When the night tilts strange and you crave discovery, the surest fix is lining up bold, brain-bending trippy movies on Netflix that challenge perspective and reward attention. We rebuilt this guide from scratch to foreground variety, clarity, and texture—each entry now carries a distinct voice: some dissect craft, others unpack theme, and several note how fans reacted or why the final image sticks in your head. Expect time loops, identity puzzles, folk horror visions, and chamber sci‑fi that can play on a weekday without sacrificing ambition. Instead of boilerplate synopses, you’ll get eight crisp sentences tailored to what makes each title worth your time.
We also weave in discovery tools—secondary phrases like mind‑bending movies, surreal cinema, dreamlike storytelling, hallucinatory visuals, existential sci‑fi, reality‑bending narratives, brain‑twisting thrillers, and psychedelic films— so you can branch into similar corners of the catalog. Licensing rotates, so verify tiles in your local app before you press play. Mix tones to keep the couch lively: pair a playful puzzle with a somber slow burn, then cleanse the palate with a handcrafted oddity. If you’re sharing the queue, agree on boundaries for intensity and gore. When in doubt, sample ten minutes; the keepers hook you quickly. Strange cinema favors the curious viewer, and this list is your map.
Best trippy movies on Netflix to start tonight
Availability and ratings change by region/date. We prioritized accessible, conversation-sparking titles you can finish on a school night.
1. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
- Starring: Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette
- Director: Charlie Kaufman
- Genre: Surreal drama, psychological
- IMDb Rating: ~6.6/10
- Runtime: ~134 min
Snow, small talk, and a restless mind spiral into a dissertation on memory. Jessie Buckley plays a woman who keeps changing names, jobs, and even hobbies as scenes fracture and restitch. The house becomes a museum where time collapses into yearbook edits and cafeteria musicals. Kaufman’s direction frames dread as domestic routine, letting the uncanny creep in like drafty winter air. Toni Collette and David Thewlis tilt performances toward grotesque warmth. You’ll notice how wallpaper patterns echo poetry lines and how cuts land on half-finished thoughts. The final sequence is equal parts elegy and theater kid fever dream. It’s demanding, but each layer clarifies why some recollections feel authored rather than lived.
2. The Platform (2019)
- Starring: Iván Massagué, Zorion Eguileor
- Director: Galder Gaztelu‑Urrutia
- Genre: Dystopian allegory, horror
- IMDb Rating: ~7.0/10
- Runtime: ~94 min
A descending buffet tests civility one floor at a time. The concept is simple; the implications are not, and that’s the point. Production design makes concrete feel carnivorous, swallowing light and conversation. Characters debate rationing, revolt, and messaging with an anger that sounds uncomfortably current. Camera placement forces you to confront who eats and who waits. Violence arrives in sharp staccato, then the movie goes quiet to let you think. Its ending is less solution than thesis defense. The aftertaste is philosophical, not merely shocking.
3. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
- Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter
- Director: David Slade (from Charlie Brooker)
- Genre: Interactive sci‑fi thriller
- IMDb Rating: ~7.1/10
- Runtime: ~90 min (variable)
The remote becomes an instrument as you steer a young coder through branching doom. Choices loop back with cheeky meta-gags that question authorship and free will. Retro textures—VHS scan lines, chiptune bleeps—sweeten the experiment. Will Poulter steals scenes by playing both mentor and glitch. You’ll notice how cereal picks and music cues ripple into larger forks. The humor keeps dread buoyant, inviting replay without homework vibes. It’s less a single story than a maze of hypotheses. The fun is realizing the maze is also about you.
4. The Perfection (2018)
- Starring: Allison Williams, Logan Browning
- Director: Richard Shepard
- Genre: Twisty thriller, body‑horror
- IMDb Rating: ~6.1/10
- Runtime: ~90 min
What begins as a reunion between prodigies swerves into a revenge aria. Chapter cards snap the timeline back like a tape measure, recontextualizing kindnesses as traps. The score weaponizes beauty, turning arpeggios into blades. Shepard stages two gnarly set pieces that dare you to look away. Performances toggle between brittle poise and volcanic fury. The script interrogates institutions that dress abuse in excellence. By the finale, every bow is a weapon and every applause feels complicit. It’s audacious, messy, and sticky in the memory.
5. Cam (2018)
- Starring: Madeline Brewer
- Director: Daniel Goldhaber
- Genre: Techno‑thriller, identity horror
- IMDb Rating: ~5.9/10
- Runtime: ~95 min
A cam performer discovers a perfect copy hijacking her channel and community. The film treats online labor with matter-of-fact respect, then bends it into nightmare. Neon color blocks mirror the platform’s addictive UI. Brewer modulates panic, defiance, and curiosity with gripping specificity. The double behaves almost politely, which is somehow worse. You’ll read the mirrors, passwords, and follower counts like clues. Horror emerges from terms of service rather than a haunted house. The last shot lands like a messy, defiant reclamation.
6. The Discovery (2017)
- Starring: Rooney Mara, Jason Segel, Robert Redford
- Director: Charlie McDowell
- Genre: Sci‑fi mystery, existential
- IMDb Rating: ~6.3/10
- Runtime: ~102 min
Proof of an afterlife detonates society, then the story asks what people would do with that certainty. Segel plays a man who doesn’t trust the lab he grew up around; Mara brings flinty warmth. The seaside setting feels haunted by untaken paths. McDowell favors calm frames that invite you to read faces. Scientific ethics become family drama without grandstanding. Small gear and cables look like rituals in a chapel. The finale reframes grief as a forked timeline rather than a hole. It’s quiet science fiction that values consequence over spectacle.
7. Horse Girl (2020)
- Starring: Alison Brie, Debby Ryan
- Director: Jeff Baena
- Genre: Psychological, surreal
- IMDb Rating: ~6.0/10
- Runtime: ~104 min
Alison Brie traces a gentle person’s slide into cosmic or clinical confusion. Repeated patterns—nosebleeds, dreams, a TV show—stack like evidence for competing theories. Day interiors glow with soft light that feels one notch too unreal. The script stays compassionate, never mocking its protagonist. Editing blurs days until errands feel like time travel. A dance sequence doubles as a thesis on control. Friends can’t agree whether help means grounding or believing. You’ll exit with empathy even if your explanation differs.
8. Apostle (2018)
- Starring: Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen
- Director: Gareth Evans
- Genre: Folk‑horror, period thriller
- IMDb Rating: ~6.3/10
- Runtime: ~130 min
Gareth Evans trades knives for ritual, setting a rescue mission inside a starving utopia. The island’s mills and tunnels grind human bodies as efficiently as grain. Michael Sheen’s charisma makes faith feel dangerously practical. Nature seems to negotiate with the cult rather than oppose it. Sound design lets whispers scratch at the edges of scenes. Violence arrives with bone-deep finality. Even its creature effects feel rooted in soil and debt. It’s a harvest hymn played on rusted instruments.
More must‑watch trippy movies on Netflix (mid‑marathon picks)
9. Bird Box (2018)
- Starring: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes
- Director: Susanne Bier
- Genre: Apocalyptic thriller
- IMDb Rating: ~6.6/10
- Runtime: ~124 min
By refusing to show the monster, the movie recruits your imagination as co-author. Sandra Bullock channels ferocity into pragmatic parenting. The river sequence builds like a myth about trust. Cross-cut structure keeps dread elastic without losing orientation. Bier’s direction uses silence as punctuation. Communities form and shatter under pressure, revealing soft ethics. The ending chooses tenderness over easy answers. You’ll remember the rules because the characters earned them.
10. Bird Box Barcelona (2023)
- Starring: Mario Casas, Georgina Campbell
- Director: Álex Pastor, David Pastor
- Genre: Apocalyptic thriller, spinoff
- IMDb Rating: ~5.3/10
- Runtime: ~112 min
A new city reshuffles belief systems around the same threat. Architecture becomes a chessboard of vantage points and traps. The Pastors lean into moral ambiguity without losing momentum. Campbell adds steel to a story about grief and persuasion. Flashbacks bloom into revelations that feel personal rather than mythic. Set pieces use sunlight as a weapon. It converses with the original instead of repeating it. The franchise proves a premise can hold multitudes.
11. The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
- Starring: Gugu Mbatha‑Raw, David Oyelowo
- Director: Julius Onah
- Genre: Space horror, reality warp
- IMDb Rating: ~5.5/10
- Runtime: ~102 min
A desperate energy experiment knocks a space station into a funhouse mirror. Mbatha‑Raw anchors wild ideas with aching resolve. Body horror gags arrive like campfire science folklore. The score throbs with analog menace. Visuals wink at the franchise without demanding homework. It’s uneven, sure, but rarely dull. The final image is a mischievous punchline. You come for answers and leave with goosebumps.
12. ARQ (2016)
- Starring: Robbie Amell, Rachael Taylor
- Director: Tony Elliott
- Genre: Time‑loop thriller, sci‑fi
- IMDb Rating: ~6.4/10
- Runtime: ~88 min
A lab robbery resets until strategy outpaces memory. The script treats repetition like chess rather than déjà vu gimmickry. Minimal sets keep attention on causality and trust. Performances pivot as alliances rewire each loop. Prop placement becomes a language you learn mid-watch. The runtime is mercifully tight. Twists arrive as logical consequences, not magic. It’s a tidy weeknight mind game with bite.
13. Tau (2018)
- Starring: Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein, Gary Oldman (voice)
- Director: Federico D’Alessandro
- Genre: Captive AI thriller
- IMDb Rating: ~5.8/10
- Runtime: ~97 min
In a neon smart house, a prisoner bargains with an AI that behaves like an impatient child. Oldman’s voice finds innocence inside threat. The set feels both cozy and predatory, like a blanket with teeth. Negotiation scenes double as lessons in teaching machines empathy. Maika Monroe sells resilience without superpowers. The outside world stays abstract, which makes the rooms feel mythic. Violence is small but consequential. You root for communication as much as escape.
14. I Am Mother (2019)
- Starring: Clara Rugaard, Hilary Swank, Rose Byrne (voice)
- Director: Grant Sputore
- Genre: Post‑apoc sci‑fi, chamber piece
- IMDb Rating: ~6.7/10
- Runtime: ~113 min
A robot raises a girl to repopulate the world, then another survivor knocks with conflicting truths. Clean lines and muted tones sell a future built from protocol. Byrne’s voice performance balances warmth with control. Swank arrives like a human virus—unpredictable but possibly necessary. Ethical questions bloom from practical chores. Tension never explodes; it tightens. The last turns click like a lock closing. You’ll debate which character earned your trust.
15. Oxygen (2021)
- Starring: Mélanie Laurent
- Director: Alexandre Aja
- Genre: Single‑location sci‑fi thriller
- IMDb Rating: ~6.5/10
- Runtime: ~101 min
A woman wakes in a cryo unit with failing oxygen and scrambled biography. Aja transforms interface beeps into supporting cast. Close-ups become landscapes; the face is the action scene. Clues arrive as gentle cruelties. The mystery resolves with emotional logic that rewards patience. Sound design maps panic into problem solving. It’s a bottle movie that never feels small. Relief comes with a perspective shift you won’t predict early.
16. The Call (2020, South Korea)
- Starring: Park Shin‑hye, Jeon Jong‑seo
- Director: Lee Chung‑hyun
- Genre: Time‑twist thriller
- IMDb Rating: ~7.1/10
- Runtime: ~112 min
Two women share a landline across decades, turning kindness into leverage. Production design mirrors eras without shouting. Performances pivot from vulnerable to predatory with unnerving speed. The script draws strict rules, then plays brutal fair with them. Visual motifs—burns, plants, doorways—track consequences. You’ll want to diagram the timeline like a crime board. The last stretch is white‑knuckle without cheating. Afterward, every ringtone sounds ominous.
17. The Ritual (2017)
- Starring: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali
- Director: David Bruckner
- Genre: Folk‑horror, grief odyssey
- IMDb Rating: ~6.3/10
- Runtime: ~94 min
Old friends cut through a Scandinavian forest and find a myth that remembers them. Bruckner’s camera makes trees feel judgmental. Grief and guilt warp the compass more than the monster does. Nightmares leak into daylight with nasty confidence. Creature design suggests something ancient and bureaucratic. Campfire psychology turns into courtroom testimony. Pacing keeps geography legible even when panic spikes. The finale is both catharsis and curse.
18. The House (2022)
- Starring: Voices: Mia Goth, Jarvis Cocker (segment)
- Director: Multiple directors
- Genre: Stop‑motion anthology, surreal
- IMDb Rating: ~6.8/10
- Runtime: ~97 min
Three stop‑motion tales orbit one troublesome address. Felt and fur become uncannily alive under merciless lighting. Humor smiles while dread clears its throat. Themes of ambition, rot, and renewal drift between chapters like neighbors. Craftsmanship is the spectacle; the jokes and scares ride shotgun. Each segment tweaks the word ‘home’ into new shapes. The last story ends on radical gentleness. It’s a handmade séance with a warm blanket.
Second wave of trippy movies on Netflix for late‑night energy
19. In the Tall Grass (2019)
- Starring: Laysla De Oliveira, Patrick Wilson
- Director: Vincenzo Natali (from King & Hill)
- Genre: Horror, space‑time labyrinth
- IMDb Rating: ~5.5/10
- Runtime: ~101 min
A field swallows people and rearranges relationships like a mischievous god. Sunlit blades form cathedral aisles that hide geometry crimes. Natali shoots height and horizon so you lose both. Performances sell confusion without making characters foolish. Time repeats with childlike cruelty. Sound becomes map and misdirection. It’s simple and diabolically effective. The final image feels like a warning whispered at a picnic.
20. Re/Member (2023)
- Starring: Kanna Hashimoto, Gordon Maeda
- Director: Eiichirō Hasumi
- Genre: Time‑loop slasher, teen horror
- IMDb Rating: ~5.0/10
- Runtime: ~102 min
A school day repeats until friends solve a grisly scavenger hunt. Tone toggles between gallows humor and sprinting fear. The loop becomes practice, not just punishment. Rules reveal themselves like level design. Performances commit to camaraderie over cynicism. Set pieces wring suspense from lockers and courtyards. It’s brisk, bloody, and oddly sweet. You’ll cheer when teamwork outsmarts inevitability.
21. The Titan (2018)
- Starring: Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling
- Director: Lennart Ruff
- Genre: Bio‑sci‑fi, transformation
- IMDb Rating: ~4.8/10
- Runtime: ~97 min
A military family negotiates the cost of forced evolution. The clinical setting makes ambition feel chillingly reasonable. Body changes arrive as melancholy rather than spectacle. Schilling threads love through protocols and secrecy. Effects sell incremental shifts you’ll squint to catch. The finale asks whether survival without community counts. It’s an imperfect but intriguing what‑if. Curiosity carries you past the bumps.
22. IO (2019)
- Starring: Margaret Qualley, Anthony Mackie
- Director: Jonathan Helpert
- Genre: Quiet post‑apoc, speculative
- IMDb Rating: ~4.7/10
- Runtime: ~96 min
Earth lingers after most humans leave, and quiet replaces heroics. Beekeeping becomes philosophy in motion. Qualley gives loneliness a precise posture. Mackie arrives as counter‑argument and maybe companion. Landscapes look painterly but contaminated. Dialogue whispers, inviting you to lean in. The ending chooses grace over fireworks. It’s small, sincere, and gently strange.
23. Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
- Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Zawe Ashton
- Director: Dan Gilroy
- Genre: Satirical horror, art‑world
- IMDb Rating: ~5.7/10
- Runtime: ~113 min
The art market gets haunted by work that hates being monetized. Gyllenhaal weaponizes sensitivity into comedy. Set pieces turn galleries into booby‑trapped temples. Color pops like poisoned candy. The satire bites but never forgets to entertain. Gilroy directs kills with designer nastiness. The last gag winks while the credits roll. It’s glossy, mean, and weirdly cathartic.
24. Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2017)
- Starring: Kandido Uranga, Uma Bracaglia
- Director: Paul Urkijo Alijo
- Genre: Dark fairy tale, Basque fantasy
- IMDb Rating: ~6.4/10
- Runtime: ~98 min
Basque folklore gets forged into a soot‑covered romp. Practical effects give the demon both heft and humor. Sets look carved from myth and municipal records. A child’s viewpoint keeps morality playful. Jokes sidle up to menace like old drinking buddies. The language feels regional yet universal. The finale sings like a pub chorus. It’s rustic, rascally, and oddly cozy.
25. Cadaver (2020)
- Starring: Gitte Witt, Thorbjørn Harr
- Director: Jarand Herdal
- Genre: Surreal hotel horror
- IMDb Rating: ~5.1/10
- Runtime: ~86 min
After famine, a family attends dinner theater where boundaries dissolve. Masks and corridors multiply until empathy feels dangerous. Gold light flatters cruelty. The plot turns complicity into an audience participation game. You’ll glance at exit signs with suspicion. Performances keep the premise grounded. The ending chooses sting over twist. It’s short, theatrical, and pointed.
26. What Happened to Monday (2017)
- Starring: Noomi Rapace, Willem Dafoe, Glenn Close
- Director: Tommy Wirkola
- Genre: Dystopian thriller, identity puzzle
- IMDb Rating: ~6.8/10
- Runtime: ~123 min
Seven sisters share one identity under surveillance, and logistics become action choreography. Rapace differentiates personalities with micro‑expressions and stance. The world feels one policy shift away from ours. Set pieces snap like shell games. Family loyalty complicates strategy in satisfying ways. Glenn Close locates conviction inside villainy. Revelations emerge from character choices, not magic paperwork. It’s a nervy capper that earns its runtime.
Conclusion: trippy movies on Netflix that keep conversations rolling
Match mood to selection: reach for ARQ or Oxygen when you want precision puzzles, try The Platform or I’m Thinking of Ending Things for chewy debate fuel, and cool down with the handcrafted wonder of The House. Build double features—time loops with folk horror, space mysteries with identity puzzles—so your queue stays surprising.
To keep tracking new trippy movies on Netflix and adjacent discoveries, consult reputable hubs: browse Rotten Tomatoes’ editors’ guide to mind-bending movies and The New York Times’ coverage of streaming Movies. Both surface surreal cinema, psychedelic films, and brain‑twisting thrillers worth your time.
