The 25 trippiest movies of all time

Anything can be trippy when you partake of, say, mind-altering substances. A 10-hour nature documentary? Whoa, look at those penguins! CNN? Sure, why not? But the greatest trippy movies make you feel stoned even when you're not stoned and make you think about life even when your brain is turned off. These movies use cinematic techniques to blow your mind, expand your horizons, and take you places you've never been before. These are the movies that take you on a literal trip. 

Daises is a girls-gone-wild comedy on acid. Complete with colors, pranks, and montages, it follows two friends who spend their days drinking, partying, eating, and making fun of people. It breaks every rule in the cinematic rule book. There is no plot, story, or message. It also breaks every rule in the Czech rule book, which said filmmakers were not allowed to make fun of society.

Talk about commitment! The actors in this movie took the drugs their characters took, which adds another layer of realism to an already realistic portrayal of hippie culture. And by realistic, we mean far-out. 

Like Lost, no matter how often we watch this, we still can't figure out what it means. Not that it matters, since the real reason we watch 2001 is for the moments of wordless grandeur. The space waltz, the monolith, the sight of a woman upside down in a spaceship. It's all ambiguous, and it's all magnificent. 

Powell and Pressburger had made magic with movies like Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, and A Canterbury Tale, but they had never made something as magical as The Red Shoes. The story of a dancer torn between her fiancé and her career is filled with dream sequences, POV shots, and blasts of Technicolor. Everyone from Scorsese to De Palma has ripped it off, and who can blame them? There's no better movie out there. 

To call this movie "trippy" is an understatement. From start to finish, this movie is one long acid trip. It's about a world where monsters rule humans against a backdrop of forests, deserts, and caves. There's a reason it plays at midnight in Los Angeles — not because your kids aren't allowed to see it. 

There are movies about drugs, and then there are drug movies. This one falls in the latter category for its depiction of how drugs work, how they feel, and how they drive you mad. Terry Gilliam's adaption of Hunter Thompson's novel is mind-bending. It follows two reporters who decide to mix narcotics like a kid mixes drinks at a soda fountain, which leads to all sorts of trouble in Vegas. 

When it comes to trippy movies, 75 percent of what makes them work is visual. You might get a kick out of Inception for its ideas, but it's not going to do much for you on a visceral level. On the other hand, watching Gasper Noe's descent into madness is going to do it for you on every level.

Beginning in their Rubber Soul days, The Beatles were known to dabble in a certain kind of drug. You know, the one that rhymes with "LSD." It not only made their music better, but it also led to one of the best animated flicks of all time. 

The first surrealist movie. Un Chein Andalou was so ahead of its time that people passed out and vomited at the premiere. Salvador Dali co-wrote the film along with Luis Bunuel, who would become cinema's laureate of lewdness.  

Another movie from 1929, this Soviet production took cinematography to a whole 'nother level. No one had seen anything like it before: a whirlwind of cameras, lenses, motions, and montages. Even today, it blows your mind. There are so many how did they do that? moments that you can't keep up. 

Is there anything more trippy than The Room? This movie has the worst dialogue, costumes, and acting we've ever seen. There's a shot of spoons in a picture frame at one point. Then, there's a shot of two people playing football on a roof. None of it makes sense, which is why we love it. 

When you were a kid, you probably didn't think twice about a grown man offering you candy or that the colors of his factory were much like the ones you see on acid. But as an adult, there's no escaping the weirdness. Even the songs sound like an advertisement for MDMA. 

Usually, when we refer to a person as "one-dimensional," it's a diss. Not when it comes to Dario Argento. The Italian director only has one lane — expressionistic horror — and he drives in that lane better than anyone else. 

Studio Ghibli movies are notorious for their psychedelic references, and this one is no different. Spirited Away is so out-there in terms of animation that some parents won't show it to their kids. There's a lot of weird stuff in this film, but every scene is graced with such creativity and imagination that it would be a shame if children weren't allowed to see it. 

You can never have too much John Malkovich. Whether it's 10 minutes of John Malkovich, two hours of John Malkovich, or 20 versions of John Malkovich, the actor is always a welcomed presence on screen. Need proof? Check out this 1999 comedy, in which two people find a portal into his brain. 

What if reality wasn't actually reality? What if we were living in a simulation? What if George Washington was in a cult, and that cult was into aliens, man? The Matrix poses questions no one had asked themselves and did so in a cool, tense, and action-packed way. 

Directed by Nicolas Roeg during his drug years, this movie's got it all: a baby-faced Mick Jagger, a mob of British killers, and the most jaw-dropping ending of 1970. Plus, a lot of acid. 

When you think of trippy movies, gang and street violence don't usually come to mind. But there's an element of surrealism infused into this story of a gang member and his criminal history that it forces you to watch with open eyes. 

Steve Martin plays Navin, unaware he is a white man adopted by a Black family. Not trippy enough for you? The jokes about his character certainly will be. Nothing says trippy like the time he finds his "special purpose."

A film about a man raising an alien is going to be freaky. What's even freakier, however, is the stuff around him. David Lynch's directorial debut is set in a black-and-white wasteland where broken windows reflect shattered souls and empty factories preserve hollow minds. Maybe think twice before throwing this one on, or at least go in expecting the worst...which, in the hands of Lynch, is the best. 

It's the same deal with Ingmar Bergman. You're gonna want to be in the right mood to throw this one on. A woman loses her mind and is sent to an island with her caregiver, who looks a lot like her. The two start to meld into the same person as things get darker and more intense.

The Holy Mountain is not a good film. It's important we acknowledge that. But if you're in the right mood (or have smoked a joint), it's got enough crazy imagery to make your eyes explode with color. 

The Doors are one of the most psychedelic bands ever to do it, and The Doors is here to remind you of that fact. It's got a lot of music, drugs, and tie-dye visuals. To paraphrase Jim Morrison: it couldn't get much higher. 

This is a seriously trippy movie with intense psychedelic colors, flying monkeys, and a field of poppies. Some have even noted that Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon aligns perfectly with the action on screen. Coincidence? I think not. 

A haunted house movie unlike any haunted house movie. A horror movie unlike any horror movie. A drug movie unlike any drug movie. House is on a street of its own. We don't want to give away any surprises, so we'll say that there is no trippier movie out there. Watch at your own risk.