Movies

False First Impressions: 5 Seemingly Ordinary Movies That Get More Freakish Along the Way

written by Caleb Olson

July 19, 2024 6:00 am

False First Impressions: 5 Seemingly Ordinary Movies That Get More Freakish Along the Way — Image credit: Netflix, MACRO

You don't know what you're getting into with these five.

Plot twists are a common thing in movies. In fact, these changes are what make watching a movie interesting. But some movies take plot twists to the extreme. These five are prime examples.

Vivarium (2019, 5.9 on IMDb)

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Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+

Starring Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg, this sci-fi thriller centers on Gemma and Tom. She is an elementary school teacher, he is a landscape designer. They decide to move in together and visit a real estate agent who shows them a new suburb and offers to take a look at house number 9. The agent disappears, leaving the duo to find their own way out. But soon they realize that they're stuck in a maze of similar-looking houses, and every path leads to №9.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020, 6.5 on IMDb)

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Available on: Netflix

Based on Iain Reid's novel of the same name, this psychological thriller follows a young woman, most often referred to as Lucy, as she contemplates leaving her boyfriend, Jake. But instead of ending things with Jake, Lucy accompanies him on a visit to his parents on a remote farm. There she meets his parents, who are pretty weird and strange things are happening in their house. At the same time, the movie tells the story of a school janitor which seems out of place until the stories start to collide.

Sorry to Bother You (2018, 6.9 on IMDb)

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Available on: Amazon Prime

Boots Riley's sci-fi black comedy follows Cassius Green, a young black man living in his uncle's garage. Unable to pay rent, Cassius decides to find stable employment as a telemarketer at RegalView, but he is unable to attract customers. His older co-worker teaches him a trick: Cassius must speak in a white voice if he wants people to trust him on the phone. Soon Cassius is excelling at his job, so he is reluctant to join the newly formed union with his co-workers. But things change when the character discovers the company's dark secrets.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996, 7.2 on IMDb)

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Available on: Paramount+, Amazon Prime

In this action horror, Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney star as Richie and Seth Gecko, two notorious fugitives who, after robbing a bank, take a priest and his family hostage in order to make their way into Mexico. On the other side of the border, they decide to spend the night in a saloon, which proves to be a dangerous decision as the place is frequented by vampires.

Synecdoche, New York (2008, 7.5 on IMDb)

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Available on: Amazon Prime, Apple TV+

Charlie Kaufman's postmodern psychological drama tells the story of Caden Cotard, an ailing theater director who finds himself in a life crisis after his wife, Adele, leaves him and takes their daughter with her. Unexpectedly, Caden wins a McArthur Fellowship, which he plans to use to stage an extremely realistic play about life. But as he plunges into the work, his dedication to realism proves detrimental as he begins to lose touch with reality.