10 Movies With Mind-Bending Plots

A notorious film from a notorious film-maker. Avant-garde Western El Topo is directed by controversial Chilean-Frenchman Alejandro Jodorowsky, who also stars as a violent black-clad gun-slinger, roaming the wild desert (accompanied by his young son) in a quest to defeat four legendary marksmen and win the love of a slave-woman.

Don't expect to find any sense here, but do expect outrageous visuals, disturbing scenes and bizarre happenings. A mysterious woman with a male voice, dwarfs, maimed performers, demented outcasts and liberal references to Christian symbolism and Eastern esoteric knowledge abound. Caution is advised concerning a particular episode, where El Topo encounters hundreds of dead rabbits. These are not props. Jodorowsky initially claimed he had killed them himself, by hand, although he later denied this.

Certainly, animal cruelty is a theme in the director's work. El Topo is not his only movie to be highly criticised for such. Intriguingly, Jodorowsky came close to directing Dune for the big screen, and worked closely with author Frank Herbert before the project stalled for financial reasons.