10 Great Horror Movies You'll Only Watch Once

8. Inland Empire (1999)

Fire Walk With Me
Absurda/Studio Canal

Eraserhead. Twin Peaks. Mulholland Drive. Over the years, the great and incomparable David Lynch has given audiences a wide range of delightfully twisted productions, but none quite as indecipherably batsh*t as his (so far) final film, Inland Empire. 

Playing as a nightmarish odyssey into the life of an actress whose latest film proves to be a gateway to madness, Inland Empire features some of the most unsettling and inexplicable images of Lynch's career, which may sound like hyperbole before you watch the thing and attempt to unpack it all. 

With a truncated narrative approach and a wonderful sense that Lynch is having the time of his life, the bonkers burst of surreal randomness is enrapturing despite its confusion, and even though you'll go mad yourself trying to figure it out, it's a moviegoing experience you have to take. 

That said, Inland Empire is so weird and, at just over three hours, so long that it doesn't exactly lend itself to repeat viewings. Once, in this case, is more than enough.

 
Posted On: 
Contributor

I get to write about what I love, so that's pretty cool. Every great film should seem new every time you see it. Be excellent to each other.