10 Movies With Mind-Bending Plots

3. Alice (1988)

You could choose anything by surrealist Czech animator Jan Švankmajer, whose undeniable talents veered sharply toward the avant-garde. He produced several equally off-the-wall and wonderful live-action films, but is his stop-motion endeavours which capture the film-maker's imagination at its peak. Like much of the director's work, Alice features a mixture of live-action and animation, and it does so quite brilliantly.

The film is loosely based on the original Alice In Wonderland book, following the adventures of a little girl who follows a white rabbit into an astonishing and frequently disturbing fantasy world. Švankmajer's white rabbit, however, resembles a creature from a nightmare, a badly-stuffed, blank-eyed thing which scuttles and scurries about with menace.

In truth, this may be the most on-point adaptation of Lewis Carroll's fiction in movie history. Where other versions play out like fairy tales, Švankmajer's Alice brims over with all the wonder, fear and fascination of childhood.

Contributor

Chris Wheatley is a journalist and writer from Oxford, UK. He has too many records, too many guitars and not enough cats.