30 Disconcerting Movies That Blur the Line Between Actuality and Dream
Film is perhaps the ideal artistic medium to lull viewers into a dreamlike state. The combination of sound and image allows movies to draw viewers into fantastical worlds — worlds that viewers and characters within the stories may be unable to discern as reality, חולם, or fantasy.
כמובן, there are some entirely fantastical films, but there are also those that play with reality and its edges, asking questions about how certain we can ever be about reality. It’s a question filmmakers have been fascinated by for decades and have found fertile ground for creating some of the most compelling, beautiful, and unnerving films.
1. Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolan’s Inception follows a group of professional criminals who travel into the dreams of their marks. But these journeys often force them to question their return to reality, especially when a job takes them through dreams within dreams. Inception is a thrilling sci-fi heist flick that’s also one of the most emotionally resonant movies about the distinction between reality and dreams, and whether that distinction matters.
2. Mulholland Drive (2001)
David Lynch is the filmmaker most associated with blurring the lines between dreams and reality through his often surreal and disturbing films. Mulholland Drive is not just his best film that questions these lines, but also his best film overall. The movie’s first half tells a strange, idealized, and dreamlike love story about two women investigating a mystery. In contrast, its second half dives into the severe disappointments of a world that feels all too frustratingly real. But with Lynch, these things are always unclear, and questions remain long after the movie ends.
3. Persona (1966)
Persona brings together two of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s greatest collaborators for a story that blurs the lines between dreams and reality and clouds the lines of identity. Alma (Bibi Andersson) is a nurse who takes a job on a remote island caring for actress Elisabet (Liv Ullmann), who has stopped speaking. As Alma fills the silence with her own stories and secrets, she begins to lose sense of where she ends and Elisabet begins.
Persona is one of Bergman’s finest films that raises equally exciting and unsettling questions about identity and reality and offers two phenomenal performances from its leads.
4. Antichrist (2009)
On the other hand, Antichrist is very much not a kid-friendly movie. The film by Danish director and provocateur Lars von Trier centers on a couple who retreat to a cabin in the woods after the accidental death of their infant son. שם, the couple struggles with their grief, as the husband has visions of talking woodland animals and begins to suspect that his wife has been unwell since before the death of their child. It’s a deeply disturbing movie and one of the most fascinating explorations of gender relations and how gender affects perspective.
5. Donnie Darko (2001)
One of talented actor Jake Gyllenhaal’s best films, Donnie Darko follows the eponymous Donnie (Gyllenhaal) as he encounters a man in a rabbit costume who tells him the world will end in just over 28 days and investigates the possibility of time travel. But are any of the visions of a man in the rabbit costume real? Are they from a different time? The film never answers these questions but instead uses them to offer one of the best and most affecting coming-of-age films.
6. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Pan’s Labyrinth is another beautiful, possibly fantastical coming-of-age film. Guillermo Del Toro’s movie takes place in fascist Spain and follows 10-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) as she seeks to escape the house of her cruel new stepfather by exploring a magical world. But that magical world isn’t bright and comforting; in fact, she must go on a series of dangerous missions in this world to claim her place as its princess. Like Spirited Away, Pan’s Labyrinth is never entirely clear about the barriers between its worlds, allowing viewers to decide, or not decide, for themselves where one world ends and the other begins.
7. Arrival (2016)
Based on the short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, Arrival centers on a linguist whom the U.S. government recruits to help them communicate with aliens. What makes the film such a beautiful exploration of the lines, or lack thereof, between dreams and reality is how the alien language changes the linguist’s perceptions of reality. Arrival is a small-scale science fiction film that delivers big emotions built on its blurring of dreams and reality.
8. Fight Club (1999)
David Fincher’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club became an instant classic in 1999 because of its sharp satire, shocking violence, and mind-bending finale. The film follows a dissatisfied single man who befriends an incredibly charismatic man, and together, the two begin the eponymous fight club. But as the club expands, so do the goals of its charismatic leader, who may or may not have the protagonist’s best interests in mind. It’s a thrilling, satirical thriller that forces its lead to question everything, including his reality, by the end.
9. Barton Fink (1991)
One of the Coen brothers’ most under-appreciated films, Barton Fink, is also their most dreamlike. Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a playwright who moves to Los Angeles in the early 1940s to write a wrestling movie for a major studio. But he struggles to write and to make himself comfortable in his new surroundings, and things get even worse when he discovers a dead body in his bed. The film is a strange mix of comedy and horror that never fully lands in either genre. It also never fully lands in a reality viewers can recognize, yet refuses to confirm that it takes place in a fantastical world, leading to one of the most unnerving films on the edge of dream (or nightmare) and reality.
10. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Speaking of nightmares, A Nightmare on Elm Street is sometimes explicit about its dreamscapes and, at other times, toys with the viewers and characters about whether or not something is real or a dream. It’s that in-between space where the audience can’t be sure whether the movie, which tracks a supernatural killer as he murders teens in their dreams, is offering a vision of reality or a dream that makes it such an iconic and still horrifying movie today.
11. American Psycho (2000)
American Psycho is another horror classic that plays with our understanding of reality, dreams, and flat-out hallucinations. Based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho is both a satire and a genuinely scary movie about a businessman who is compelled to murder. Or is he? Several moments of heightened reality raise questions throughout the film, and by the end, the audience is left feeling that everything that once seemed real may have been a lie. Whether or not what we see is real or not, though, murderers and yuppies are all too real.
12. Black Swan (2010)
Like Persona, Black Swan also muddies the waters of dreams, reality, and identity. The film centers on a ballerina and the newcomer who threatens to take her place as the star of the upcoming production of Swan Lake. But instead of a straightforward battle of wills between rivals, the film dives into the lead’s perspective as she becomes less and less sure of her reality and self. Black Swan is one of director Darren Aronofsky’s best films and won Natalie Portman her first Oscar for her incredible lead performance.
13. Spirited Away (2001)
More than 20 years after its release, Spirited Away remains one of celebrated director Hayao Miyazaki’s best films because of the stunning world it builds for its lead character and the audience. The film follows a 10-year-old girl who finds herself in a magical world of spirits, witches, and dragons, but it’s unclear when, where, or how she entered this world. The film leaves the relationship between reality, fantasy, and dreams ambiguous. It’s also one of the few kid-friendly movies on this list.
14. Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Jacob’s Ladder centers on Jacob (Tim Robbins), a Vietnam veteran who begins to suspect that his reality is, in fact, an afterlife. It’s a disturbing yet beautiful film with an inescapable unsettling atmosphere as it continually shifts viewers’ understanding of what is happening. Video game fans will also recognize scenes that directly influenced the Silent Hill series.
15. שמש נצחית בראש צלול (2004)
שמש נצחית בראש צלול brings questions about the lines between reality, dreams, and memory to the romance genre as protagonist Joel (ג'ים קארי) decides to undergo a procedure that would erase his ex-girlfriend from his memories. But once the procedure begins, and Joel begins to witness the erasure of the woman he once loved from his mind, he begins to devise plans to save her memory. Eternal Sunshine is a modern classic, and for good reason; this tear-jerker is often recognized as one of the best movies about the complexity of romantic relationships and the intimacy of memories.
16. Sucker Punch (2011)
Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch follows a group of young women in an asylum who seek to escape. But instead of simply portraying that story, the film dives into fantastical worlds to dramatize the various tasks the women must complete to escape. It’s a visually stunning action movie that delves into various levels of reality without ever clearly explaining the distinctions between its worlds, which only makes it more fun and fascinating.
17. Waking Life (2001)
Waking Life is a rotoscoped movie that pulls viewers into its strange, dreamy worlds with its visual style that’s somewhat realistic but also animated. The movie follows a man as he journeys through different environments that may or may not just be figments of his imagination and dreamworlds and engages in philosophical discussions on various topics, including the nature of reality itself.
18. Paprika (2006)
Paprika is often cited as one of the best anime movies of all time for its striking and inventive animation and its thought-provoking story about a psychologist who hunts down a terrorist. But unlike most movies about hunting terrorists, Paprika takes place largely in dreams as the terrorist uses a machine that allows users to enter people’s dreams. It’s a brilliant sci-fi thriller that offers some big ideas and awe-inspiring animation.
19. Total Recall (1990)
Total Recall isn’t just one of the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. It’s also one of famed director Paul Verhoeven’s best and just one of the best sci-fi action movies ever. The movie tells the story of a man who seeks out a virtual reality experience but becomes entangled in a conspiracy that takes him all the way to Mars. Or is the entire conspiracy and his adventure to investigate it part of the virtual reality experience? The movie never answers that question and asks a maybe more important question: Does it matter?
20. The Matrix (1999)
Nine years after Total Recall, The Matrix dove deep into the concept of humans living in a virtual world that they believe is real. The movie follows Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) as he’s recruited by a group that seeks to fight back against the machines that have enslaved humanity in the virtual world. But some people who know their world isn’t real still prefer it. It’s a movie that raises some of the same questions as Total Recall but approaches them more philosophically while also delivering iconic action.
21. Naked Lunch (1991)
Loosely based on the already loosely-plotted novel of the same name by William S. Burroughs, David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch takes viewers on a strange journey to the mysterious land of “Interzone” in North Africa. The film centers on William Lee (Peter Weller), a figure based on Burroughs who partakes in several drugs and spends time with other artists who inhabit Interzone while never fully understanding his surroundings. Naked Lunch is nearly impossible to follow but invites audiences along for a delightfully strange and unique cinematic ride.
22. Repulsion (1965)
Repulsion sees a beautiful young woman struggle to tell the difference between reality and fantasy as she experiences men’s various attempts to sleep with her. The film offers a disturbing and enveloping view into its protagonist’s perspective and makes it difficult for viewers to discern reality from nightmare. It’s a classic psychological horror film and a classic feminist film.
23. Open Your Eyes (1997)
Open Your Eyes centers on César (Eduardo Noriega) and his experiences with the beautiful Sofía (Penélope Cruz). César meets Sofía at a party and hopes to begin a romance with her. למרות זאת, after he’s disfigured in an accident, she avoids him — until he awakens to a world where she loves him, and things only grow more confusing and complicated after that. The film, which inspired the English-language remake Vanilla Sky, is a beautifully acted and thought-provoking thriller about how people relate to the world and each other.
24. Berberian Sound Studio (2012)
Berberian Sound Studio sees English sound engineer Gilderoy (Toby Jones) take a job on an Italian horror film and grow increasingly disturbed by his surroundings. The people he works with are rude to him and each other, the flight he’s seeking reimbursement for can’t be found on any record, and as the film goes on, the narrative begins to break apart. Berberian Sound Studio is a film that so thoroughly blurs the lines of dream and reality that by its finale, it is using all-out dream logic. It’s a strange movie that may not be for everyone but will surely be appreciated by viewers who enjoy challenging films.
25. Holy Motors (2012)
Holy Motors tracks Mr. Oscar (Denis Lavant) as he performs the roles of various people, including an old woman, a gangster, and a man whose wife and kids are monkeys. It sounds like a movie about a very busy actor. But there are no cameras or onlookers to appreciate the performances, and many of them are more confusing than anything else. Holy Motors is an odd film that plays with the lines of dream, cinema, and reality.
26. The Lighthouse (2019)
Robert Pattinson ו Willem Dafoe star in this island-set film that sees the two men reveal secrets about themselves and question the very nature of their reality on the island. The Lighthouse is a wonderfully unique, equally hilarious and unnerving movie featuring gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and brilliant performances from its talented leads.
27. Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Like שמש נצחית בראש צלול decades later Last Year at Marienbad explores the lines between reality, dreams, and memory. The film centers on a man and woman who may or may not have met and begun an affair at a resort a year earlier. It’s that “may or may not” that makes the film so fascinating. The uncertainty grows from the man’s claim that they met last year and the woman told him to wait a year for her and her contradicting claim that she’s never met him. The movie plays with various memories and visions of what may have happened and what may be happening now. It never offers an answer on its events, למרות זאת.
28. The Machinist (2004)
The Machinist centers around one of Christian Bale’s most astounding bodily transformations as the actor lost over 60 pounds to portray insomniac Trevor Reznik. Trevor’s insomnia may be what leads him to see a man who no one else sees or even knows exists, but it’s not clear whether the man is a dream, a hallucination, or something else. The Machinist is a slow-burning atmospheric film that draws viewers into Trevor’s unreliable perspective.
29. Take Shelter (2011)
Like The Machinist, Take Shelter brings the audience into its protagonist’s point of view, but unlike that film, Take Shelter never answers any of the questions it asks. The film follows family man Curtis (Michael Shannon) as he prepares for a coming apocalypse he has seen in his dreams. But whether those dreams are prophetic, simply dreams, or the product of a family history with mental illness, the film never entirely clarifies. Take Shelter is a wonderfully empathetic movie with an incredible lead performance from Shannon that centers the person more than the questions and is all the better for it.
30. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)
While most viewers may not see Long Day’s Journey Into Night in all its 3D glory, the film is still a stunning and enveloping cinematic experience that beautifully blurs the lines of reality and dream. The film initially follows a man as he investigates the disappearance of a woman he loved years ago. But as it goes on, the memories and investigation begin to bleed into one another. In its final 59 minutes, the film delivers a jaw-dropping single take (initially presented in 3D) that’s one of cinema’s most magical sequences. It’s also probably a dream, but no one can say for sure.
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