* AssPull: One kidnapper uses the until-then-perfectly-normal TV remote to [[spoiler:rewind the death of the other kidnapper.]]
** A mild one in that case. While the TV remote is not show to special, it has already been established that the guy using it have NoFourthWall.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The entire film is essentially an insult to people who like to watch these kind of films.
** French director [[LaBelleNoiseuse Jacques Rivette]] seems to regard the film as an insult to people who like films, period; in [[http://sensesofcinema.com/2001/16/rivette-2/ a 1998 interview]] he called it a "a disgrace, just a complete piece of s***" and compared it to the films of JohnWoo and [[Film/AClockworkOrange A Clockwork Orange]], which he doesn't like either.
* BileFascination: People who hate the film and its arguments have spent a lot of effort to refute it.
* CompleteMonster: The killers are evil incarnate, and in fact exist for no other reason than to be villains in the film.
* CriticalResearchFailure: [[spoiler:In the scene where Paul uses the remote to rewind the scene he instead presses the left directional button.]]
** [[spoiler: Actually he presses both. The directional button first, to no effect, and then the rewind button.]]
* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The dictates of the message demand that the story end badly, so once you see where it's going, there's no reason to watch the rest.
* EvilIsSexy: Michael Pitt as Paul in the US version.
* LoveItOrHateIt: Reception of the film falls in two camps: "completely brilliant" and "utterly unwatchable". Sometimes both, but never a middle-ground.
* ParanoiaFuel
* SnarkBait
* VillainSue: [[DiabolusExMachina Villain]] [[GodModeSue God Mode]] RealityWarper [[DiabolusExMachina Sues]].