Top Mindfuck Movies
I spent the other night making a list of movies for my boss. “Mindfuck” probably isn’t the right category, but I dunno. It’s pretty close for most of them. The last three movies are a bit divergent, but they flow nicely as a list.
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Triangle
A good round-a-bout entry to start this list. Group of friends stranded in the ocean board a mysterious ship where they soon encounter copies of themselves. Some of them try to protect each other, some try to kill each other. Everyone just wants off the boat.
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Coherence
Triangle, but with much less bloodshed. A group of friends have a dinner party while a comet passes overhead. The power goes off in the neighborhood, but they can see a light on in the house down the street, which looks “strangely” like their own.
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The Congress
Continuing with the stoic, somber tone: a famous actress signs an eternal contract. It’s actually less fantastical than it sounds. She’s scientificly immortalized, but what happens when the mass public inevitabley looses interest?
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Under the Silver Lake
I wasn’t fond of this movie, but it I think it fits this list really well. Hollywood is fake! But this movie gets really weird about it. There’s a lot of uncomfortable woman objectification in this one, but that’s supposed to be part of the theme… unfortunately I don’t quite get it, but it’s still interesting with a bunch of memorable scenes.
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Naked Lunch
I love it when Cronenberg is given an actual proper narrative. An exterminator gets addicted to consuming his pesticide, then goes into hiding after killing his wife. Enjoy the disgusting insect puppetry while trying to decipher how blurred the line is between reality and hallucination.
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John Capenter’s The Thing
Finally a break from questioning reality, but we’re taking the body horror up to 11. A “thing” is loose on an artic base. It absorbs life, then replaces its victims. The dog dies.
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Pontypool
Speaking of contagions, what if speaking was the contagion? A radio host has a run in with violent, inchoherent zombies, and attempts to talk his way out of it.
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Beartrap
An indie film shot in Edmonton. Exactly how sick and twisted is the new room mate? It has a slow start, and isn’t nearly as heavy as anything else on this list, but it’s well worth watching, especially because it’s literally impossible to find unless you know someone who bought it 10 years ago.