9 Confusing Films Where Absolutely Nobody Knew What Was Going On

8. Lost Highway

David Lynch's Mulholland Drive regularly appears on lists like this, so there was an intentional decision made not to include it, especially considering it's really not that confusing, and there is a very simple explanation of the movie's events: the first half is a dream, the second half is the nightmarish reality, with a little surrealism thrown in for good measure. Less talked-about (because, frankly, it's not nearly as good) is Lynch's Lost Highway, which begins with Fred (Bill Pullman) hearing a message over his home intercom which says, "Dick Laurent is dead." Other weird things soon begin to happen: Fred's wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) appears to momentarily have the face of a pale old guy (Robert Blake), and Fred receives a series of strange video tapes recorded in their home, even one of them asleep. After another freaky encounter with the pale guy at a party, Fred finds a tape of himself murdering Renee, and he ends up being sentenced to death for her murder. With headaches and bizarre visions invading his mind, he appears to have transformed into somebody else in his jail cell overnight, a young mechanic called Pete (Balthazar Getty). Pete is freed from jail and soon meets ruthless gangster Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia), whose real name is Dick Laurent, before embarking on an affair with his mistress, Alice (also Arquette). They plot to rip off her friend Andy, resulting in Andy's death before they steal the money. Soon thereafter, Pete turns back into Fred, and the pale Mystery Man again appears, informing him that Alice is in fact Renee. Fred kidnaps Mr. Eddy and the Mystery Man shoots him, before Fred drives up to his own home and utters into the intercom, "Dick Laurent is dead." As the cops chase Fred and Rammstein blares out, Fred begins to transform inside the car as the movie ends. Theories: According to IMDB, a popular theory is that much of the movie's events are a construct of Fred's mind: he kills Renee and Dick Laurent, and Pete is simply an alternate personality he has forged to cope with the guilt of his actions. The Pete section is basically a fantasy, because Renee/Alice's personality is starkly different, and Pete is a sociable person whereas Fred was the complete opposite. His transformation back into Fred near the end is that repressed material returning, and some believe that the crazy final scene may in fact be Fred being executed on death row, due to him shaking around violently and there being a lot of light emanating from the car. It certainly makes a lot of sense, though in true Lynch style, he is never one to raise the curtain on his own mysteries.