Top Five Movies That Will Mess You Up

I’m not talking about taking in the latest episode in the series of SAW movies, or being grossed out by blood and gore in a horror flick.  I’m talking about a movie that makes your insides sick, that brings a chill even though you’re not cold. The feeling of danger, the danger of being divorced from what you know is real. A movie that leaves you feeling odd. That night.  The next.  The following week.  Over time it’s influence wanes, but is never forgotten.

#5.  The Carnival of Souls

A low budget horror film made by Herk Harvey for a whopping $33,000 in 1962, it nonetheless has been raised to cult status.  Shot mainly in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Lawrence, Kansas; it starts with a traumatic accident, a car crash with the car ending up in water.  Three hours later, Mary (the main character) rises from the water seeming unaffected.  Mary is plunged into a world that becomes more surreal by the moment, and she cannot explain her attraction to an odd abandoned carnival.

Please enjoy this excerpt of Carnival of Souls.  If you like it, the entire movie can be downloaded here as it is in the public domain.

#4.  Jacob’s Ladder

Starring Tim Robbins, Jacob’s Ladder, made in 1990, follows the story of Vietnam veteran Jacob Singer.  We, like Jacob, suffer his flashbacks between multiple possible lives.  A good life after the war, a bad life after the war, and everything in between.  As his hallucinations worsen, he is besieged by faceless ghouls intent on harming him.  I won’t give away the shocking and surreal ending.  Watch it with someone, someone you can fall asleep with afterwords.

Enjoy this excerpt and think about seeing the movie.

#3.  Videodrome

Starring James Woods and rocker Debbie Harry, Videodrome is a 1983 oddity.  It’s a terrible movie.  It has gore, gore, and more gore.  Did I mention exploding cancer?  Did I mention guns made out of human flesh?  Did I mention the giant stomach-vagina?  While I have never taken LSD or other mind-bending drugs, I have to imagine that watching this movie is pretty close to what it’s like.  A morality play about mass-media consumption by the populace.  There’s a signal in that video, does it really warp the watcher into an alternate reality, or is it because it produces brain tumors in all who watch it?

Enjoy this clip, maybe watch the movie if you dare.  Make sure you have a remote, you won’t want to touch your television afterwords.

#2.  Eraserhead

You knew there had to be one from Director David Lynch here right?  Of course you did.  And Eraserhead is it.  In all it’s black and white goodness for 1977.  I really am at a loss for words for how to describe this movie except to say don’t see it.  If you must see it, make sure you or anyone else watching isn’t pregnant, or about to become a parent.  Get ready for an assault on your ears as the sound track can only be described as every fingernail on the planet being scraped across a blackboard with the volume increasing until the end of the movie.  It’s only 108 minutes long, but by the time you’re finished it seems like several hours have passed.

Here’s the excerpt.

1.  Wait Until Dark

But topping the list has to be 1967’s Audrey Hepburn and Richard Crenna in Wait Until Dark.  Recently blinded and becoming used to being blind is one thing.  To be blind, and hunted because you unknowingly have something someone wants is another.  The twist is that you the audience are not blind.  You get to see what is happening.  Watch it with a friend.  Better yet, watch it with a group of friends.  Just don’t watch it alone in the dark.

Enjoy.

Movie night?  Who’s got the popcorn?