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Best Hallucination Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of hallucination cinema — measured across 2,707 indexed frames from 42 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Hallucination films over-index on skin, mirror and coat — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Repulsion (1965)

    Roman PolanskiDP Gilbert TaylorIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    In London, Belgian immigrant Carol Ledoux shares an apartment with her older sister Helen, and works as a manicurist at a beauty salon. Helen uses the word "sensitive" to describe Carol's overall demeanor, which is almost like she walks around in a daze, rarely speaking up about anything. When she does speak up, it generally is about something against one of those few issues on which she obsesses, such as Helen's boyfriend Michael's invasion of her space at the apartment. That specific issue may be more about men in general than just Michael's actions, as witnessed by Carol being agitated by hearing Helen and Michael's lovemaking, and she not being able to rebuff the advances effectively of a male suitor, Colin, who is infatuated with her. One of those other obsessive issues is noticing cracks and always wanting to fix them. While Helen and Michael leave on a vacation to Pisa, Italy, Carol chooses largely to lock herself in the apartment, ditching work. There, she is almost hypnotized by her solitude, which leads to her mental state deteriorating as those obsessions come to the fore. She quickly descends into madness, which ultimately also affects those that are trying to get in touch with her.

  2. 2

    Mirrors (2008)

    Alexandre AjaDP Maxime AlexandreIMDb 6.1TMDB 6.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    In New York, the former NYPD detective Ben Carson is hired to work as night watch of the remains of the Mayflower Department Store that was partially destroyed by fire many years ago. Ben became alcoholic and was retired from the police force after killing a man in a shooting. His marriage was also destroyed and now he is living in the apartment of his younger sister Angie. However he has not been drinking for three months and sees the employment as a chance to rebuild his life. When he goes to the rounds in his first night, he finds that the mirrors are impeccably clean and his colleague explains that the former night watch was obsessed with the mirrors. After a couple of nights, Ben sees weird images in the mirrors, but due to the lack of credibility of his past, his ex-wife Amy believes he has hallucinations as a side effect of his medication. When Angie is found brutally murdered in her bathtub, Ben discovers that there is an evil force in the mirror that is chasing him and jeopardizing his family.

  3. 3

    Black Swan (2010)

    Darren AronofskyDP Matthew LibatiqueIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica (Hershey) who exerts a suffocating control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

  4. 4

    Possessor (2020)

    Brandon CronenbergDP Karim HussainIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Tasya Vos is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company. While she has a special gift for the work, her experiences on these jobs have caused a dramatic change in her, and in her own life she struggles to suppress violent memories and urges. As her mental strain intensifies, she begins to lose control, and soon she finds herself trapped in the mind of a man whose identity threatens to destroy her own.

  5. 5

    Requiem For A Dream (2000)

    Darren AronofskyDP Matthew LibatiqueIMDb 8.3TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is a retired widow, living in a small apartment. She spends most of her time watching TV, especially a particular self-help show. She has delusions of rising above her current dull existence by being a guest on that show. Her son, Harry (Jared Leto) is a junkie but along with his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) has visions of making it big by becoming a drug dealer. Harry's girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) could be fashion designer or artist but is swept along in Harry's drug-centric world. Meanwhile Sara has developed an addiction of her own. She desperately wants to lose weight and so goes on a crash course involving popping pills, pills which turn out to be very addictive and harmful to her mental state.

  6. 6

    The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

    Mark PellingtonDP Fred MurphyIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    John Klein (Richard Gere) is involved in a car accident with his wife, but while he is unharmed, his wife mentions a moth-shaped creature appearing. After her death, John begins to investigate the secrets behind this mentioned Mothman. It takes him to the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where he discovers a connection with the same problem. Here he meets Connie Mills (Laura Linney), while he continues to unravel the mystery of what the Mothman really is.

  7. 7

    Don’t Look Now (1973)

    Nicolas RoegDP Anthony B. RichmondIMDb 7.1TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    John and Laura Baxter are in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of the Baxters' daughter, who recently drowned. Laura is intrigued, but John resists the idea. He, however, seems to have his own psychic flashes, seeing their daughter walk the streets in her red cloak, as well as Laura and the sisters on a funeral gondola.

  8. 8

    Trainspotting (1996)

    Danny BoyleDP Brian TufanoIMDb 8.1TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy, dimbulb Spud, psycho Begbie, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who's never touched drugs but can't help being curious about them...

  9. 9

    Videodrome (1983)

    David CronenbergDP Mark IrwinIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Max Renn is the President of Channel 83 Civic-TV, a small television station on the UHF dial. He defends his programming of largely X-rated shows - which depict graphic sex and extreme violence - as a pure matter of economic survival as a small station. Behind closed doors in specific company, he would admit that he enjoys such programming, but as President will stay away from associated activities that may be dangerous for him in its purchase. His current girlfriend, radio personality Nicki Brand, who he met on a television talk show, is sexually aroused by light mutilation on her person, that despite or because her radio show is like an open air crisis hotline. On that same talk show, the other guest via video feed was Professor Brian O'Blivion - solely his stage name - who believes that television and video broadcasts will one day overtake the world as reality, which may make Max's programming in combination more dangerous. In Max's search for the next big thing in like programming already on Channel 83, Harlan, his pirater who scans satellite signals, illegally obtains a satellite feed of something called Videodrome, which depicts continual sexualized torture and murder with no storyline of which to speak. The background behind Videodrome is unknown, but believing it is that big thing for which he is looking, Max is determined to find the producers so that he can purchase it for his station. He is concerned for Nicki if she goes ahead against his warnings in wanting to appear on Videodrome, however it does not lessen his desire to purchase it. If Max in turn does not heed the warning of Masha, one of his long time show suppliers, based on what little she discovers about it, Max may discover that Videodrome is just the next but destructive step in O'Blivion's prognostication.

  10. 10

    Filth (2013)

    Jon S. BairdDP Matthew JensenIMDb 7.0TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Scheming Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy), a bigoted and corrupt policeman, is in line for a promotion and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Enlisted to solve a brutal murder and threatened by the aspirations of his colleagues, including Ray Lennox (Jamie Bell), Bruce sets about ensuring their ruin, right under the nose of unwitting Chief Inspector Toal. As he turns his colleagues against one another by stealing their wives and exposing their secrets, Bruce starts to lose himself in a web of deceit that he can no longer control. His past is slowly catching up with him, and a missing wife, a crippling drug habit and suspicious colleagues start to take their toll on his sanity. The question is: can he keep his grip on reality long enough to disentangle himself from the filth?

What hallucination films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a hallucination frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — skin is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • skin2.5×
  • mirror2.4×
  • coat2.2×
  • pillow2.1×
  • shadow1.9×
  • hair1.9×
  • door1.8×
  • wall1.8×

How hallucination films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate hallucination from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 31%closeupvs 21% baseline
  • 29%dayvs 43% baseline
  • 30%naturalvs 44% baseline
  • 54%low keyvs 39% baseline
  • 54%nightvs 42% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (2009) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 2,707 frames from 42 films carrying the hallucination label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/hallucination

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