Looking for some weekend viewing? This is a list of the weirdest films ever. I have restricted the list to one film per director and I have not included obviously weird films from the Dada movement. These are the sort of movies that leave you saying WTF as the credits roll. Ordered least to most weird. Torrent links included.
10. Me and You and Everyone we Know [Amazon
Director: Miranda July
‘Me and You and Everyone We Know’ is a poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating and contemporary world. Christine Jesperson is a lonely artist and “Eldercab” driver who uses her fantastical artistic visions to draw her aspirations and objects of desire closer to her. Richard Swersey (John Hawkes), a newly single shoe salesman and father of two boys, is prepared for amazing things to happen. But when he meets the captivating Christine, he panics. Life is not so oblique for Richard’s six-year-old Robby, who is having a risqué Internet romance with a stranger, and his fourteen-year-old brother Peter who becomes the guinea pig for neighborhood girls — practicing for their future of romance and marriage.
9. Donnie Darko [Amazon
Director: Richard Kelly
During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night, and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. He returns home the next morning to find that a jet engine has crashed through his bedroom. As he tries to figure out why he survived and tries to deal with people in his town, like the school bully, his conservative health teacher, and a self-help guru, Frank continues to turn up in Donnie’s mind, causing him to commit acts of vandalism and worse.
8. A Clockwork Orange [Amazon
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stomping, whomping, stealing, singing, tap-dancing, violating, Derby-topped teddy-boy hooligan Alex (Malcolm McDowell) has his own way of having a good time. He has it at the tragic expense of others. Alex’s journey from amoral punk to brainwashed proper citizen forms the dynamic arc of Stanley Kubrick’s future-shook vision of Anthony Burgess’s novel. Unforgettable images, startling musical counterpoints, the fascinating language used by Alex and his pals – Kubrick shapes them into a shattering whole. Hugely controversial when first released, A Clockwork Orange won the New York Film Critics Best Picture and Director honors and earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The power of its art is such that it still entices, shocks, and holds us in its grasp.
7. Delicatessen [Amazon
Director: Marc Caro, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet
The story is centered on a microcosm of a post-apocalyptic society where food is so rare it’s invaluable and is used as currency. The story centers on an apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor. The owner of the eatery also owns the apartment building and he is in need of a new maintenance man since the original “mysteriously” disappeared. A former clown applies for the job and the butcher’s intent is to have him work for a little while and then serve him to quirky tenants who pay the butcher in, of course, grain. The clown and butcher’s daughter fall in love and she tries to foil her father’s plans by contacting the “troglodytes”, a grain eating sub-group of society who live entirely underground. The “trogs” are possibly the most sensible of the lot, as they see food as food and not money. This movie reflects a type of science fiction called la Nouvelle Vague.
6. Pi [Amazon
Director: Darren Aronofsky
In Manhattan, behind six locks, lives Max Cohen, a mathematician and computer whiz. Since staring at the sun at age six, he’s had terrible headaches; plus, he can’t abide human contact except with an aging professor, and he’s obsessed with finding numeric patterns. His current obsession is the stock market; his theories bring him to the attention of Wall Street traders. He also keeps running into Lenny, a fast-talking Hasidic who fronts for a cabal that wants to rediscover long-lost mathematical mysteries in the Torah. Neither group is benign, and they pursue Max as his hallucinations and headaches worsen. Does nature offer any solutions? Can Max find them?
5. Mulholland Drive [Amazon
Director: David Lynch
A bright-eyed young actress travels to Hollywood, only to be ensnared in a dark conspiracy involving a woman who was nearly murdered, and now has amnesia because of a car crash. Eventually, both women are pulled into a psychotic illusion involving a dangerous blue box, a director named Adam Kesher, and the mysterious night club Silencio.
4. Drowning by Numbers [Amazon
Director: Peter Greenaway
Tired of her husband’s philanderous ways, the mother of two daughters drowns her husband. With the reluctant help of the local coroner, the murder is obscured. Her daughters are having similar problems with relationships, and tend to follow their mother’s example, and the coroner becomes reluctantly duplicitous. As the plot progresses, visual and spoken numbers appear in the scenes, counting from one to 100.
3. Naked Lunch [Amazon
Director: David Cronenberg
Exterminator Bill Lee finds himself following his wife into an addiction to the bug powder he uses. After accidentally killing her, he descends into a hallucinatory existence in which he imagines himself a secret agent answering to a series of bizarre creatures. He channels his energies into writing “reports” on his delusional mission, while trying to break his addiction. The story loosely reflects events in the life of author Burroughs as he wrote the novel.
2. The Idiots [Amazon
Director: Lars von Trier
A group of perfectly intelligent young people decide to react to society’s cult of an aimless, non-creative and non-responsible form of intelligence by living together in a community of “idiots”. Their main activity becomes going out into the world of “normal” people and pretending to be mentally retarded. They take advantage of this situation to create anarchy everywhere they go and try by every possible means to make people annoyed, disturbed, miserable, ridiculous, angered, and shocked. The films start as they recruit a new lost soul and introduced her to their megalomaniac leader.
1. Brazil [Amazon
Director: Terry Gilliam
In an Orwellian vision of the future, the populace are completely controlled by the state, but technology remains almost as it was in the 1970′s. Sam Lowry is a civil servant who one day spots a mistake in one of the pieces of paperwork passing through his office. The mistake leads to the arrest of an entirely innocent man, and although Lowry attempts to correct the error, it just gets bigger and bigger, sucking him in with it.
Notable others: Virtually every other film by David Lynch or David Cronenberg, eXistenZ, City of Lost Children, Requiem for a Dream, Repulsion, Memento, Begotten, Jacob’s Ladder, After Hours, Prospero’s Books, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
NOTE: The torrent links are provided for sampling; I strongly recommend you buy the DVDs of these movies as they are so great. Having said that, if anyone can provide me with a link to the torrent for Drowning by Numbers I would appreciate it.
Great list – I think I have seen them all with the exception of one, and have to say that I was all like o_O at the end of most of them!
Ryan: Thanks
Good list. I question “Memento” in the notable others; while it was unconventional in its narrative, the story itself was pretty much just a conventional whodunit. I would put “I Heart Huckabees” on the list.
ianrey: I Heart Huckabees is one of my favourite films (in fact I own the soundtrack as well) but I am not sure I would say it was all that weird. It definitely had oddball characters, but the overall filming and understanding of the film was fairly standard. You are right about memento, but if I didn’t include it someone would complain about its absence
I am in a no-win situation with subjective lists like these.
Pi is my favorite movie of all time
Dave: yeah – it is a great film – not my favourite of all time but definitely up there.
hahaha- i heart huckabees is DEFINITELY the weirdest movie ive ever seen. this is a good list, but i dont like scary movies & some of those sound pretty creepy :[
emily: some of them are scary but not in the conventional sense at least. Still, you might want to avoid the opening scene of Mulholland Drive
James: eraserhead is included in a way – in the notable extras I mention all other films by David Lynch and he is the director of eraserhead.
eraserhead
this list needs to have that movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074486/
the weirdest movie i've ever seen
tru that
Call me wierd, but my dad showed that movie to me when I was 10, and it it creeped the ***** out of me. It’s pretty good though.
Agreed. Eraserhead is the granddaddy of weird movies. #1 on my list.
Ummm… what about Zardoz and Holy Mountain?
Left out “The Man Who Fell To Earth” with David Bowie
jr: to be honest I haven’t seen it – I will check it out – I am always on the look out for good weird films
find the movie black moon. it was made in the 70s and, is hard to find but, trust me it’s the strangest movie ever made.
jeff: do you have any more info on this film? I am very curious. What is it about and who was the director?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072709/ i have seen it but have been unable to get a hold of a copy. it’s a hard film to explain so you would have to see it for your self.
jeff: thanks for the link – it seems to have had quite good reviews and on reading them I think it sounds a lot like the style of Drowning by Numbers. I will definitely try to get a hold of it.
Ah yes, anything by Alejandro Jodorowsky should be mentioned. Holy Mountain Trailer here
And I’m kinda surprised Donnie Darko was here. I always thought of it as a normal sad indie movie.
Alex: wow – thanks for the link – I am definitely going to add that one to my collection, along with El Topo. Once watched I may need to update the list
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chpWALYbIcY i looked but this was all i could find on the web
I agree with Alex and I definitely go with recommending Jodorowsky. Weird may have to be redefined. Closer connections to Surrealism and the Occult. His ElTopo (my favorite, which I suggest first to watch) was the first midnight movie and Lynch’s Eraserhead was the other end of the midnight film of its time.
Your list starts to get into the realm of film weird(good directors listed). I think weirdness can be revolutionary to individual perception, its based on what one thinks as normal or understood, with an inkling of something other. but it depends on timing and suseptibility or open mindedness to novelty as far as affects on the self. Weird for weird sake doesnt float if there isnt some basis in reality.
the only one on this list that i watched is donny darko, and i thought it was pretty strange, but not to the extent of wierd…
*slight spoiler*
alot of people probably thought it was wierd because it deals alot with time travel and demonic bunnys.
…I would have to say that “Meet the Feebles” is one of the strangest, most deranged movies ever made and definitely makes you look twice at puppets…
“Meet The Feebles”! yeh.
i have never even heard of that, what is it
I have managed to secure a copy of Holy Mountain to watch today so I will let you all know how it goes
Guys: If you liked meet the feebles, try Bad Taste (also by Peter Jackson) for some strange and gross viewing.
jeff b: thanks for the link – it does look weird!
Great list!
Repo Man is much more bizarre than Donny Darko…
Cassidy: do you think so? I love Repo Man but I don’t agree that it was really weird – the alien aspect was a little odd, but it all made sense.
Although not a feature-length film, “Un Chien Andalou” is probably the weirdest short film ever. And it was made by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali so you know it’s surreal and weird.
Rosemary’s Baby should also be included on this list.
Xavier: un chien andalou is included on Top 10 Most Bizarre Videos.
Oh, whoops. Sorry, I didn’t check the other lists. I’m new to this site, and it’s definitely becoming one of my favorites.
Xavier: I am glad to hear it – comments like that help keep me writing every day
While this might be too out there, Cannibal Holocaust is one of the weirdest/disturbing movies ever, but I guess it is kinda conventional as far as story goes.
And I have to agree with alex on Holy Mountain, it is way weirder than most films, esp. the ending.
The Dum Guy – I haven’t seen the first, but I did manage to get a copy of Holy Mountain – I agree with you.
The Science Of Sleep
E.D.: I presume you mean the one by the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? I haven’t seen Science of Sleep but I loved the other one.
Yeah right.. Luis Bunuel and Takashi Miike, Shinya Tsukamoto… does these names ring a bell?
tengiqut: in the first paragraph it states that it is not including anyone from the dada movement – Bunuel is surrealist – that excludes him. Un Chien Andalou is included on another list (and Bunuel was co-director of that) with Dali.
Wow, thanks. Thanks to your list and the urging of a friend i checked out brazil, and while i rented that i came across delicatessen which i also watched. Both were amazing! Clever,strange,and just overall good films.
zombiejorge: yeah – both are great films. Delicatessen is hilarious.
hey what about Being John Malkovich? That movie was freaky weird but awesome.
Donnie darko has got to be the greatest movie of all times.
molly: I must confess to not having watched Being John Malkovich – I find him so irritating that I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I love Donnie Darko too – it is excellent. It reminds me a lot of a David Lynch film in fact.
If you like Donnie Darko, watch “The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys” it is a cross between donnie darko and Stand By Me. also, the donnie darko websit is wierd and worth trying to get into.
meant to recommend “natural born killers” too. very violent, but cool and wierd.
80toy: that sounds interesting – I love Stand by Me – I will check out the Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. And there is no doubt that Natural Born Killers is one of the greatest films that Oliver Stone made. I love that film – in fact, Juliette Lewis is one of my favourite female actors because of it.
The first 3 on the list are the only ones I’ve ever seen, and are definitely some of my faves. I’m surprised Videodrome and A Scanner Darkly didn’t make it on the list.
What about “Punch Drunk Love”? That was a completely bizarre movie!
Yay, I’m so glad you think John Malkovich is irritating. I just said that same thing to some one today. You should make a list of the most overrated actors.
wardrich: I found a Scanner Darkly to be a bit pretentious – and even though it was overlayed with illustrations, Keanu Reeves still can’t act!
Hannah: what a brilliant idea – I have written it down on my enormous list of lists.
Uh, yeah, just had to point out that Natural Born Killers was directed Oliver Stone, not Tarantino. Woo, nice burn on Quentin, though!
If you ever get to see any of the Cremaster series by Matthew Barney (not on video, mainly shows in art museums, etc.), THAT’S weird. Along the lines of El Topo but weirder.
EDITED: OK, I was sort of thinking, why did I feel like there was a QT tie to Natural Born Killers? He wrote the story, although not the screenplay.
Oliver: oh – I thought he had produced it as well!
I have to say, my #1 weirdest movie of all time has to be Gregg Araki’s “Nowhere” which also has some rather famous actors in it’s cast. It has the most random plot and ending. I won’t reveal it – but it is definitely worth watching.
Idreno: thanks for mentioning that film – I will check it out.
has any one seen the movie “spun” that was pretty weird. or is it just me???
jon: Spun definately threw me for a loop, that movie makes you feel like your the one doing the drugs
I loved spun – it has some of my favorite actors in it. In fact, all films that like appeal to me – maybe because I am so pure! Requiem for a Dream is another favorite in a similar vein.
i actually own both movies does any one else have any recommendations for other movies like these? (spun & requiem for a dream)
you can add to the list any Coen brothers movie, Gilbert Grape and Boxing Helena.
2overpar: boxing Helena is great – it was directed by David Lynch’s daughter.
No sign of “Eraserhead”?