There are few things more complex than the human mind, and numerous filmmakers have attempted to explore deeply psychological topics in cryptic and challenging films. Whether through comedy, thrillers, sci-fi, or surrealism, psychological stories get to the heart of human existence and address complex themes of life, death, idenтιтy, and selfhood.

There have been plenty of movies over the years that you’d need to be a genius to understand fully, yet that’s also a big part of their appeal, as thought-provoking films can offer deeply rewarding viewing experiences. While all these movies will push you outside of your comfort zone, it’s also guaranteed that you will find meaning in the confusion.

Open Your Eyes (1997)

While many may be familiar with Cameron Crowe’s Hollywood remake Vanilla Sky from 2001, this was actually based on the Spanish film Open Your Eyes. As a film exploring the intersection between dreams and reality, director Alejandro Amenábar took influence from Calderón de la Barca’s 1635 play Life Is a Dream, which delved into the mysteries of existence.

Open Your Eyes featured Penélope Cruz, who even reprised her role as Sofia in the remake, and was a gripping exploration of existentialism, the human spirit, and idenтιтy. While viewers might find it difficult to wrap their heads around this story of a man left severely disfigured by an accident, there’s a stylish beauty to its appeal.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko delved into the psychology of a troubled teen to create a puzzling cult classic that still leaves viewers scratching their heads more than two decades later. With Jake Gyllenhaal as a sleepwalking teen who encounters a mysterious figure in a rabbit costume, things take a strange turn when he’s informed that the world will end in 28 days.

As a film packed with symbolism, watching Donnie Darko feels like all the pieces are there to understand what’s going on if only audiences can figure out how to put them together into a cohesive whole. However, viewers are still torn on whether Donnie Darko is a uniquely complex story packed with metaphors or simply pretentious rambling.

Eraserhead (1977)

Audiences were first introduced to the unusual surrealism of David Lynch in his feature debut, Eraserhead, a movie that truly needs to be seen to be believed. With a wild-haired Jack Nance as the anxious oddity, Henry Spencer, this black-and-white body horror sees him traverse an industrial landscape as he finds romance and fathers a grossly deformed child.

While Lynch never explicitly outlined the true meaning behind Eraserhead, it’s clear this was a film dealing with anxiety in modern times, fears around parenthood, and coming to terms with the bleakness of existence. As a film that was in production for seven years, Eraserhead represents Lynch’s early artistic vision, which would become more pronounced in his later career.

Solaris (1972)

The Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky explored grief, memory, idenтιтy, and the unknowable nature of others’ consciousness in the unique psychological sci-fi Solaris. Telling the story of a space station crew falling into a state of existential crisis, things take an unusual turn when their ship orbits a planet called Solaris, whose frequencies affect their emotional states.

Solaris represented Tarkovsky’s attempt to bring emotional depth to the sci-fi genre and felt like a worthy successor to earlier, cryptic works like 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a rewarding film that requires viewers’ total and complete attention, Solaris was a thoughtful and sensitive project that highlighted sci-fi filmmaking’s potential to be more psychologically complex than audiences were used to.

I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (2020)

With complex scripts like Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman has consistently been involved with intellectually rewarding films. However, his adaptation of Iain Reid’s novel I’m Thinking of Ending Things pushed this even further as viewers were thrust into a strange and surreal world where nothing felt certain.

Featuring Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, and David Thewlis, I’m Thinking of Ending Things begins with a young woman embarking on a trip to meet her boyfriend’s parents. While this might sound like a typical setup for a lighthearted comedy, the results were a brain-melting journey into the unsettling domain of psychological horror, existentialism, and dream logic.

Persona (1966)

Swedish cinema legend Ingmar Bergman explored the complexities of human psychology in his 1966 classic Persona. Telling the story of a young nurse named Alma, whose psychology begins to blur with that of her mute patient, Elisabet, things take a strange turn when Alma starts to have trouble differentiating herself from her patient.

Persona tackled themes of duality, insanity, and personal idenтιтy and felt intrinsically linked to Jungian psychology and Carl Jung’s theories around selfhood. As a film that’s open to endless interpretations, not fully understanding Persona is an important part of its elusive appeal.

Memento (2000)

While many will point to Inception or Tenet when it comes to Christopher Nolan’s most difficult-to-understand films, the non-linear presentation of Memento made it particularly puzzling. With Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, the film’s presentation was intentionally confusing, keeping audiences as lost as its main character.

Through a clever system of pH๏τographs, handwritten notes, and tattoos, we go on a journey with Shelby as he attempts to understand his condition and uncover the truth behind his murdered wife. Although things do come together in the end, Memento was a film that pushed audiences intellectually and showed the potential of unconventional storytelling techniques.

Paprika (2006)

Four years before Hollywood viewers encountered the dream-within-a-dream world of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Japanese filmmaker Satoshi Kon explored eerily similar topics with Paprika. As a surreal anime sci-fi about a research psychologist named Dr. Atsuko Chiba and the dream detective Paprika, this wild narrative saw the pair fight back against dream terrorists who have stolen a subconscious-infiltrating device.

This deeply psychological story did not hold viewers’ hands one bit and requires complete and total attention to unpack the movie’s endless mysteries. Paprika didn’t shy away from the wild potential of portraying dreams in animation and was a thought-provoking look at themes of selfhood and consciousness.

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Director David Lynch carefully traversed the line between reality and surrealism in Mulholland Drive, one of the defining films of the 2000s. With Naomi Watts as an aspiring actress in Los Angeles, the story spirals into mystery as shifting idenтιтies, fractured memories, and haunting desires blur the boundary between the dream world and everyday existence.

Perhaps part of the strange appeal of Mulholland Drive relates to the fact that it was originally envisioned as a TV series that Lynch then repurposed into a film. Despite these haphazard origins, it was still voted the best movie of the 21st century in a poll by the BBC.

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, is one of the most ambitious films ever made. The story follows a theater director whose attempt to stage a replica of his entire life ultimately spirals out of control, as he casts not only actors to play everyone he knows but also actors to play those very actors.

While Synecdoche, New York was an exploration of Caden Cotard’s (Philip Seymour Hoffman) creative vision, the way it was presented highlighted the impossibility of truly capturing one’s essence in a piece of art and that the complexities of human psychology are not easily defined. Addressing themes of life, death, meaning, and uncertainty, the grandeur of this film was part of its power.