Name three movies that would "mess with someone's mind"

[Telemachus]

I know for myself, I tend to change my approach depending on the kind of movie I am going to see. You know with some you have to throw believability out the window before you walk in the door and just try to be entertained.

On a different note, I friend and I used to have a discussion about what 3 movies we would pick to play if you wanted to mess with someone's mind. I remember that A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove were always in the running.

 

[VF21]

I know for myself, I tend to change my approach depending on the kind of movie I am going to see. You know with some you have to throw believability out the window before you walk in the door and just try to be entertained.

On a different note, I friend and I used to have a discussion about what 3 movies we would pick to play if you wanted to mess with someone's mind. I remember that A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove were always in the running.

2001: A Space Odyssey should be in the mix, as well as The Gods Must Be Crazy.

 

[Telemachus]

2001: A Space Odyssey should be in the mix, as well as The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Das Boot and The Crying Game as well.

 

[VF21]

I moved this into its own thread.

 

[Padrino]

I can think of tons of films that I would recommend in this particular category, but since the original post asks for three, I'll limit my first post in this thread to the aforementioned number.

Let's make it David Lynch-themed, since he's kinda the obvious choice for Living Master of the Mindf***:

Eraserhead (1977): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074486/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_41
Mulholland Drive (2001): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_48
Inland Empire (2006): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460829/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_30

 

[kingsboi]

Human Centipede
Inception
Vanilla Sky

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Human Centipede
Inception
Vanilla Sky

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same...

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Requiem for a Dream (Pi and Black Swan could easily complete a list of 3)

He's no David Lynch but plenty of Cronenberg's stuff.

Maybe Blair Witch Project if it was still 1999.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same...

Oooh oooh I know!!! Vanilla Sky is a remake of a superior foreign film!!!

 

[Telemachus]

I can think of tons of films that I would recommend in this particular category, but since the original post asks for three, I'll limit my first post in this thread to the aforementioned number.

Let's make it David Lynch-themed, since he's kinda the obvious choice for Living Master of the Mindf***:

Eraserhead (1977): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074486/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_41
Mulholland Drive (2001): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_48
Inland Empire (2006): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460829/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_30

We originally chose 3 because that is the limit most people would be willing to watch in a row.

 

[Padrino]

We originally chose 3 because that is the limit most people would be willing to watch in a row.

Fair enough. Films of this sort can certainly inspire mental fatigue.

Requiem for a Dream (Pi and Black Swan could easily complete a list of 3)

He's no David Lynch but plenty of Cronenberg's stuff.

Maybe Blair Witch Project if it was still 1999.

Aronofsky and Cronenberg are great calls.

Next up on my list:

The Holy Mountain (1973) - dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_7
Twelve Monkeys (1995) - dir. Terry Gilliam: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114746/?ref_=nv_sr_2
The Fall (2006) - dir. Tarsem Singh: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/?ref_=nv_sr_3

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Aronofsky and Cronenberg are great calls.

at the MoPop in Seattle they have an interactive Videodrome tv screen in the horror exhibit. I find most people stare at it blankly trying to figure out what it is. And I'm like "hell yes! VIDEODROME!!!"

12 Monkeys is a good one and reasonably accessible.

 

[Padrino]

at the MoPop in Seattle they have an interactive Videodrome tv screen in the horror exhibit. I find most people stare at it blankly trying to figure out what it is. And I'm like "hell yes! VIDEODROME!!!"

12 Monkeys is a good one and reasonably accessible.

I was at MoPOP back in March! And I had the EXACT same reaction!!

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I was at MoPOP back in March! And I had the EXACT same reaction!!

I took my son there also in March at the end of Spring Break. Was my second trip and I think we have to go back because we just missed the Marvel exhibit. Last year they had a pretty cool Henson exhibit.

 

[Padrino]

I took my son there also in March at the end of Spring Break. Was my second trip and I think we have to go back because we just missed the Marvel exhibit. Last year they had a pretty cool Henson exhibit.

That's awesome! I was there with my wife during my spring break (I teach in the Los Rios Community College District). And yeah, the Marvel exhibit would have been rad to see, but I was especially stoked that they had revived the Nirvana exhibit.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

The Fall (2006) - dir. Tarsem Singh

The Fall is a great, great movie with probably my favorite cinematography ever...but I'm not sure it really "messes with your mind". Fantastical, but pretty straightforward.

 

[Padrino]

The Fall is a great, great movie with probably my favorite cinematography ever...but I'm not sure it really "messes with your mind". Fantastical, but pretty straightforward.

This is a fair point, but I think films that approach the surreal, that force the viewer to reckon with unique and imaginative visual storytelling, are worthy of consideration for lists like this. For example:

Spoiler

The scene where Otto Benga is shot in the back, and dies upon a bed of the very arrows that killed him, has never left my brain. It's beautiful, majestic, and haunting.

As with most things, your mileage may vary, but this scene definitely messed with my mind the first time I saw it. It reconfigured what I thought I understood about cinematography in the first place.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

As with most things, your mileage may vary, but this scene definitely messed with my mind the first time I saw it. It reconfigured what I thought I understood about cinematography in the first place.

Absolutely one of my favorite scenes! I think we probably just have pretty different ideas of what messing with one's mind should mean. A profound and novel use of cinematography can certainly change us particularly in regards to our expectations of what cinema can do. But for me "messing with your mind" is the kind of thing that leaves you walking out of the theater thinking "what if I'm really in the matrix?" or "what if my s.o. is really plotting against me?" and the like.

 

[Hoovtrain]

What constitutes messing with someone’s mind? Like it was so haunting it messed with me for a while after? Or it was such a mind F that is messed with me after? Or both?

 

[Telemachus]

What constitutes messing with someone’s mind? Like it was so haunting it messed with me for a while after? Or it was such a mind F that is messed with me after? Or both?

Our mindset was taking a young person (late teens, early 20s) and using these movies to mess with their perception of reality (so to speak). No permanent damage, maybe only a few years or so.

 

[Hoovtrain]

Our mindset was taking a young person (late teens, early 20s) and using these movies to mess with their perception of reality (so to speak). No permanent damage, maybe only a few years or so.

Now do snuff films count?

 

[VF21]

Now do snuff films count?

Reminder: Family friendly site.

 

[hrdboild]

Hmmm, what about...

Upstream Color (2013) by Shane Carruth -- If anyone else has actually seen this, I bet you can't come up with a coherent plot description. It's something about music and something about DNA and something about the cycle of life and something about pigs. And you thought Primer was confusing! I probably need to watch this again.

You Were Never Really Here (2018) by Lynne Ramsay -- I just saw this one in the theater recently. Some people are going to hate it but I actually thought it did a masterful job of making you empathize with a character that most people wouldn't find very empathetic. I don't want to spoil anything, but the first 20 minutes of this movie in particular are a total mindtrip.

I'm tempted to put something by Gasper Noe here since mindtrip movies are his Raison d'etre but I don't actually recommend any of them. So how about a different French movie instead which is actually watchable...

Last Year at Marienbad (1961) by Alain Resnais -- A couple stroll in a garden. He claims they met in the same location a year ago but she has no memory of this. Is he lying? It's either a film about a character trying to manipulate another character or a film about a filmmaker trying to manipulate the audience or a film about the unreliability of memory. Or maybe it's just a series of images strung together in a manner that simulates meaning without actually meaning anything? Heck if I know.