Sometimes we go to movies to laugh, sometimes we go to cry, and sometimes we want to have
our minds melted.
No medium like film can take you on a psychedelic trip, make you question the nature of everything
around you, or get you inside the headspace of the truly deranged — and it appears that
next year will bring a ton movies designed to blow everyone's minds.
Here are the 2018 movies that are bound to be weird in the very best ways.
Annihilation
Based on Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel, Annihilation looks to be a crazy cinematic experience.
The film follows an expedition to a place called Area X, a portion of the Earth where
everything has gone wrong, and the laws of physics no longer seem to apply.
Previous missions to Area X have gone south … eleven times over.
Written and directed by Ex Machina's Alex Garland, Annihilation will star Jennifer Jason
Leigh and Natalie Portman in this atmospherically creepy film that hits theaters February 23rd.
A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time has been blasting young
brains for generations.
It's the story of precocious kids who must rescue their dad from a fate worse than death
with the help of interdimensional beings Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which.
The book's more surreal aspects have made it difficult to adapt to a live-action production,
but with Selma director Ava DuVernay and an all-star cast, fans can expect an updated,
yet faithful rendition of this otherworldly classic when it debuts on the silver screen
March 9th.
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One had secured a film deal before the book was even
in stores, with Steven Spielberg anxious to develop the story for film.
The story centers on a virtual reality gamer in a dystopian future who must run a gauntlet
of '80s pop culture-themed challenges while looking for an Easter egg.
In the trailer alone, there were millions of references, from The Iron Giant to Back
to the Future to Freddy Krueger.
Prepare for nerd culture overload when this pic hits theaters on March 30th.
Abruptio
From writer/director Evan Marlowe comes Abruptio, a thriller centered on a man who has a bomb
implanted in his neck and must do terrible things to keep it from exploding.
As actor James Marsters explained:
"The lead character is feeding bodies into a meat grinder.
And that's not even the bad part.
It's so bad."
If that's not strange enough, it'll also be performed by life-sized latex puppets.
We'll just have to wait to see whether it's a work of genius, madness, or both when Abruptio
gets released on May 31st.
Alita: Battle Angel
The live-action adaptation of the post-apocalyptic manga and anime Battle Angel Alita has been
in the works since 2010, when the project was brought to James Cameron's attention by
Guillermo Del Toro.
Cameron had originally intended to direct, but with his plate all full of Avatar sequels
for the next several years, that duty has fallen to Robert Rodriguez.
The cast is already stacked with talent like Rosa Salazar, Jackie Earle Haley, Mahershala
Ali, Christoph Waltz, and Jennifer Connelly.
And one of Cameron's signature filmmaking strategies will live on with the film — since
Cameron only makes films that start with T or A, it's now called Alita: Battle Angel
and will land in theaters on July 20th.
Captive State
This sci-fi thriller has a cerebral concept: what would your average neighborhood look
like a decade or so after an occupation by a hostile force that just so happened to be
extra-terrestrial.
Captive State will diverge from ordinary alien fare to explore the human dynamics between
the dissidents and collaborator.
With Rupert Wyatt of the modern Planet of the Apes pics at the helm, you can count on
this one to be a disturbing hit when August 17th rolls around.
Mortal Engines
Philip Reeves' The Mortal Engines books introduced the post-apocalyptic concept of travelling
cities scouring a devastated earth and doing battle with each other.
Such a large-scale project seems untenable, but with Peter Jackson co-scripting along
with his Lord of the Rings co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the project already
seems to be in good hands.
Christian Rivers, who served as second-unit director on all three Lord of the Rings films
will make his feature film debut with the pic, which drops on December 14th.
The Endless
Filmmakers Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson have teamed up again after their 2012 thriller
Resolution to star as a pair of brothers who have escaped the clutches of a cult, but are
compelled to return years later by a mysterious tape sent in the mail.
Early images from the film hint at a trippy visual aesthetic, and the plot synopsis suggests
that the cult's crazy otherworldly beliefs maybe aren't so crazy after all.
It all adds up to a project that just might be worth keeping a close eye on, coming from
a pair of ambitious filmmakers who seem due for a breakout hit.
The House That Jack Built
Not many filmmakers are as visually provocative as Lars Von Trier, but his forthcoming The
House That Jack Built has a truly unsettling premise: it's an examination of the career
of a serial killer who has been active for more than a decade and who views each of his
murders as a work of art.
In the hands of Von Trier, such a story promises a deep, dark psychological ride.
Sorry To Bother You
A story set in a surreal version of Oakland, California, Sorry to Bother You is the story
of a down-on-his-luck black telemarketer who discovers a magical key to upward mobility
— the ability to make his voice sound like a famous white actor.
The film will mark the directorial debut of legendary rapper Boots Riley of Oakland rap
group The Coup, which has spent over two decades making some of the most subversive music anyone
has ever heard.
Keep an eye out for this one next year.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Perhaps no feature film has endured such a rocky ride to screens as director Terry Gilliam's
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
His quest to get the film made long ago began to mirror the foolish, futile endeavors of
the classic literary character.
But Gilliam's labor of love is finally coming to theaters next year.
The story focuses on an old man who believes he is the legendary Quixote and mistakes a
confused advertising executive for his faithful squire.
He then proceeds to drag the man through a time-jumping, mind-bending adventure where
dreams and reality become tough to tell apart.
Inversion
The sci-fi thriller Inversion has two things going for it right off the bat: Samuel L.
Jackson and an insane premise.
Jackson will portray a Homeland Security investigator hot on the trail of an American con man and
a Chinese scientist who he thinks are responsible for a whole new type of natural disaster — sudden,
unexplained loss of gravity.
The pic is sure to be a spectacle when it falls into theaters next year.
The Mandela Effect
Groupthink can be a strange thing, and "The Mandela Effect" is a term meant to describe
the effect of people collectively remembering false events, like the death of Nelson Mandela
in prison in the 1980s or Sinbad starring in a movie about a genie.
And for the record, no, really, neither of those things happened...in our reality, at
least.
Since memory is highly unreliable, it's an effect to which almost anyone is susceptible,
so co-writer and director David Guy Levy will tap that trend for The Mandela Effect.
The film will feature a man for whom the everyday details of the world begin to change — and
keep changing, until he starts to question the nature of reality itself.
Night on Bald Mountain
Of all the Disney reboots in production, the live-action adaptation of Night on Bald Mountain,
the scariest, trippiest segment from Fantasia, has somehow flown under the radar.
The segment features a towering, demonic winged creature called Chernabog that presides over
a night of festivities for a host of restless spirits.
The new version will focus on the backstory of the demonic creature.
You can depend on this pic to rekindle your childhood nightmares next year.
Thanks for watching!
Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!