History MindScrew / Film

* Rasputin's ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocm8QdNR_d8 In The Dark of The Night]]'' from ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'', i mean look at this scene! You got bugs everywhere, the whole time!

* Even though Ralph Bakshi's animated films are more known for their adult material, some of his films, especially Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, have trippy sequences that could be considered mind screw.

* Almost everthing from "WesternAnimation/TomandJerry:TheMovie" to quote from WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic.

* Nigel, the DragonInChief in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'', gets the VillainSong ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFj4QTjFV_w Pretty Bird]]'', where he explains his backstory as a show bird and how he's now a murderous CardCarryingVillain, and trust me, it's very trippy.

* Nigel, the DragonInChief in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'', gets ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFj4QTjFV_w Pretty Bird]]'', where he explains his backstory as a show bird and how he's now a murderous CardCarryingVillain, and trust me, it's very trippy.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcbRgr4dt6I And Look, they also made it a crossover with the Angry Birds to coincide with the release of Angry Birds Rio]]! With a few words changed of course, and also trippy too.

* Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker" can be seen as a mild case of this. We have one segment, where Michael is chased by clay-mation characters, so he turns himself into a clay-mation rabbit and drives away from them on a motorcycle. And then, it turns out that the rabbit (Spike) is real, and Michael and he has a dance contest! Then we have the music video for "Leave me alone", which is heavy enough with symbolism to come across as hopelessly surreal. And then starts the last segment, where Michael suddenly has the ability to turn into a car and a giant robot!

* "Pink Elephants on Parade" from ''Disney/{{Dumbo}}'', just... Just look at that scene! It's the scene when Dumbo and Timothy Mouse drink water spiked with discarded champagne and hallucinate all these freaky-looking elephants!

* Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker" can be seen as a mild case of this. We have one segment, where Michael is chased by clay-mation characters, so he turns himself into a clay-mation rabbit and drives away from them on a motorcycle. And then, it turns out that the rabbit (Spike) is real, and Michael and he has a dance contest! Then we have the music video for "Leave me alone", which is heavy enough with symbolism to come across as hopelessly surreal. And then starts the last segment, where Michael suddenly has the ability to turn into a car and a giant robot!

* ''Film/{{Moonwalker}}'' is a self-indulgent movie where the entire first twenty minutes is nothing but DerangedAnimation coupled with some of Music/MichaelJackson's most well-known dance moves, or moves that he popularized (such as crotch-grabbing ''outside'' your house), then devolves into his well-known "I'm Bad" video, except portrayed by children, who after making the video walk outside of the building through a cloud of smoke and emerge as adults. Jackson is then chased down the street by claymation people and then escapes by dressing up as a man-sized rabbit. That was the first half-hour. It gets much weirder from there.

* Several of the ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' sequels have shades of this, especially ''HellraiserDeader''.
* If [[spoiler:the narrator being Tyler all along]] in ''FightClub'' is not an example of that, then I'm being a Martian.

* The horro film ''Film/{{Cube}}'' intentionally offers no real explanations to what the eponymous ''Cube'' is and why the characters were placed in it. It just developped by itself, with one architect behind it saying "Because it's here. You either use it, or admit it's pointless" (which, in and of itself is pretty mind-screwy). The sequels, however, make things ''worse'' with their attempts to actually explain things somewhat, as none of the three films are made by the same people and can't seem to agree on essential points -- ''Film/Cube2Hypercube'' being the worst offender in this area.

->''"A mental mindfuck can be nice!"''
-->-- '''Dr. Frank N. Furter''', ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''

* ''{{Cube}}'' intentionally offers no real explanations to what the titular ''Cube'' is and why the characters were placed in it.
** The sequels, however, make things ''worse'' with their attempts to actually explain things somewhat, as none of the three films are made by the same people and can't seem to agree on essential points - ''Hypercube'' being the worst offender in this area.
*** The first film actually gives a very mind-boggling explanation to why they are in the ''Cube'' (which is just a "survival maze") - the exact quote being: "Because it's here. You either use it, or admit it's pointless." (which, in and of itself is pretty mind-screwy)
** Director of ''Cube'', Vincenzo Natali, also made ''Film/{{nothing}}'', a [[TheStoner Stoner Comedy]] about non-existence. It's fairly straightforward in its own way, but still...

%% ** A popular urban legend (later confirmed by Arthur C. Clarke himself) goes that, after the premiere, Rock Hudson stormed out %% of the theater yelling, "Can someone tell me what the hell I just watched?"

* ''MirrorMask'' My God, Mirror Mask... If the visual conception isn't enough, then would some other troper explain what the whole point was? Or how it was the SpiritualSuccessor to ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''?

* DavidLynch's ''Film/MulhollandDrive''. Or, to an even greater degree, ''{{Film/Eraserhead}}''.
** ''Lost Highway'' where on the one hand characters transform into each other. On the other hand is the first scene repeated later from a different view: Fred, who answered the entryphone in the first version, rings the bell in the second one himself. So instead of an expected OnceMoreWithClarity it turns out to further support the Mind Screw.
** ''Inland Empire'' makes Mulholland Dr. seem sensical. As Laura Dern's character describes the events of the film: "I'm trying to tell you so you understand how it went. Thing is, I don't know what was before or after. I don't know what's happened first...and it's kinda layin' a mindfuck on me." And oh good Christ in heaven, ''how many'' false endings did that movie ''have''? I'm fairly sure that they took up the last forty minutes.

* ''Film/UnChienAndalou''. Just try to read the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_Chien_Andalou#Synopsis Other Wiki's synopsis]]. WordOfGod says that was entirely deliberate. Quoting Luis Bunuel on the rules he and Dali set for them selves in writing the script: "no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." and "Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything. The only method of investigation of the symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis."

* The movie π (''{{Pi}}'') has a paranoid mathematical genius, Hebrew numerology, conspiracies, neurological headaches, the secret name of God, and [[spoiler:the protagonist taking [[ThisIsADrill A Drill]] to his head to escape all this crap]]. To top it off, it's in black and white. And is scored to techno music.
* ''{{Primer}}'', thanks to TimeTravel, SecondHandStorytelling, and a case of TheEndingChangesEverything. There is an explanation for almost everything that happens, but you have to watch the movie at least twice to put all the clues together.

* ''RepoMan'' for sure, but played for laughs.

* ''TheFountain''.