Most of these movies are called psychological movies, but searching under this category I have not found anything that comes close to what I am looking for, movies like memento, 12 monkeys and primer are characterized by something, a person who knows information (Be good or bad), and is in a situation isolated from the rest of the population, no one other than the protagonist or a very small group of people knows what is happening and what it implies, that is the type of movies I am looking for, movies with isolated stories, if you know of any movie that makes you feel that I don’t know what it is with the 3 movies I mentioned, please leave me the name and synopsis. (I had forgotten to mention donnie darko)
pi - number enthusiast uses his math themed mental illness to learn the name of god, gets in trouble with stock brokers and jews
the thing - a dog brings a special gift to an antarctic research expedition, the gift turns out to be inside everyone all along
the shining - a struggling author becomes caretaker of an isolated hotel, learns a bit about himself along the way
inception - yo dawg, I heard you like yo dawg, so I put a yo dawg in your dawg so you can yo dawg while you dawg
Masterfully summarized!
These are great. Do more please, like memento and the prestige.
Memento - a man with a rare memory loss affliction which will make you, the very high audience member, feel as though you share the same affliction as the protagonist
The Prestige - magical realism in the nineteen dicketies with twin themes of magic and betrayal
Frankly I was very high when I watched both of these and found them hard to follow
What? I don’t think it was inside them all along. It just spread as the movie progressed
I appreciate that, but it’s a funny way to describe the movie
Get Out
Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with her parents, Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries leads him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
Us
Accompanied by her husband, son and daughter, Adelaide Wilson returns to the beachfront home where she grew up as a child. Haunted by a traumatic experience from the past, Adelaide grows increasingly concerned that something bad is going to happen. Her worst fears soon become a reality when four masked strangers descend upon the house, forcing the Wilsons into a fight for survival. When the masks come off, the family is horrified to learn that each attacker takes the appearance of one of them.
Shutter Island
The implausible escape of a brilliant murderess brings U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) to Ashecliffe Hospital, a fortress-like insane asylum located on a remote, windswept island. The woman appears to have vanished from a locked room, and there are hints of terrible deeds committed within the hospital walls. As the investigation deepens, Teddy realizes he will have to confront his own dark fears if he hopes to make it off the island alive.
The Machinist
Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator who has not slept for months, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.
Hereditary
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter and grandchildren begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry, trying to outrun the sinister fate they have inherited.
Midsommar
A couple travel to Sweden to visit their friend’s rural hometown for its fabled midsummer festival, but what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
The Lighthouse
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
The Witch
In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer, his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family blames Thomasin, the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, testing the clan’s faith, loyalty and love to one another.
In the movies mentioned above, most of them don’t have the protagonist with the knowledge but it lies elsewhere.
It Follows, The Revenant, Suspiria (the old one or the remake), The Neon Demon, and The Revenant might also fit the bill.
I really didn’t like the whole celebrating the TSA thing of Get Out. Like, they are security theater and only cause harm to brown people.
Great list, and since you already mention 2/3rds of the movies by two of my favorite directors, I’d personally add Nope by Jordan Peele and Beau is Afraid by Ari Aster.
Idk how well they apply to OP’s criteria but I think they’re great
I actually haven’t seen those two you mentioned but I’m gonna take them as a recommendation.
I was also gonna mention The Wall (Die Wand) because it’s a very lonely movie to the point of being bleak, and only the protagonist “knows” what’s going on but it’s not a man-on-a-mission type of narrative so I’m not sure if it fits the vibe. Also the pacing is kinda ponderous which I think suits the story well but it really doesn’t have the same feel as a movie like Memento or The Machinist, which have a sort of urgency to them that The Wall lacks.
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The Game
- a birthday present for a brother goes sideways (drama)
The Man Who Knew Too Little
- a birthday present for a brother goes sideways (comedy)
Identity
- group of people stuck in a dangerous situation by a storm (drama)
Bad Times at the El Royale
- group of people stuck in a dangerous situation by a storm (drama)
Clue
- group of people stuck in a dangerous situation by a storm (comedy)
I feel like I most often see this genre refered to as “psychological thrillers”. What you’re describing sounds a little more specific than that, but it’s where I would start. You also might like Enemy (2013). It’s about a man who spots someone who appears to be his exact double in the background of a movie. Things start to become very strange when he tries to find out who he is.
Triangle (2009) - A group of friends out for an afternoon boat ride are hit by a sudden storm before coming across what appears to be a ghost ship. They go aboard looking for help or a way back to land before things go awry.
Coherence (2013) - A blackout during a dinner party causes even stranger phenomena once the power comes back on. The group of friends quickly lose each other’s trust as problems begin to escalate.
Possessor (2020) - In the near future, a secret technology is developed that allows someone to take over another person’s body. The story follows an assassin working for a secret organization as her grip on reality and her own life begin to slip, melding with the people whose bodies she takes over to carry out hits.
Dont Blink (2014) - Ten people at a remote cabin retreat notice one of them has gone missing when nobody was watching. Something supernatural begins to happen before they can figure out what’s going on.
The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Not exactly what you’re looking for, but it can scratch that itch. The legendary found footage film is about a documentary crew who venture into the woods in search of a local myth known as “the Blair Witch.” They become lost and realize they aren’t alone in the forest. The last ten minutes of the movie is among the best horror scenes of all time.
Mr. Jones (2013) - A young couple travel into the wilderness in search of a famous artist and sculptor known only by the alias “Mr. Jones.” They plan on interviewing this anonymous person and making a documentary about his work. They discover Mr. Jones and his “sculptures” are the only things standing in the way of something sinister: an ancient evil hiding beneath the earth’s surface.
Lovely Dark and Deep (2023) - A woman finally achieves her lifelong dream of becoming a park ranger at Arvores National Park. But this dream is rooted in childhood trauma and the new ranger’s true motivations are revealed as she searches for answers in deep backcountry. It becomes apparent the rest of the staff are hiding a dark secret.
As an aside from suggestions, I think you are looking for “mindfuck movies” try looking that up instead.
Ex Machina – A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.
Prime film. Top tier
Thinking along the lines of memento and 12 monkeys where the characters also suffer from memory loss or confusion along with the things they know or don’t know there’s Jacob’s Ladder. It is a movie about a vietnam veteran who is apparently suffering from some disturbing PTSD, but obviously there’s a twist or else I wouldn’t bring it up. Oh apparently there’s a remake, watch the one from 1990.
Not a movie but Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon (rip) is very good and I think will scratch that kind of itch.
Mulholland Drive - Amnesia meets trying to make it in Hollywood.
Moon with Sam Rockwell might be kinda up that alley if you don’t mind the Sci Fi setting and Kevin Spacey doing the voice of a robot
I had mentioned 12 monkeys and primer because it has a similar style to memento despite having different environment, one that I forgot to mention was donnie darko, these movies have an unconventional narrative and endings, these characters are in a much bigger situation than they can measure, but for those who were not involved that never happened, since they never saw what happened from start to finish, when one of these movies ends, you know that it was not a happy, sad or neutral ending, which what happened there was something else
Moon is pretty good. Definitely one of those “go in blind, don’t even watch the trailer” movies.
If you like Primer, I bet you’d enjoy Timecrimes (2007). I’d say it fits the vibe you’re describing.
characterized by something, a person who knows information (Be good or bad), and is in a situation isolated from the rest of the population, no one other than the protagonist or a very small group of people knows what is happening and what it implies
It’s in Russian…
A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
The Wikipedia summary is a bit more detailed.
The film tells the story of an expedition led by a figure known as the “Stalker” (Alexander Kaidanovsky), who guides his two clients — a melancholic writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolai Grinko) — through a hazardous wasteland to a mysterious restricted site known simply as the “Zone”. [There’s supposed to be a room there] which grants a person’s innermost desires. The film combines elements of science fiction and fantasy with dramatic philosophical, and psychological themes.
Stalker is a slow burn but such a good movie.
The Interview (1998)
The Interview is a 1998 Australian psychological thriller film from writer-director Craig Monahan, and is the first of three films directed by Monahan: The Interview, Healing, and a 2024 adaptation[1] of David Williamson’s The Removalists. Almost the entire film takes place in a police interrogation room, with some short flashback sequences, and the cast consists primarily of three key actors—Hugo Weaving, Tony Martin, and Aaron Jeffery.[2]
It’s not feature length, but 12 Monkeys is based on a short film by Chris Marker called Le Jetée which I highly recommend, along with all of Marker’s work, really. Marker deals a lot in documentary with a surrealist touch, and thoughtful narration. He’s a good old leftist too.
All the movies you mentioned are not just psychological, but are messed up temporally, so you might appreciate a newer movie called Time Addicts. Watched a bit of it and it was funny, dark, and wild, as a time traveling movie about meth should be.
The Manchurian Candidate is great (both versions are really, though I prefer the one from ‘62) as it deals with a character piecing together an experimentation plot involving hypnotism and proto mk ultra mind control. If I think of more when I’m rested i’ll jump back and comment again.
