10 Movies You Have To Watch TWICE To Understand

From Joker to Donnie Darko, here are some movies that you'll definitely need to re-watch!

Jess The Triangle
Icon Film Distribution

Of course, we all have different tastes in movies. Some of us can’t resist the latest sappy romantic comedy, while others are only in the market for the grimmest, goriest horror flicks they can get their hands on. A deep and complex thriller or a silly Beavis and Butthead-esque comedy? It’s completely up to you. There’s a genre for everybody.

Within that, of course, there’s a mood for everybody as well. If action movies are your thing, sometimes you just want to leave your brain at the door and watch as Arnold Schwarzenegger mows his way through whoever’s offended him this time around. No thought required, just delightfully wooden one-liners and bullets-amundo. Other times, you want something a little more abstract and thought provoking.

There are some movies that you just can’t get a solid handle on the first time you see them. Maybe they’re just totally out there. Maybe their ending completely changes the way you see the film’s events, and you’ve got to watch it all again in light of it. Maybe they’re just darn weird and unexpected. These are the sorts of movies that have made this list. Watch out, though, we’re going to spoil some of them!

10. Shutter Island

Triangle movie
Paramount Pictures

Shutter Island, as any Martin Scorsese fan will tell you, is one of the legendary filmmaker’s most complex works. Based on Dennis Lehane’s novel, with which it shares it name, it’s a psychological slice of neo-noir starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Marshal Edward Daniels. Daniels is tasked with discovering the truth of Shutter Island after a patient escapes a secure facility.

What’s the truth of Shutter Island? Well, it’s tough to say. Throughout the course of this baffling, engrossing tale, the viewer finds that nothing is as it seems. Daniels has personal reasons for taking the assignment: Andrew Laeddis is (supposedly) there, the man who killed his wife. It all seems to follow simply enough, but several cryptic clues and revelations later, we’re reeling from the truth: ‘Daniels’ is actually Laeddis himself (the names are anagrams of each other), held here for the murder of his wife. The whole staff were in on this elaborate test of Laeddis’ grip of reality, which he ultimately fails.

As he’s taken away to be lobotomized at the film’s conclusion, viewers are tempted to start the whole thing all over again with all this befuddling information in mind.

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