The art of film is beautiful in that it evokes a plethora of emotions in its audiences. A single movie can have you in tears one minute and then laughing the next.
While you have a variety of options to choose from, sometimes the mood calls for driving off a cliff directly into cinematic stressful. You want the action, the suspense, and the wild twists and turns.
Buckle your seat belts and get ready to take a long and stressful (but thrilling) ride through cinema. Read on and be prepared to take a calming bath after you finished these movies.
A Clockwork Orange
Based on the book by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange was masterfully adapted to the screen by Stanley Kubrick. The story follows Alex, a gang leader in a dystopian future. The young adult spends the first half of the movie wreaking havoc on people that’ll have you curled into a stress ball unable to keep your eyes off the screen.
Upon committing a horrible deed, Alex is imprisoned and put through a conduct-aversion experiment. The suspense and violence narrated by Alex himself will leave you breathless and biting your nails.
No Country for Old Men
Nothing screams stress more than No Country for Old Men, a film by Ethan and Joel Coen and adapted from the novel by Cormac McCarthy. You’re dropped into the world of drug deals, desperation, and game of cat and mouse played by Anton Chigurh and Ed Tom Bell.
From the moment Ed picks up the briefcase of money after stumbling across a drug deal gone astray, the suspense kicks in. You might want to look into emotional support dog breeds to help you get through this one.
Us
The second installment in the cinema written and directed by Jordan Peele, Us will have you reeling by the time you finish the film. The movie follows Adelaide Wilson and her family as they take a vacation to the beach where she went as a child. The events slowly spiral out of control until the twist at the end leaves you breathless.
You’ll want to make sure you have plenty of blankets to cuddle and maybe a loved one around while viewing. Us will flip your world upside down.
Black Swan
In a rollercoaster-paced journey through the breakdown of Nina Sayers, Black Swan doesn’t pull any punches. Nina finds herself competing with a new ballerina Lily for the main part in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. From auditions gone array to events that might or might not have taken place, Nina descends further into a place of grief and pain as the movie goes on.
The struggles she goes through are depicted viscerally on screen and drag you into her plight. By the end of the film, you might even find yourself picking at your cuticles.
Hereditary
The breakout film written and directed by Ari Aster is a thrilling stressful cinematic experience. From the beginning you’re introduced to a dysfunctional family struggling to keep themselves together after their maternal grandmother passes away. A tragedy strikes, and things fall apart in the most unexpected way possible.
The twists, turns, and immaculate pacing are all aspects of what makes this movie so stressful. Grab your popcorn, some friends, and prepare to enjoy a tense two hours of cinema.
Enjoy Your Movie Night
Whatever movie you choose (maybe even a few), prepare to be stressed but enthralled by the events. Give yourself some time afterwards, whether alone or with a group, to digest and de-stress from the thrills (take a bath or something).
