History MindScrew / Film

* The movie π (''[[Film/{{Pi}} 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.

* When you have a character who asks 'Hang on, whose subconscious are we in again?' it's safe to say you're dealing with a mind screw.

* The movie π (''Film/{{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.

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' is not as mind screwing as one would expect. But the whole plot is about putting an industrial heir through one massive mind screw to mess with his free will. First he is put into an artificial dream where he gets kidnapped by people wanting the codes to his fathers secret safe, which he handles quite well. But then he gets put into a dream within the dream where he is approached by a stranger who claims to be part of his subconscious and they are both in a dream and under attack by kidnappers who wants to steal his company secrets. Then the laws of physics start to no longer apply correctly and he no longer takes things that well.
** Also the main character who is putting the man through the mind screw is having some lingering doubt that he himself is dreaming and his mind being screwed with.

** When you have a character who asks 'Hang on, whose subconscious are we in again?' it's safe to say you're dealing with a mind screw.

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

* The genre blender ''Xtro''. Best summed up by this review:

!!Films -- Animated

* Rasputin's VillainSong ''[[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!

** [[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 it's also trippy too.

* The interior of TheBeatles' house in ''YellowSubmarine.'' A door opens, and King Kong is about to make off with Fay Wray. George demurely asks "Do you think we're interrupting something? John: "I think so."

!!Films -- Live Action

* ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse'' can be anywhere from "slightly confusing" to "incomprehensible acid trip on film", unless you're a [[{{Music/TheBeatles}} Beatles]] fan and have some basic knowledge of the 60's counterculture movement.
* ''ImNotThere'', Todd Haynes' attempt to quantify the existence of [[{{Music/BobDylan}} Bob Dylan]] by presenting him as SEVEN SEPARATE CHARACTERS, including a woman, a small black child, and Billy the Kid. If you have an extensive knowledge of the man, then the metaphorical touchstones are fairly easy to follow. But if you're only a casual fan, entire chunks of the movies will leave you stonefaced or confused, especially about how they relate to Bob Dylan.
* ''ArizonaDream'' by Emir Kusturica. [[CloudCuckoolander Insanely weird characters]]? Check. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs Odd dreams]]? Check. [[MindScrew Flying fish]]?! You bet! So, what exactly happened in the movie? Well, it sort of varies.

* ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich''. The film revolves around the discovery of an inconspicuous, boarded up doorway in an office building which turns out to be a portal which allows any individual who enters it to see through the eyes of actor John Malkovich for a short space of time, raising all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of the human mind and existentialism in the process. It only get weirder from here on in.

%% ** Mind screws are a recurring theme in all of Darren Aronofsky's films.
* The 2004 film ''Casshern'' had no explanation for the ending or for the various DeusExMachina moments that appeared throughout the film. For example, giant metal bolts of lightning that: Started the plot, transported the hero right to the point he needed to be with no question from anyone, ''and'' conveniently provided the final chamber with a giant hole in the wall.

* The horror film ''Film/{{Cube}}'' intentionally offers no real explanations to what the eponymous ''Cube'' is and why the characters were placed in it. It just developed 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.
* Director of ''Film/{{Cube}}'', Vincenzo Natali, also made ''Film/{{Nothing}}'', a [[TheStoner Stoner Comedy]] about non-existence. It's fairly straightforward in its own way, but still...
%% * ''Film/DeadMan'' with Johnny Depp is a very otherworldly film, during which few things happen and most of the dialogues are just plain weird. It's even pointed out in frustration by the protagonist at one point.

%% * Director Richard Kelly's second film, ''Film/SouthlandTales'', somehow manages to be even more violently insane than his first. It was supposed to be part of a massive multimedia experience (that never really panned out), but it would take a ''damn'' lot of graphic novels to explain what on God's green Earth was happening at any point during that movie.

%% * The point of the CRS company in the DavidFincher flick ''Film/TheGame''.
%% * ''GiveMyRegardsToBroadStreet'' has some Mind Screwing - partly from symbolism, partly because of [[DreamSequence Dream Sequences]] started and ended with very little warning.
* After a certain point in the film version of ''HedwigAndTheAngryInch'', the opening shot is redone, starting off a long medley featuring the three central characters merging into one and walking naked down an alleyway.
%% Watch the Argentinian film ''Hombre Mirando al Sudeste'' (''Man Looking Southeast'') and try to decide which of the %% explanations is true. You'll be lying in bed thinking about it, seriously, as it's just that freakin' bizarre, and ends

* ''Film/TheGuards'', a 1965 Norwegian film by director Arne Skouen, telling the story of a soldier who neglects his duties because of a moral responsibility for a psych ward full of children with psychological problems. The story revolves around a court martial held afterwards, but to be fair, it is not certain whether the whole trial is in the soldier`s head, or if he and the other adults working in the ward are actually as far out as the children they tend to. And then there is the oldest charge, a fourteen year old girl, CreepyChild and psychic to boot. The movie ends with a spectacular GainaxEnding. It tends to be the biggest MindScrew ever made in Norway.
* ''I Love Your Work'' isn't as extreme as others on this list, as a simple [[spoiler: "I guess it was all in his head"]] makes sense of it as a whole, as the ending makes that seem like the most likely explanation. But some scenes are still pretty odd.

* JimHenson (yes, THAT Jim Henson) made a overly symbolic (and Oscar-nominated) short film called ''Time Piece''. Scenes include a caveman in an office, Jim Henson's head on a serving tray, and the only dialogue in the movie is Jim himself saying "help" about 3 or 4 times.

* ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'' is a sort-of mind screw. Is he traveling through time? Moving across alternate universes and adapting to the memories of the version of himself in the new universe? Is he just nuts and then one day finally gets the help he needs? Is the end really just another delusion? These last two possibilities are subverted in the DVD release alternate ending in which he [[spoiler:goes back to when he was in his mother's womb and commits suicide with his own umbilical cord before even being born.]]

* Dalton Trumbo's film adaptation of ''JohnnyGotHisGun'' was done largely by making the film one big mindscrew, caused by the character's explosion-induced loss of his ability to see/hear/speak (as well as his limbs) inducing nightmarish visions inside of his head to pad out the film.

* ''Lawnmower Man'' involved a lot of this. Not only is there a very strange VR section involving (at the time) state-of-the-art CGI, there are drugs, a main character having his brain transformed and losing control of himself, and an ending involving something like a messianic ascension that is never explained. Compared to some films on this list, it is still pretty straightforward though.

* One complaint about the ''Film/{{Bewitched}}'' movie is how it got a little ''too'' meta for your average Creator/WillFerrell comedy. Basically some people want to make a reboot of the original Bewitched, except it turns out that the actor they pick to play Samantha is an ''actual'' witch. And then suddenly the characters from the original show start to appear to the two leads to offer advice. The movie finally ends with the actors who play Darren and Samantha getting together and moving into the ''actual'' Bewitched house, across the street from the ''actual'' Bewitched neighbors.

* One complaint about the Film/{{Bewitched}} movie is how it got a little ''too'' meta for your average Creator/WillFarrell comedy. Basically some people want to make a reboot of the original Bewitched, except it turns out that the actor they pick to play Samantha is an ''actual'' witch. And then suddenly the characters from the original show start to appear to the two leads to offer advice. The movie finally ends with the actors who play Darren and Samantha getting together and moving into the ''actual'' Bewitched house, across the street from the ''actual'' Bewitched neighbors.

* ''TheButterflyEffect'' is a sort-of mind screw. Is he traveling through time? Moving across alternate universes and adapting to the memories of the version of himself in the new universe? Is he just nuts and then one day finally gets the help he needs? Is the end really just another delusion? These last two possibilities are subverted in the DVD release alternate ending in which he [[spoiler:goes back to when he was in his mother's womb and commits suicide with his own umbilical cord before even being born. Which is impossible, by the way.]]
** Not exactly, [[spoiler:most people seem to think he's strangling himself with it. He isn't; he's biting through it. Without teeth. Nice.]]
*** Possible FridgeBrilliance when you remember [[spoiler:all his previous siblings also died in the womb]]

* ''Film/TheGuards'', a 1965 Norwegian film by director Arne Skouen, telling the story of a soldier who neglects his duties because of a moral responsibility for a psych ward full of children with psychological problems. The story revolves around a court martial held afterwards, but to be fair, it is not certain whether the whole trial is in the soldier`s head, or if he and the other adults working in the ward are actually as far out as the children they tend to. And then there is the oldest charge, a fourteen year old girl, CreepyChild and psychic to boot. The movie tends to be the biggest MindScrew ever made in Norway.

** The movie was such a mind screw that the film adaptation of ''TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'' was largely devoted to
''[[MindScrewdriver trying to explain what had happened in the last movie]].'' You may not have heard of this sequel. There's an excellent reason for that.

%% ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. The book, on the other hand, is considerably more comprehensible.
%% ** 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?"
%% The movie was such a mind screw that the film adaptation of ''TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'' was largely devoted to
%% ''[[MindScrewdriver trying to explain what had happened in the last movie]].'' You may not have heard of this sequel. There's %% an excellent reason for that.
%%** The prologue and ending of the original book of ''2001'' are significantly longer than their movie equivalents for the same reason. There was a lot of 'splaining to do.
%% Unless you're a [[{{Music/TheBeatles}} Beatles]] fan and have some basic knowledge of the 60's counterculture movement, ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse'' can be anywhere from "slightly confusing" to "incomprehensible acid trip on film".

* Anything by Richard Kelly. But while ''DonnieDarko'' earned a fandom for being peculiar and ''Film/TheBox'' tries to be more understandable, ''SouthlandTales'' has been described as a movie that [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Southland_Tales_2006.aspx "does not know what it's doing, so it does everything."]]

* In ''CemeteryMan'', Francesco Dellamorte [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin Can't Get Away With Nuthin']], [[spoiler:and all of his murders are pinned on someone else]]. This is because [[spoiler:Francesco isn't real, but is an imaginary construct of Franco. Fantasy bleeds into reality, and Franco begins to murder people in his insanity.]] Or maybe the dead are actually rising, the film isn't very specific on details. [[spoiler: The entire movie takes place in a snow globe]].

* 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...

%% * ''DonnieDarko'', to the extent that members of the cast can't agree on whether there is a legitimate TimeTravel story, or just a handful of psychedelic delusions.

%% * Director Richard Kelly's second film, ''SouthlandTales'', somehow manages to be even more violently insane than his first. It was supposed to be part of a massive multimedia experience (that never really panned out), but it would take a ''damn'' lot of graphic novels to explain what on God's green Earth was happening at any point during that movie.

** Pretty much everything in another 'Creator/DonBluth" film, ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle''.

* Almost everything from "WesternAnimation/TomandJerryTheMovie" to quote from WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic.
-->'''Nostalgia Critic:''' A cat and mouse are driving a ship trying to save the daughter of Indiana Jones while being chased by a purple people eater, a dog on a skateboard, a performing ship captain, his hand puppet Squawk, two Mexican wrestlers and a doctor riding an ice cream cart. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Mindfuck.

* ''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 [[Creator/LuisBunuel Luis Buñuel]] 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."
* ''WakingLife''

* ''WhatTheBleepDoWeKnow'' is a ''major, major'' offender of this one. If you can make some sense out of the cryptic, convoluted {{Technobabble}} about Quantum Mechanics, Religion, Life, the Universe and Everything, you'll see how this movie easily beats ''SerialExperimentsLain'' in terms of head-trippiness, even though even TheOtherWiki agrees it's all just quantum mysticism mixed with the ideas of some new age school. [[http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/bleep.html According to Intuitor]], it also completely messed up Quantum Physics, horrible research, biases and scientific inaccuracies destroyed any hope of correct science.

* Anything by Richard Kelly. But while ''DonnieDarko'' earned a fandom for being peculiar and ''Film/TheBox'' tries to be more understandable, ''SouthlandTales'' has been described as a movie that [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Southland_Tales_2006.aspx "does not know what it's doing, so it does everything."]]

* Almost everthing from "WesternAnimation/TomandJerryTheMovie" to quote from WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic.

* The horror 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.

* ''Lawnmower Man'' involved a lot of this. Not only is there a very strange VR section involving (at the time) state of the art cgi, there are drugs, a main character having his brain transformed and losing control of himself, and an ending involving something like a messianic ascension that is never explained. Compared to some films on this list, it is still pretty straightforward though.

** A slightly lesser known but still messed-up film of his- ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' starring James Woods and Deborah Harry. At first it's just messed up, given it involves the protagonist discovering a "realistic" tv program in which "contestants" are taken into a room where they are tortured and eventually murdered. [[spoiler: As you'd expect, it's real]]. But things just get really weird when it starts messing with his mind and he starts hallucinating. By the time it's all over you're can't be totally sure how much of what you've seen is real and how much is in his head.

* ''Paranoia 1.0'' (often known only as ''One Point O'') is as mind-screwy as it gets. A man (Jeremy Sisto, no less) receives empty packages while constantly dozing off in front of his computer: he's trying to write a program to meet a deadline, but he's constantly falling asleep and receiving empty packages... and developing an increasingly unhealthy craving for "Nature Fresh Milk". The apartment complex is full of people who have cravings for equally irrelevant things and there is a landlord that watches everything. Everything in the movie (e.g. what the empty packages are, why the landlord has an equivalent craving for packed meat, etc.) is explained in a logical and sensical manner - that is, until the movie decides to crank up the mind-screw-gears [[UpToEleven to twelve hundred]] and then flat out breaks the gauge and lets the whole thing explode. Thus, you just face an ending that leaves you wondering what you just watched.

* If [[spoiler:the narrator being Tyler all along]] in ''Film/FightClub'' is not an example of that, then I'm being a Martian.

* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': A man and his fiance (that he takes the time to remind everyone of) end up entering a castle inhabited by generic horror movie servants who work for a transvestite TimCurry who somehow creates a frankenstein monster only for a zombified Meat Loaf to ride a motorcycle out of a giant freezer to sing a song while dry humping his girlfriend only for Tim Curry to slaughter him and then apparently marry the frankenstein only for a narrator with no f***ing neck to introduce Tim Curry having sex with the asshole and the slut followed by the musical sex scene of the slut seducing the frankenstein when the paraplegic, nazi kool-aid man crashes through the wall and announces that meat loaf is his nephew and things about how much of a disappointment Meat Loaf was and this introduces musical attempted rape followed by a musical orgy in a pool and-wouldn't you know it- a musical dance where the servants reveal that they are aliens and kill transvestite Tim Curry, MeatLoaf's girlfriend, and frankenstein and then fly the castle off into space.

** This is nothing when you look at the final instalment of the "Apocalypse Trilogy", ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness''. [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness There's a reason why it's a former trope namer]]. It starts off with the character being brought into a mental institution, and his story starts off straight forward- a simple investigation into the disappearance of a horror writer due to release the titular novel. Then things get weird when it becomes clear that the books have a weird impact on readers, and he stumbles across a town that shouldn't exist and the writer tells him [[spoiler: he's a fictional character created for his novel, and then his partner is literally written out of the story]]. By the end of the movie, you can't quite tell for certain one way or another who's sane, who's insane, what's real and what's fictional. [[spoiler: Is the protagonist real, or is he merely a figment of a writer's imagination? Was the world really destroyed by Lovecraftian monsters or was it something else? Did the entire story even happen or is it all in his head?]]. To make things even more baffling, the final scene has Sam Neil's character walking into a movie theatre to watch the film adaptation of the book the entire movie has been centred around. [[spoiler: It turns out TheFilmOfTheBook is actually the movie we've just finished watching]].
* ''Film/InitiationSilentNightDeadlyNight4'' is one big mind screw. Just one example is when the cult murders the herione's boyfriend and somehow cleans up the apartment in the short time it takes her to get the cops over.

* ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. The whole film is a [[SurrealHorror surreal]] VietnamWar experience, [[WarIsHell full of horrors]] that transform sane men into madmen.

** Pretty much everything in a another 'Creator/DonBluth" film, ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle''.