8 Insanely Complex Movies That Will Blow Your Mind

2001: A Space Odyssey is not easy watching...

Coherence Movie
Ugly Duckling Films

Laying back and enjoying a nice movie is one of the finer things in life. Unless, of course, they're intent on working your brain into overdrive all in the name of entertainment. Wait, isn't this supposed to be fun?

Intent on making you go full conspiracy theory on figuring out the twists and turns of the narrative, these films take pleasure in making a cinematic experience one of pain and difficulty, turning into maths equations and cork boards full of clues to just simply understand how we got from A to B.

Born from the science fiction genre, being an actual bloody engineer sometimes isn't enough to decode the tricksier bits - especially when we're talking time travel, alternate dimensions, parallel universes, and good old double timelines. Occasionally it will all fall into place, but more often than not, some back to back reruns and a nice flow chart is required to get to the bottom of it all.

So get your thinking cap on if only to hold your brain in when your head explodes, as these are the films that will truly blow your mind. Unless you're a genuis, in which case I'm not sure what you're doing here...

8. Coherence

Coherence Movie
Ugly Duckling Films

Set at a dinner party, Coherence centres on couple Emily and Kevin and Kevin's ex-girlfriend Laurie, playing out a friendly meet up until the power goes out halfway through their evening. The party of eight is plunged into darkness, and all energy goes into attempting to regain electricity to carry on with their evening.

Upon wandering outside however, it's clear that no normal outage has hit their street - everything is shrouded in darkness apart from one other house. And strangely enough, that other house is an exact replica of the one they're already in.

With doppelgängers galore that can only be differentiated through different coloured glow sticks, the group soon realise there's more than one reality branching out around them, but what they can do to survive the strange ordeal, and why it's happening at all, are still a mystery.

Considering the film is populated by groups of people who are literally exactly the same, it's a pretty confusing watch; especially when they all become aware and start pretending to be members from different parallel dimensions. Whilst the details become irrelevant at the end, Coherence's dedication to a bizarre sci-fi plot twist is a great one, and will leave you guessing all the way up to its ambiguous ending.

Contributor
Contributor

Horror film junkie, burrito connoisseur, and serial cat stroker. WhatCulture's least favourite ginger.