Movies with Profound Psychological effects

Is there any movie(s) that had a profound long lasting psychological effect on you ? For me personally, I can immediately spot 2:

- Poltergeist - I saw it when i was 12. this movie had such powerful effect on me, it finally lead me to questioning of organized religion which further lead me to completely change my views about the world

- Matrix I - The idea behind Matrix was brilliant, I could not care less about the effects, but the original story was excellent and it really made me think about a lot of things for a long long time. Definitely had a long lasting effect.

So, what's yours ?

Nice When i was a young kid , mebbe around the ages of six to eight, i had this obsession with horror movies...i would watch those classic 80s stuff like Mausoleum and happy birthday to Me and drag my kid sister into the deal (till now she hatesanything scary, like maybe 80-% of the peeps i know bleagh) and my parents had actually wanted me to see a shrink when i would sneak behind their back, i mean, they were worried a 6 year old was watching the OMEN by herself! LOL! Anyway i dont regret it...my exposure to such horrible things at a young age has i think made me mature earlier , in the sense that i was never the typical "scaredy cat " kid who was always crying or afraid of WHAT ever. I was always the rock, the lightbulb whenever we would have blackouts, always the first person leading the damn way to the haunted mansion in the carnivals of my youth (yeah, even in adulthood!) And in a crazy way, it has helped me be more conscious of what others cannot see, be considerate of others (esp freaks) and very tolerant of absolutely anything . (and i love the dark!)

THE HORROR MOVIES OF MY YOUTH (in no particular order)

1. The Amityville Horror 1,2 and 3 (yes, there was a third sequel...and i will never forget that wonton-like-demonically-possessed real estate broker for the rest of my life!!)

2. The OMEN I and 2

3. Mausoleum

4. HappyBirthdayToMe (camp classic)

5. The Exorcist (of course!)

6.Rosemarys Baby

7. Evil Dead 1

8. CREEPSHOW ---my very favorite!

9. Halloween 1 ONLY

10. Nightmare on Elm Street 1 ONLY

11. Poltergeist 1 and 2

12. An AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON---> this movie has probably scarred me for life!!! i will nEVER forget those awful scenes....of the dead best friend suddenly waking up in the middle of the creepy woods...that howling wolf sound....the full mooon.....that NASTY transformation scene.........EVERYTHING!!!


I think thats about it :D thanks for that trip down memory lane

good thread

though i'd thought about the concepts of the matrix before i saw the film (and read a little on it too), the film still got me even more interested in the theories behind it all. pity about the last two films :/

mulholland drive did, sorta. well, it changed me profoundly in that i had a newfound respect for arthouse films after i saw it - before then i *liked* art movies; after, i loved them.

more later, when they come to mind

My definition of a good movie coincides with it having a profound psychological effect of some description. I like too many movies to list here.

Yep. The Matrix, the first one, watched the second one, and didn't even bother with the third one.(fuckn' damn you Hollywood!) Anyway, yeah the whole concept of the first film really got me thinking about just *how much* our construction of reality is based on illusion... great, great, movie. Like Crazeee said "i couldn't care less about the special effects," although some of them were pretty cool, but yeah it was the original story that got me thinking for ages.

A.I is also a good one. it questions what it is that defines us and makes us human. Actually much like Blade Runner, a movie which i also love for its psychological effect. Both great movies that really stir you up and make you think.

Also, when i was younger, about 11 or 12 i think, i saw this movie Defending Your Life. I dont know if i'd ever heard of the concept of reincarnation or anything like it at that point in time. But when i watched this movie it just sort of made sense to me, that maybe thats what happens to you when you die... average movie overall, but at the time it was the concept that really made me think.

Heavy Metal. I was 8 years old and stayed up til midnight to catch it on pay tv (that's old school!) after my parents were in bed.

Not my favourite movie, but American Beauty had a lasting effect on a lot of people, myself included.

^^For me it was the plastic bag scene that really caught my attention in that movie...

Shuba said:

Not my favourite movie, but American Beauty had a lasting effect on a lot of people, myself included.

Click to expand...

i was gonna say this one too.

^^^, same here

I saw American Beauty and Fight club at around the same time and both of those films really got me thinking. They both have the ability to energise me, if I'm feeling complacent I'll rent them out. After I feel the definite need to do stuff and stop wasting my time.

Hmmm, fuck this, I'm going for a walk

Oh yeah, one more film.
PRIMAL FEAR with a younger ed norton and richard gere affected me in ways i still cannnot fathom.
I even have some dreams that have a "pseudo" ed norton character in it.....it reminds me to NEVER EVER EVER be tooo sure of anything or anybody.....even if always try.

boys don't cry
this movie had me crying for a good half hour after i watched it. i just really felt for the characters and related them to some of my friends. what's even more upsetting is that the movie was based on true events. i thought about the people in the real story for a long time after i first saw it.

all the nightmare on elm street movies affected me a lot, but only because my babysitter would watch them with me when i was really young. they scared the shit out of me! now when i watch one of the freddy movies i realize how stupid they are, but i understand why they scared me so much when i was younger.

Memento

The way this movie was made is just as good as the story it tells. The concept of short-term memory loss combined with telling the story backwards in time is what makes this movie unique. You really need to watch it at least twice to really figure out what is going on.

Lord of the Flies.

(Sorry for the delayed choppy responses...my memory comes back in sporadic spurts LOL) .

When Piggy died, it forever changed the way i thought of little children left to their own devices. It made me see the darkness in all hearts, even of children.

SLC Punk was a great movie and left me thinking a lot. I still find it hard to think my way around the end of that movie.

Others previously mentioned that were awesome are American Beauty and Memento (I love the way the movie makes you fell like you have memory problems, it draws you into the character). Boys don't cry also left me with a strange feeling for the day or so after I watched it.

The usual suspects while I wouldn't say had a psychological effect on me was an awesome story and had one of those what the fuck endings.

Requiem for a dream was pretty cool as well.

Besides movies like these I am profoundly changed nearly everytime I watch a movie/documentary on SBS (For non-Australians this is a free to air channel that is dedicated to foreign films/truthful documentaries (not the crap you see on the new, actual insightful looks at things)/tv shows that the commercial channels stupidly overlook (like south park, I bet the major channels kick themselves all the time for not buying the rights to that).

Foreign films on SBS make me realise how many non-hollywod, quality movies, are out there that actually rely on something other than one of the 7 or so repeated storylines hollywood so often use.

After watching documentaries on SBS I still can't think about East Timor without being subject to depression over the things these stoic, cultural and beautiful people have had to endure. Most of them in the span of my rather uneventful life...

believe it or not I still can't watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory to this day and I am 25 years old, I remember watching it when I was 5 and it scared the shit out of me, I honestly thought that willy was a mean old man and those oompa loompas were his evil demons killing those kids,

poltergiest, I never looked at clowns the same

reqiuem for a dream, couldn't speak for 3 hours afterwards and felt sick to my stomach,

kids- probably a perfect yet distrubing view of innercity kids lives

^ Wizard of Oz used to scare the shit out of me as a kid, but I got over it

Some movies that really affected me as a child are The Neverending Story (That dog thing was scary as and the theme song kicks arse - good book too) and The Goonies...

^omg i love neverending story, and i had a crush on Limahl (the lead singer of the theme song). That white dog was freaky looking though. I loved Goonies !

^ By dog I meant the black wolf thing that is hunting him down and he kills it with a knife (or a piece of rock or something)... I'm sure I had a nightmare or two about that