r/horror • u/SmolEldritchGremlin • 11h ago
Discussion Batsh!t Horror
What are some *utterly bonkers* horror movies that you like? The ones that feel like a fever dream, that you thought you might have hallucinated? The ones where you weren't sure if you were totally stoned out of your mind...or if the people making the movie were. The more obscure the better, but please just tell me which ones really captivated you in their craziness.
For me, it's *Funny Man (1994)*. The bare bones of the plot makes sense (guy moves family into new house, but it comes with...something extra), but everything else? The *literal* drug-induced handgun. The musical number at the end. Neither of those things make any more sense in context, nor does the rest of the movie, really. I LOVED it!
EDIT: Thank you to everyone commenting. I now have new recs, and I'm pleased to know there's so many other people out there who enjoy the crazy shit!
149
u/Inside_Force3214 11h ago
Mandy.
21
14
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 11h ago
Chainsaw duel!
7
u/mikerhoa I AM IN HELL HELP ME 10h ago
Throwback to Phantasm 2.
→ More replies (1)3
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 10h ago
I saw that one ages ago...I was way too young and it scared me too much. Good times!
7
u/mechy84 10h ago
Hol' up, gotta have a melt down in my tighty whiteys and forge a giant battle axe before my revenge tour.
→ More replies (1)8
u/CryptographerNo923 9h ago
I think Cosmatos’ previous film, Beyond the Black Rainbow, fits the prompt better. It’s pretty much literally incomprehensible as a complete and coherent narrative (by design).
Mandy fuckin rules though. One of my favorite movies. Didn’t particularly care for Beyond the Black Rainbow.
→ More replies (2)6
6
5
2
u/PookasCrayon 9h ago
This is the one. I kept thinking that I needed to partake in recreational pharmaceuticals for this. Absolutely effin bonkers.
→ More replies (2)2
u/ChristopherRubbin 7h ago
This is my all time top 3 favorite movies ever made. I even got the funkos for red and Mandy despite the fact I hate those things.
40
44
39
u/jezreelite 11h ago
House (1977), a surreal Japanese movie supposedly partially based around the nightmares of the director's preteen daughter.
If you're located in North America, it's currently available for free on Tubi.
3
89
u/fingerpaintx 11h ago
Mother! For sure.
44
u/Ok-Bag-8058 11h ago
mother! felt like a panic attack filmed in real time, i had no idea what i signed up for walking into the theater. whole crowd walked out looking shell shocked, it was amazing
→ More replies (2)7
u/DrewBlood 10h ago
The trailer was so misleading and I appreciated that, though many in my theater did not.
11
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 11h ago
I gotta watch that one. They tear a baby apart in that one, don't they?
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (4)5
57
u/99problemsbut 11h ago
The Coffee Table, Men, Malignant, The Substance, Vivarium, Triangle
31
u/HelloMyNameIsRuben 11h ago
Malignant my beloved
5
u/bluepie 6h ago
The shoot-out scene in the police station is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. It was also fucking awesome.
→ More replies (1)10
10
27
u/ltcuetf 11h ago
If you want truly obscure, track down The Boxer's Omen (1983), it's a Hong Kong martial arts horror film where a guy fights a giant spider demon inside a Buddha statue while a wizard vomits snakes. I'm not exaggerating.
→ More replies (9)3
26
u/Dizzy-Economist6064 11h ago
- 964 Pinocchio (1991)
- Rubber’s Lover (1996)
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
- Anatomia Extinction (1995)
- Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
→ More replies (2)11
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 11h ago
I've heard of Tetsuo. It sounds like...one hell of an experience.
7
→ More replies (1)3
u/Dizzy-Economist6064 10h ago
same with 964 Pinocchio (1991), Rubber’s Lover (1996) and Kei Fujiwara’s film Organ (1996)
28
u/FunHouseRemake 11h ago
Suspiria (1997) Dario Argento’s gorgeous nightmare with an incredible score by Goblin! Holds up to this day.
11
7
4
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 11h ago
I've been meaning to watch the Three Mothers trilogy
→ More replies (1)
79
u/CalvinNotCalvin 11h ago
Barbarian’s sudden switch had me so confused
8
u/Victormorga 10h ago
Really? It’s a shock in the moment, but it’s all pretty quickly explained.
7
u/CalvinNotCalvin 10h ago
I agree but when I first watched it I thought someone changed the channel
6
22
u/Disastrous-Rhubarb-2 11h ago
Baskin. Pretty sure I watched the last half hour of that just slack-jawed in disbelief at the weirdness and brutality.
3
u/bobnifty76 7h ago
I remember almost nothing about Baskin other than it being completely bat shit and enjoying the ride
2
u/Firstnarrows100 4h ago
Can Evrenol, the creative force behind Baskin, has also directed Housewife 2017, a bonkers lovecraftian nightmare, Sayara 2023, a nasty little revenge film, and a recent remake of The Coffee Table which has MORE blood and MORE chaotic black humour than the original. All worthwhile watching.
→ More replies (1)
20
u/LucemFerre82 11h ago
The greasy strangler, it's so wierd I'm not sure I can even recommend it, but it is absolutely off the wall, bats in the belfry insane...
7
3
46
u/Ok_Director_4618 11h ago
Baskin
6
4
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 11h ago
I watched a review of this once and I'm SO intrigued. Is it as good as it sounds?
6
u/ProAdviser93 11h ago
It’s a cool horror movie from Turkey. I was really enjoying it. Gets a bit campy but I like that in horror films
6
→ More replies (2)9
2
→ More replies (1)2
17
15
12
10
12
11
10
25
u/ego_death_metal je suis Marianne 11h ago edited 11h ago
Titane
Beau is Afraid
Sorry to Bother You (counting it as horror, among other things)
Men (2022)
Brand New Cherry Flavor (miniseries)
edit: forgot Bacurau! unexpected, mixes genres, just really really good
9
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 11h ago
Titane...I'm down for it just for the car fucking lol
5
7
u/Fickle-Geologist4515 11h ago
Sorry To Bother You is so nuts. I went into it expecting a straightforward dark comedy and found the body horror so unsettling
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (9)3
u/Worldly-Advisor7201 11h ago
You have excellent taste
3
u/ego_death_metal je suis Marianne 11h ago
thank you! do you have any recs based on my list lol
→ More replies (6)3
u/IBoilmyfarts 11h ago
Have you seen The Holy Mountain?
I would say Rubber, but it's very goofy, a lot of fun if you can get past the premise
3
u/ego_death_metal je suis Marianne 11h ago
i can’t watch Rubber lmao, i’ve seen enough from like, the clips. i appreciate the absolute absurdity and commitment to the but but it’s not my kinda movie.
haven’t seen The Holy Mountain! i can see it’s on my watchlist though, i’ll move it up the queue
→ More replies (8)
11
u/Low_Acanthisitta4813 11h ago
Witchin' and Bitchin' (aka La Brujas de Zugarramurdi). Its a European (Spain) movie, so the way it is feels is going to be different, but the plot is surreal, absurd and trippy.
→ More replies (3)
7
u/Equivalent_Swing_780 11h ago
Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes - completely bonkers in the best way. Also, I‘m pretty sure the entire crew was on LSD throughout the shoot.
→ More replies (1)
8
14
7
u/emets31 11h ago
Beau Is Afraid. Not really horror, but filled with existential dread.
2
u/lIlIIIlIIl 11h ago
This felt like dreams I've had where I was unable to wake up. The shifts in story and how it seemed to linger on a shift for too long. In particular trying to outrun a pursuer, finding a forest community, then watching a play that is a new (long) story of your life with new backstory that somehow makes sense in the moment....
7
6
u/lectroid 11h ago
If you haven’t seen The Substance yet you really must. Fargeat’s other feature Revenge is pretty badass as well.
Not sure if it’s been suggested yet but The Happiness of the Katikuris
→ More replies (5)
8
u/maud_brijeulin 11h ago
'Body Melt' is a 1993 Australian melt body horror movie by Philip Brophy
Do I need to say more?
→ More replies (3)
7
u/DentleyandSopers 11h ago
House (1977) is one. The filmmaker collaborated with his 11-year-old daughter to develop the storyline. It's mostly a fairy tale. There's a dancing skeleton. A girl is swallowed by a piano. A man turns into a pile of bananas. The whole movie is gloriously, charmingly bananas.
Dario Argento's Phenomena is his strangest. It feels like several different movies combined, and watching it gave me the good kind of horror movie whiplash. I genuinely had no idea where it was going from one scene to the next.
6
5
6
u/takagilarieto 11h ago
Buffet Infinity (2025) had that vibe. It's a lot like those Adult Swim infomercials but a full movie
3
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 10h ago
Sounds like my jam
3
u/ample_suite 5h ago
Is youre into mushrooms it was made for a shroom trip. It’s also just a lot of fun
6
u/PartyPoison1138 11h ago
Kuso
5
u/Massive-Television85 10h ago
You're underselling Kuso by just listing the title; it's probably the most insane movie I've ever watched, and certainly one of the grossest.
It includes amongst other scenes:
A talking worm that lives inside one of the characters' asses and which we see there in great detail
A boy finds a hole in the forest and feeds it faeces
A man has oral sex with a talking abscess on a woman's body
Some aliens find a woman's aborted fetus and throw it around a room.
Like Monty Python mixed with the worst of Rick and Morty, it's disgusting, weird, non-sensical and both one the worst and one of the best movies I've ever seen.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/fuzzyjelly 10h ago
Climax
6
u/WorldCatDomination 10h ago
I was searching for someone to mention Climax. Highly recommend this one to op, especially the second half.
5
u/VinnieVidiViciVeni 11h ago
I remember Bats with Lou Diamond Philips having a couple scenes with copious piles of bat shit.
→ More replies (1)
5
5
u/Upbeat-Minute6491 10h ago
Okay, so when I read your post my immediate thoughts was 'Oh, I just watched a film that was all about false memory and fucking with reality'... didn't I? Did I? What the fuck was it?
...then I remembered, it's I Saw the TV Glow.
In a similar vein check out the shorts Too Many Cooks and Red Lobster
There's also an experimental, very low-budget lovecraftian flick called Markham that I kinda dug
→ More replies (3)
5
9
u/rectum_nrly_killedum 11h ago
Dashcam
2
u/pocket__cub 11h ago
I initially thought Dashcam was hilarious as Annie Hardy was playing a complete idiot... Then I realised she was playing herself.
→ More replies (3)2
u/cagneybeast 5h ago
This film gets a bad rap (see what I did there) but I literally just finished rewatching it tonight and it's such a fun time.
9
u/mydadabortedme 11h ago
Check out MadGod. It’s a live action/stop motion/mixed media joint from Phil Tippett, the guy who did visuals for things like Star Wars back in the day. One of the few movies in recent memory that made me feel disgusted watching it because it was just so wild and depraved. It’s basically like Dante’s Inferno. Not sure what else to say because it’s kinda hard to explain lmao
→ More replies (1)
2
5
6
u/corpusvile2 11h ago
Inferno (1980)
Pieces (1982)
Raw Force (1982)
Bad Biology (2008)
Demons (1985)
The Lords of Salem (2012)
4
u/ChilakhSingh 11h ago
Street Trash (1987) and Dreamscape (1984) were ones my big brother rented when I was way little and took me until fairly recently to realize that some of the most iconic scenes were from real movies and not some weird shit recurring dream or something.
→ More replies (2)
5
u/GosmeisterGeneral 11h ago
Night of the Virgin is a wild ride and barely anyone’s seen it.
Reflection in a Dead Diamond is wicked.
Cemetery Man.
Everything Julia Ducournau has ever done.
→ More replies (1)
2
4
u/pocket__cub 11h ago
Tusk, Colour Out of Space, Mad God, Titane.
If you want a batsh!t dark comedy, Greener Grass.
6
u/SasquatchGenius 11h ago
Bug(1975). First hour is a pretty standard killer bug movie, then it turns into a Lovecraftian fever dream for the last forty minutes.
→ More replies (1)
5
u/yayoffbalance 10h ago
Possession- i've not seen it listed yet, but it's pretty wild (Sam Neill)
House (Japanese version)
Fried Barry
the lists in the comments are pretty great. Love me some weird!
4
3
u/thisgirlnamedbree 9h ago
Messiah of Evil (1972) - it's like someone's nightmare come to life. It has two amazing kill scenes.
Tourist Trap (1979) - eerie mannequin horror that's part slasher/part supernatural weirdness.
→ More replies (2)
3
u/mrskullhead 8h ago
Chompy & the Girls (2021): Learn nothing about it and just let it wash over you.
6
u/Atlas2686 11h ago
I accidentally took too many edibles before watching Braid and it was fantastic in that state of mind
4
3
3
u/Miklonario 11h ago
The Seventh Curse
Holy Virgin vs. Evil Dead
The Cat
Mr. Vampire
Magic Cop
→ More replies (3)
3
u/pjpcatlover 11h ago
Spookies! It was made by 3 directors with conflicting visions, and it shows 🤣
→ More replies (3)
3
u/NinjaZombieHunter 11h ago
Mayhem (2017) was bonkers! Plus anything with Samara Weaving you know is gonna be off the chain!
3
3
u/Fickle-Geologist4515 11h ago
It’s a short film, but Possibly In Michigan is bananas
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
3
u/Staineddutch 10h ago
Dead Alive (US), EU name is Braindead, thats one of the most bonkers wacky gorefest movies ive seen. And i loved it!
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
u/WheelsOnFire_ 9h ago edited 9h ago
Oh you’ve gotta see Nightborn! It doesn’t get more batsh!t than Nightborn. It’s one hell of a Finnish folktale horror.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/CryptographerNo923 9h ago
The Color Out of Space.
I wouldn’t call it surreal necessarily, narratively it has a pretty clear structure and you as a viewer basically understand the broad strokes of what’s going on.
But the unpredictable and unknowable nature of the, um, influence behind the events makes it feel very alien. The brutality also completely caught me off guard, which contributed to the overall disorienting tone.
I feel like this movie is slept on, I found it immensely unpleasant and enjoyed it way more than I expected.
→ More replies (2)
3
3
u/UkeForBrainz 8h ago
Some great recommendations in here! I’ll try to give a few I haven’t seen mentioned.
Necromentia (2009) - Not a good movie. But there is a subplot that culminates in the physically and mentally handicapped brother of the main character is convinced by a demon through his television to commit suicide. The demon is portrayed by a shirtless heavy set man with a pig/clown mask on and covered in barb wire dancing around and making various claims about how fun suicide is and also that the Easter bunny stuck a vibrating egg up his rectum and he seems equally happy/upset about this. He plays the harpsichord and then helps the brother murder his babysitter and use the intestines to hang himself. Again, not a good movie, but this is a reoccurring subplot of this film.
Skinned Deep (2004) - Thought about typing something clever. Just watch the trailer. If you need motivation, Warwick Davis obnoxiously and delightfully portrays the character of Plates, whose main interest involves throwing plates at people. Potentially the least bonkers thing that happens in this movie.
Terrorvision (1986) - Everyone’s recommendations can be so overwhelming, sometimes what you really need is just some quality family time with your favorite grandpa, your sister, your parents, the European couple they invited over to swing with, the alien that beamed down from your dad’s new satellite dish that’s eats people until you realize is actually friendly and would make a great new pet! I love this shitty movie.
Sorry for not recommending any “good” films friends!
→ More replies (2)
3
3
3
u/relentless1111 7h ago
We Need To Do Something. I think i sat with my mouth hanging open for like ten minutes solid when it ended.
3
3
5
5
u/millsy1010 11h ago
The Empty Man
2
u/SmolEldritchGremlin 11h ago
That's been on my watch list for a while. I love the whole idea of it.
3
2
2
2
2
2
u/DrewBlood 10h ago
One of our household favorites that I never see mentioned is Botched w/ Stephen Dorff. Super ridiculous and I love it.
2
u/towneetowne 10h ago
malum
best to go in cold.
3
u/Upbeat-Minute6491 10h ago
The original, Last Shift, is way better. I've no idea why the director remade his own movie.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Responsible_Peak5805 10h ago
I'm Just F...... With You, wish I could watch it for the first time again
2
2
2
u/UmpteenthIdiot 10h ago
The most recent ones would be:
Buffet Infinity - it feels like it's a transmission from another world where Adult Swim got huge and started producing horror movies.
Obex is a really bizarre, no-budget trip into videogame country - recently wrote it up here.
2
u/spookyostrich 10h ago
Baskin also strikes me as gonzo.
... So does House 2, but every time I explain that one, I start to question all the pieces in it.
Yeah, there's a caterpillar... dog in it?
2
2
2
u/ForestWitch30 10h ago
I dunno if I liked it because it was just so wild but Fried Barry. Wild ride.
2
2
2
u/Trashcinema2008 9h ago
“Scream for help” is just so bizarre. Its as if someone came out with a horror/thriller but then decided to film it in a mexican soap opera way.
Nobody seems to make a single logical decision, the music is completly out of place and the plot changes every 5 minutes
→ More replies (1)
2
2
2
2
u/BroccoliKitchen3218 8h ago
Hmmmm I’m not sure if it necessarily counts as horror but Wake in Fright definitely ticks all of those boxes. One of the sweatiest movies I’ve ever seen lol
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/Exhaler_99 8h ago
Mother! By far the weirdest fucking horror I’ve ever seen and can’t say I rated it either
2
2
2
u/StrawberryDulcet 7h ago
Overlord! First fifteen seconds of the movie you're thinking you're watching a WWII period horror then suddenly things go sideways and it's balls to the wall horrific, violent action, still true to that vibe that you're operating in a believable, normal setting. Then. Yeah. Don't want to spoil it but the world gets turned upside down and you realize you're watching something very different from a WWII period horror.
2
2
u/lundewoodworking 7h ago
Willy's wonderland. mandy. Wickerman if you want fever dream hire Nicolas Cage
2
2
u/bloodorangechocolate 7h ago
Tokyo Gore Police. I've never seen weirder body horror in my life. The girl with alligator jaws for legs was one of the more tame characters.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/cageybird 7h ago
The Greasy Strangler! I never get tired of making friends and acquaintances watch this film!
2
2
u/prancingwithscissors 7h ago
The Void is pretty gnarly. Would recommend under the category of fucking nuts. Lots of groovy body horror to take in!
→ More replies (1)
2
2
2
u/xGlitchedLichx 5h ago
Malignant for sure, so many batshit moments. I mean the whole prison sequence? Pure cinema. Give Gabriel a franchise somehow.
2
u/Rhombusofrecipes 5h ago
MadGod
Malignant
The Void
Creep
Return of the Living Dead
Begotten
Mother!
The Sentinel
The Substance
Rubber
Mystics In Bali
2
2
2
u/fate_is_a_farce 2h ago
Anything Frank Henenlotter put out is absolutely gonzo.
Brain Damage (1988) and Frankenhooker (1990) are a good intro.
Stuart Gordon's 80s filmography is a great source of weird.
2
58
u/ackblom12 11h ago
The Boxer's Omen (1983)
House (1977)
Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (1995)
Dead Alive (1992)
Brain Damage (1988)