"Mindfuck" a new genre?

[Toby]

Is it just me or can we speak of the rise of a new genre, the so-called 'mindfuck-movies'? I mean those psychological thrillers that play with your senses in a strange and unsettling way.
Movies like Requiem for a Dream, Donnie Darko and the Ring come to mind.
Other titles:
Jacob's Ladder
Fight Club
a Clockwork Orange
the Complete David Lynch oeuvre...
You know more like these?

[Madeline]

Yeah but they're fun.. :p

[the movie guy]

What's wrong with just bringing up these points in Madeline's thread?

[Scarface98.9]

I don't think it's a new genre. Those are still dramas/dark comedies, but w/ a twist(s)

[Toby]

Originally posted by the movie guy
What's wrong with just bringing up these points in Madeline's thread?

Nothing dude, I just didn't notice that thread.....

[dh1989]

Nah. Mindfucks live in sub-genres. Death To Smoochy and Punch-drunk Love are comedy midfucks. Memento is a Drama mindfuck. The Matrix is a sci-fi mindfuck. Mindfucks live within other genres.

[Draccoca]

Don't forget "The Thirteenth Floor" as well as Kubrick's "The Shining"

[darkface]

Donnie Darko and Fight Club are sweet ass mind-fucks. But i agree, there's so many being made right now. Unlike older movies where it just tells a story, these play with your dreams, and try to use all senses when viewing the film, I love that.

[Mike]

Originally posted by dh1989
Nah. Mindfucks live in sub-genres. Death To Smoochy and Punch-drunk Love are comedy midfucks. Memento is a Drama mindfuck. The Matrix is a sci-fi mindfuck. Mindfucks live within other genres.

Hmm, I didn't really consider Death To Smoochy a mindfuck movie...

Anyway, I love having a movie fuck with my mind, I love it when you think you have a movie figured out and then the ending blows you away with something you didn't see coming. Some mindfuck movies suck though, it all depends on how it's handled.
I thought the ending to Vanilla Sky sucked, I definitely didn't see it coming because I wasn't expecting something so ridiculous. That's the perfect example of a mindfuck movie with a bad ending, which pretty much ruins the rest of the movie.

[the movie guy]

Originally posted by Toby
Nothing dude, I just didn't notice that thread.....

Sorry. Thought I saw a post of yours in there. My bad.

[jodman]

In my humble opinion there is nothing better then having your conceptions about what is happening in a movie totally 360'd in one single scene. I loved the way mulholland drive just threw the first half of the movie into total disarray and left me wondering what the hell had just happend.

I think that the definition of a mind fuck movie is a film which doesn't spoon feed the audience everything which is going on, a lot is left down to your own interpretation - and this is something we are seeing more and more of in films today.

[malcolm1980]

"MINDFUCK" - I love that term. It should catch on any day now. LOL. My favorites would include all of the David Lynch films I have seen: Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Mulholland Drive. Also add to that list David Cronenberg's Spider and Donnie Darko.

[The Postmaster General]

barton fink
cemetery man
xistence
Pi

[iamjack]

How you forget the 1980 James Woods classic, Videodrome. And on the topic, mindfuck refers to the drama subgenre of films which include imagery that, in context, make no sense. Vanilla Sky and Lost Highway being key examples.