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Somemoviesare able-bodied to relentlessly bear on the boundaries of the visual spiritualist , roil out bizarre , dreamlike imagination that might have a witness oppugn what they ’re even experiencing . A " fever dream " is often used as a descriptor for particularly unknown films , as sickness - induced dreams are known to acquire some particularly far - out visuals . After all , James Cameron ’s own fever dreamallegedly engender the idea of the T-800 ’s gleam chrome skull , meaning that such a appointment is n’t necessarily an vilification .
Fever aspiration picture show are n’t necessarily expert or sorry by default , with some navigate trippy aesthetics , put off editing choice , and utterly alien shift key in narrative better than others . That being say , they’re always at least memorable , sticking in the mind long after credits roll for better or for worse . Frompsychedelic horror filmsto offbeat animated lineament , aspiration - comparable motion picture can come in all sorts of unearthly phase .
10Mandy
A Patented Nicolas Cage Freak-Out
Not exactly an actor well - known for his subtlety , Nicolas Cage ’s full moviesallow the beloved actor full license to twist up the absurdity with his performance . Mandyis one of the most hypnotically unusual entries in Cage ' revere catalogue , even if it seems like a generic retaliation flick on theme .
The entire motion-picture show is a nightmarish parade of visuals purpose - build up to commove and fascinate , create a foreign alternate world full of unholy bikers and chainsaw duels .
Mandytells the report of Nicolas Cage ’s Red , a faller who goes on a murderous spree of vengeance after his creative person girl is belt down by a cast multitude of zealous Christian cultists . WhereMandytruly stands out as off-the-wall is in its psychedelic visuals , bathing its eccentric in gamey concentrated main colors as they go about their sick employment .
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The entire film is a nightmarish parade of visualspurpose - construct to vex and intrigue , create a strange alternate world full of demonic rockers and chainsaw duels . The only thing more dreamlike than the moving picture ’s appearance is its foggy sentience of system of logic , with John Cage ' type doing things like fake his own strange flowing battle ax to use as an instrument of pain .
9Foodfight!
Animation So Cheap It Becomes Nearly Imaginary
Not every motion-picture show with fever dream visuals does so on aim . Enter the infamous alive filmFoodfight ! , which has gone down in history as one of the speculative attempts at flick brand recognition thanks in no small part to its surreal display . The report takes place in a elephantine market fund populated by living solid food mascot , include recognisable faces like Mrs. Butterworth and Charlie Tuna . Cartoon dogtooth investigator Dex Dogtective is tax with stopping the vicious Brand X from claim over Marketopolis .
The bare concept of friendly cartoon mascots used to sell food jumping off the shelf , moving about and utter is enough of a fever dream on its own . ButFoodfight ! ’s wet animation , awkward celebrity voice stamp , and horrify scoundrel make it an badly - conceived children ’s pic , to say the very least . At leastthe utter curiousness of the ruined product wield to get out a legacyslightly deep than the cheap brand - realisation cash grabFoodfight!was always meant to be .
8The Lighthouse
Robert Eggers' Absurdist Masterpiece
Thanks to therecent achiever ofNosferatu , Robert Eggers has more than prove himself as a repulsion seer with a leash of delectably scary menstruum small-arm . Of his study , The Lighthouseis easily the most unusual and dreamlike , obscuring its dependable purpose behind multiple level of unease . On paper , the plot of land tells the story of a newly - minted lighthouse keeper who choose his first caper working on a bare bumpy island with only a cranky honest-to-goodness coworker to keep him company . Before long , the two ’s circumstances and closing off drive them to madness .
From sailor superstitious notion to Promethean myth , The Lighthousehas a lot of thematic balls to juggle . It manages to somehow keep them all aloft thanks tothe excellent performance of Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoeas they navigate bizarre edits , delusion sequence , and intentional continuity errors that subtly put viewers on their toes from the very beginning . A messy labyrinthine tarradiddle to analyse with repeat viewings , The Lighthouseisn’t afraid to violate audience with an unconventional tale uncoerced to shift smell at the drop of a hat .
7Sorry To Bother You
A Collection Of Several Very Different Movies Hiding In A Trench Coat
Few movie jarringly parkour between unlike musical genre as violently asSorry to Bother Youdoes . star LaKeith Stanfield , the photographic film begins as a racial commentaryas Stanfield ’s lineament Cash uses a " blanched articulation " , uproariously return by David Cross , to appeal to customers as a telemarketer .
Rising through the ranks of the ship’s company , the story then shifts into a speculation on former - microscope stage capitalist economy as Cash ’s employer intends to grease one’s palms broke citizens into indentured servitude . Things take a jarring shift late in the third actwith a disclosure of a fantastical ingredient brewing within the companionship , enter a unexampled science fiction source of exploited labor .
Even before this , the picture exists in an odd heavy - than - life reality in which LaKeith Stanfield can open his sass only to have David Cross ’s voice come out , and one of the most popular shows on television is a secret plan show titledI get the Sh*t Kicked Out of Me . Sorry to nettle Youstarts off just normal enough to make its plunge into tomfoolery feel that much more abrupt .
6Mad God
A Silent Trek Through Hell And Back
It enter that some of the most upsettingly dreamy movies of all time have picayune to no dialogue , allowing their surreal imagination to do the talking . Mad Godis a stop - motion masterpiece by extra effects fable Phil Tippett ofStar Wars , Jurassic Park , andRoboCopfame that tookan astounding 30 twelvemonth of output . The meager story , as much as it can be surmised , followsa solitary gas - masque wearing assassinator as he come into an increasingly nightmarish world , seemingly stand for to execute a objective with the enjoyment of a suitcase bomb calorimeter .
Mad Godproves the economic value of lay off - motility as an artistic production form even in the New cinematic landscape of blockbuster suffused with CGI . That being said , the cinema is far from easy viewing , containing some deviously disconcerting and beastly mental imagery not meant for the deliquium of fondness . For those that can stomach it , Mad Godis a trippy stock through one man ’s optical workmanship decidedly unlike any other film ever made .
5Eraserhead
The Most Surreal Movie Of A Famously Dreamy Filmmaker
If there ’s one director principally known for his surreal sensibilities when it comes to his moving picture , it ’s the tardy not bad David Lynch . From project like Mulholland Drive to Inland Empire , Lynch was always tug the boundariesof what film could really accomplish as a glimpse into the subconscious .
The late David Lynch was a sincerely iconic director who brought some of the most surrealistic movie and TV shows to the mainstream throughout his vocation .
Though much of his filmography could be described as a fever dream , Eraserheadis arguably his most surreal and unconvincing project . Described by Lynch as a very personal film , the on the loose plot ofEraserheadcenters on a unseasoned gentleman’s gentleman who has an unplanned gestation with his lady friend , only to be stuck demand care of an inhuman foreign - like babe whose wails fracture an already chafe psyche .
The narrative is far from the centering of the film compared tothe dreamlike visuals , oppressed with weighed down symbolism , such as the dance cleaning lady in the radiator or the major planet with a brass that vomits a spermatozoon . Even describingEraserheadis an unreal experience that hardly captures a fraction of the film ’s utter strangeness .
4Under The Skin
Scarlett Johansson’s Strangest Star Vehicle Ever
For as enceinte of a star as she is , it was quite brave of Scarlett Johansson to lend her functioning to the pensive horror filmUnder the pelt . The modest - scale icon positsJohansson as a flesh - shifting alienwho masquerade as human , seducing unwitting men and lure them in before " eating " them in a foreign esoteric outgrowth . Her agency of life is interrupted when one man take it upon himself to end the violent death once and for all , proceed after her himself .
With all the familiarhallmarks of an A24 horror movie , Under the Skinstill manages to shock and titillate with its eery imagination . The process by which Johansson ’s persona absorbs her meal is a trippy enough visual on its own , but the use of tangible Scotsmen filmed via concealed photographic camera during the segments in which she shops for unsuspecting victims to pick up contribute a unknown layer of realism . As a whole , the melancholy yet weirdly casual tint of the film , not to mention an other appearance of Adam Pearson pre - A Different Manfame , make for an intriguing pouf tale .
3House
A Masterclass In Hilariously Strange Horror
House , better have sex in the West asHausu , is a triumph of outrageous and hilarious horror comedy . The distinctive haunted house account centers on a group of ally all oddly - named after their Earth’s surface - level personality traits , include Kung Fu , Gorgeous , Fantasy , Prof , Mac , Melody , and Sweet .
perfectly unmatched in the absurdity department , at least compared to contemporaneous film , Houseis a wacky pushing - of - the - envelope for the haunt house subgenre .
Gorgeous invite the rest of the girls to go on an extempore summertime holiday with her to her auntie ’s house after discover out her father got married without telling her . But the aunty and her house have sinister plans in memory for the unsuspecting mathematical group . The scare ofHouseare flakey to the stop of hilarity , with malefic cats , orca pianos , and hilarious low - budget green screen special effects assaulting the girls at every good turn .
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The big - than - aliveness set and dreamlike editing style further chip in to the comically strange experience , lead many viewer to oppugn just how in on its own jokeHousemay be . perfectly nonpareil in the absurdness department , at least compared to coeval films , Houseis a silly pushing - of - the - gasbag for the obsess house subgenre .
2Beau Is Afraid
The Unabashed Epic Of Bizarre Proportions
After the success ofHereditaryandMidsommar , repugnance filmmakerAri Aster ’s filmographywas take exception byBeau Is Afraid . Here , Joaquin Phoenix star as the titulary Beau , nervous and diffident man who has to travel across the rural area after his mother short and tragically dies . Coming into contact with a hostile , trying macrocosm , Beau ends up on a weave series of tangents that depart heavily from his original end before lastly circling back around .
The narrative structure ofBeau Is Afraidis utterly incoherent . It can be debate whether that is a long suit or a weakness of the pic , but there ’s no denying that it does no favors to the Herculean task of making sense of the non - stop avalanche of fearsome and fantastical imagery . Piling on nonsensical subplot after preposterous subplot , Beau finally find some explosive answers about the mysteries of his own origin that are cursorily glossed over before a random depressant ending that makes no attempt to explicate the many mess about threads .
1Altered States
Psychedelic Horror At Its Finest
Many films might search psychedelic imagery reminiscent of a febricity aspiration , but few do so in as diagetic a way asAltered States . The Ken Russell - helmed science fabrication horror motion-picture show follow Dr. Edward Jessup , played by William Hurt , as he essay to explore the outer reaches of the human nous via sensational deprivation chamber and hallucinogenic content . Of of course , this result insome deliciously nightmarish visualsthat surely lead an impression .
avowedly , compare to other picture that might be strange the whole way through , Altered Statestakes its clock time in unleash the absurdity . By the time it ’s able to let open , however , the looker is perfectly prim out for some of the most terrifyingly unearthly image ever put to screen , walking back human phylogenesis through transparent psychosis . Even if themoviehas a comparatively grounded frame history gluing the chaos together , the dreaming - like chip ofAltered Statesaren’t easy to forget .
