, and things go downhill from there as something starts hunting them.
Coherence
This is why I don’t go to dinner parties because you sit down and start talking then the next thing you know you see yourself running across the street.
At least, that’s the dinner party in Coherence. A bunch of friends gather, have some food, open some wine, then things just go weird. I’ve watched this movie at least six times. I’ve made charts of this movie. You’ll definitely want to look some up when you finish.
Predestination
As if having Ethan Hawke isn’t enough, Predestination gives a story and acting that are just top of the line between Hawke and Sara Snook years before she would gain fame from Succession. Everything in this movie only makes sense at the very end, with viewers left realizing they’ve been strung together this whole time much like the protagonist.
Seriously, this is like Primer but if the timelines were easier to follow and involved a lot more interesting people. This movie was a game-changer when it came to stories about time travel and keeping a cohesive plot with an interconnected story.
Mother
For those that have seen Mother before this, you’ll know that the most terrifying noise in this film is a crack that can be heard in the loudest room. It’s absolutely chilling and Jennifer Lawrence’s acting is just so well done you feel her pain. The mind-bending isn’t just the ending but the entire film, with Darren Aronofsky retelling the Bible and the downfall of man through this dysfunctional couple.
Everything goes wild. Like, a random old couple move-in, house parties, strange dinners… the whole movie is just weird as hell.
Session 9
Yes, Session 9 has one of the most ridiculous bits of acting ever put to film, and that’s why we love it. Other than being known for David Caruso’s Gordon giving the most melodramatic “F*ck you” in cinema history, Session 9 is a paranoid haunting where we never actually see any ghosts or spirits.
Session 9 is all about the psychological fragility we hear through the tapes, recounting a girl named Mary who was confined to a sanitarium, exhibiting nine different personalities which she says murdered her family. The main movie follows Gordon listening to the tapes while he and his crew are clearing asbestos from the now-defunct building.
It’s terrifying, and still has people arguing about the events of the film and if they’re supernatural in nature or simply human. There’s a ton of nuance to the ending that leaves everything ambiguous, offering a hint that it could be anything from Gordon’s own fracturing mind or a legitimate possession by pure evil.
The best movies, the ones that stand the test of time and are still talked about today, are the ones that leave us asking questions about them. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps the movie creators going, making people have conversations over the consequences and mind-bending weight of our existence or even just where we are. Just don’t think too hard, it gets a little scary after a while.
Rubber
No words will adequately describe this film to anyone who hasn’t watched it. Hell, the director even opens the movie by basically saying “Nothing you see is going to make sense. F*ck you.” and he is one hundred percent correct in that prediction.
Don’t ask for logic, don’t ask for a reason, don’t ask for anything to make any kind of sound, sane decision when you watch this film. A lone rubber tire with telekinetic powers roams the desert and goes on a murder spree. That’s the movie.
If you need more convincing, it’s incredibly bloody and escalates at about the same speed as a thirteen-year-old playing Grand Theft Auto, with just as crude humor sprinkled throughout as our silent, rubbery hero rides through the carnage.
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.