The Best Movies to Watch on Psychedelics, Depending on Your Vibe

     

There are a million things we can do while riding high on a trip. We can frolic gaily through the woods, get wild at a music festival or binge on finger paints and coloring books with our closest, most trusted psychonauts.

Or, you can throw on a movie, sit back, and get sucked in. 

But what’s good, and when is it good? Not everyone has the same type of experience when on psychedelics, and many trippers seek very specific moods and settings before they embark on a journey into their inner space. Whether you’re the type who wants only good vibes, or the edgier type who prefers darker stories, we’ve got your back.

However, we’d like to be mindful of your setting, too. The list starts with some of the most trip-friendly movies you can enjoy with no fear of random violence, gore, or other triggers. The darkest stuff we’ll save for the end, so you can skip that if it’s not your jam.

Psychedelic Movies Delivering Good Vibes Only

If you’re looking for a good time with mellow moods and inspiring themes.

Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia 2000 (1999)

Disney’s Fantasia films fuse classical orchestral pieces to classic Disney animation. Both films lack traditional dialogue and overarching narratives, so they’re great for background or ambient entertainment. Either film should do the trick, but the sequel, Fantasia 2000, will have sharper, more modern animation. 

READ: 7 TV Shows to Watch During Your Next Trip

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

The only live-action film in the Good Vibes category, I Heart Huckabees follows two anxious losers (Jason Schwartzmann and Mark Wahlberg) who hire “existential detectives” (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to investigate their purpose in life. Hijinks ensue, woven between threads of philosophical reflections and delightfully out-of-nowhere special effects. 

For another film filled with existential exploration, but even trippier visuals, check out Richard Linklater’s Waking Life (2001).

Ponyo (2008)

What happens when you cross The Little Mermaid with Princess Mononoke? You get one of the most successful anime films of all time, Hiyako Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo. The film centers on a magical fish-girl who befriends a human boy, only to discover their relationship threatens the balance of the entire universe. 

Although Ponyo may be one of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s most famous feel-good epics, really, anything from these two anime powerhouses will make for a fantastically wild ride. 

Moana (2016)

The third animated Disney film to make the list, Moana teams up a Polynesian girl, Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) and the shape-shifting trickster god Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) to restore the heart of Te Fiti, the Goddess of Nature. If you’re watching this while, uh, exploring the inner depths of your mind, be sure to catch Jermaine Clement’s (Flight of the Conchords) musical number as Tamatoa, the gargantuan gold-hoarding crab. 

Soul (2020)

Yep, Disney again, but this time in cahoots with Pixar. In Soul, Jamie Foxx voices Joe Gardner, an aspiring jazz pianist stuck teaching middle school music class to cover his bills. When Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett) offers him an audition at her local jazz club, he believes it’s finally his big break. Then, he dies right before the audition.

Upon death, Gardner appears in the afterlife, where he’s placed on a conveyor belt to the Great Beyond. Determined to reclaim his lost, wasted life, he breaks the afterlife’s rules and attempts to return to Earth with the help of 22 (Tina Fey), another soul trapped in the afterlife’s bureaucracy.

Although the animation is top-notch, and the voice acting is more than Oscar-worthy, give Soul a watch just for the original soundtrack. It was, after all, composed by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and British producer Atticus Ross, who both won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for their contributions. 

Psychedelic Movies With a Mix of Light and Dark

The following films will still appeal to your hallucinogen-saturated senses, but they may contain scenes or themes that are a bit heavy for first-timers or the chronically anxious. (If you’d like content warnings before watching any of the following films, search their titles here.)

Daisies (1966)

This Czechoslovakian arthouse film remains an underground cult favorite, though it’s been experiencing a revival lately. The story centers on two women, each named Marie, who decide to pursue a decadent, hedonistic lifestyle when they realize life isn’t fair. What ensues is a surrealist video salad, with (at the time) cutting-edge editing techniques bolstered by delightfully quaint yet nihilistic dialogue. 

READ: 7 of the Trippiest Novels to Ever Grace the Page

What Dreams May Come (1998)

The ‘90s marked a time when comedy legend Robin Williams began taking critically acclaimed stabs at dramatic acting, from Toys (1992) to Good Will Hunting (1997). However, What Dreams May Come is probably his most psychedelic excursion into serious storytelling. 

In the film, doctor Chris Nielsen (Williams) dies in a car crash just a few years after his two children also pass away in a traffic accident. After lingering around as a ghost on Earth, he decides to ascend to a Heaven borne from his imagination, a special-effects smorgasbord designed by Mass.Illusions, the same company which invented The Matrix’s bullet-time technique.

Nielsen later learns that his wife has gone to Hell after she committed suicide in his absence. Although Heaven’s inhabitants explain to Nielsen that he cannot reunite with his wife, he leaves Heaven to find her in the underworld, undeterred by what fate seemingly has in store for him — and his family. 

Paprika (2006)

In the second anime film here, psychiatrist Atsuko Chiba tracks down a terrorist who’s stolen a device that enables him to enter people’s dreams. Think Inception, except that it actually makes sense and offers higher-quality visual cacophonies. 

Speed Racer (2008)

Although Speed Racer is best known as an old-school anime series, the live action version by the Wachowskis (of The Matrix fame) is its most fantastical iteration. Yes, it’s corny AF. Yes, it flopped at the box office. But who cares? It was some of the greatest high-budget CGI silliness to come out of the 2000s. 

Dave Made a Maze (2017)

How to even explain this one? A guy named Dave (Nick Thune) builds a cardboard fort and invites his friends over to explore it. When they all crawl inside, they realize they’re trapped inside a monstrous labyrinth, which is much, much bigger inside than it is on the outside. Along the way, the gang encounters puzzles, riddles, traps and weird inhabitants who’ve been in the maze longer than it has actually existed.

A parody of the groundbreaking horror-thriller novel House of Leaves, Dave Made a Maze is only in the Mixed Vibes category because there are some deaths, and there is a little on-screen blood, as well. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

If you haven’t seen the MCU’s animated Spider-Verse films, consider saving them for your next otherworldly excursion. Into the Spider-Verse, the first of three Spider-Verse films, focuses on Miles Morales, Earth-616’s version of Spider-Man. There’s plenty of witty dialogue to complement the cartoonish slapstick, but there’s ample drama and substance, too. 

In fact, if you’re wondering how much substance is actually in this supposed kids film, consider it won Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, breaking Disney/Pixar’s seven-year winning streak in that category. 

And if you’re jonesing for more animated Spider-Verse after this one, queue up the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) and then keep an eye out for the upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (TBA). 

Edgier, Darker Stuff to Watch on Psychedelics

Some of you aren’t looking for a froofy, fluffy romp through Disneyland. Maybe you’re the type who prefers Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey over the likes of Fantasia, and that’s okay. If you’re someone who likes to spend your trip seshes in places like haunted Halloween houses, keep reading.

But if you’re squeamish, stop here. You don’t want to give yourself a bad trip, right? (Another reminder about content warnings, if you want them.)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

When 2001 first released in the ‘60s, people went to it, more often than not, tripping balls. Which makes sense, given that director Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a full-length feature film to elevate the sci-fi space story from camp to high art. Later, 2001 would go on to inspire other iconic space-romps, including Star Wars and Interstellar.

However, most of 2001 is a bit of a snoozefest. Unless you’re really into super slow-paced suspense, you may want to check out just one scene and skip the rest. That scene is the dazzling interdimensional travel sequence near the end, where Dave the astronaut flies into the ever-ominous Monolith. 

Akira (1988)

Long before there were weebs, there was Akira, which broke anime into the Western mainstream.

In Akira, two low-life bikers, Kaneda and Tetsuo, wreak havoc across Neo-Tokyo, a sprawling megalopolis built after a mysterious explosion leveled the original Tokyo. While tangling with a rival biker gang, Tetsuo is kidnapped by the Japanese government, which subjects him to medical experiments. 

When Tetsuo escapes from the military facility, he discovers he wields psychic powers. Bullied all his life, he gets hopped up on stimulants and embarks on a homicidal campaign against his enemies — which, by the end, includes his best friend, Kaneda, too. 

Initially, Akira is your typical cyberpunk dystopia tale, rife with neon signs, hypertech, street crime, drugs, and terrorism. The trippy shit doesn’t really start until the final third of the film, when Tetsuo realizes he can move mountains with his mind, and all hell breaks loose. 

And a content warning for the squeamish: There is body horror galore in this one.

The Cell (2000) 

Another dream-diving film, The Cell stars Jennifer Lopez as psychologist Catherine Deane, who uses special tech to enter the dreams of her troubled child patients. Vince Vaughn plays Peter Novak, an FBI agent hunting down a serial killer, Carl Stargher (Vincent D’Onofrio).

Stargher is finally caught only after he’s just slipped into a kink-triggered coma. Deane jumps into his dreams to discover where his last surviving victim is being held captive. But in Stargher’s fevered mind, he reigns as god-king of a nightmare realm fashioned after his most messed up fantasies, and he brainwashes Deane into becoming his slave. 

In the waking world, Deane effectively slips into a coma herself, leading to Novak commandeering her dream tech in an attempt to rescue her from the killer’s hellish mindscape. 

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Nearly any film made by David Lynch could fall into this category, so we decided to highlight his masterpiece, Mulholland Drive. The film marked Lynch’s third Oscar nomination for Best Director, and it won Best Picture from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the Online Film Critics Society. And it left everyone, from established critics to average viewers, asking, “WTF happened in this film?”

While every film on our list will tantalize the eyes, Mulholland Drive is the only one here with a fragmented, non-chronological narrative, taking a complete 180 about halfway through. The movie you start with does not even remotely resemble the movie you end with. But that’s just how it goes with anything by Lynch. 

Annihilation (2018)

If Fantasia sits on the most lighthearted, family-friendly end of our Trippy Movie Spectrum, then Alex Garland’s Annihilation falls entirely on the other end.

Annihilation begins with a soldier-turned-biology-professor known only as Lena (Natalie Portman). She’s being interrogated about the Shimmer, a quarantine zone believed to be inhabited by a prismatic, alien presence. 

The film then flashes back to Lena’s experience of leading her team into the Shimmer. They were sent to track down the previous team that entered the Shimmer and went missing. Among those missing include Lena’s husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac). 

We don’t want to give away the whole thing, but basically, strange things occur in the Shimmer, such as hybrid demon-bears that hunt people, and pythons that swim inside of someone’s guts. Be warned that there are some slow moments in Annihilation, but they’re balanced out by constant tension, a haunting soundtrack and long, painful moments of squirm-inducing gore. 

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