Mindfuck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the esoteric programming language, see Brainfuck.
A mindfuck is a slang term which describes a work that uses literary devices such as nonlinear storytelling and plot twists in order to present convoluted, yet not conflicting, themes. A creation is usually considered a mindfuck when a casual observer is not able to discern the true meaning of a work without making a serious attempt to unravel the themes presented or when the plot is incredibly difficult to follow. Special examples of mindfucks involve a single plot twist which completely changes the viewer's understanding of the events in a film or novel as well as the ideas it presents.
Notable examples of mindfucks include the The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Fight Club, and several of the works of Philip K. Dick.
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[edit] Mindfucks in film
Fight Club is one of the most well-known examples of a mindfuck. It features a protagonist who is mistaken about the nature of reality while the film is presented in a way that leads the audience to be mistaken as well. A sudden revelation completely changes the audience's understanding of the protagonist and events which have already unfolded, and forces the audience to reevaluate all the ideas which have already been presented.
[edit] List of films
- 11:14
- 12 Monkeys
- Abre Los Ojos (and its American remake Vanilla Sky)
- Adaptation.
- American Psycho
- Angel Heart
- A Beautiful Mind
- Being John Malkovich
- Blade Runner
- Braindead (Also known as Dead Alive in other countries)
- Brazil
- Casshern
- A Clockwork Orange
- A Scanner Darkly
- Dark City
- Dellamorte Dellamore
- Donnie Darko
- Elephants Dream
- Eraserhead
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- eXistenZ
- Fantastic Planet
- Fight Club
- The Forgotten
- Hard Candy (Coincidentally also containing the BDSM definition of mindfuck)
- Heroes
- Identity
- In The Mouth of Madness
- Jacob's Ladder
- The Last Broadcast
- Lost Highway
- Lucky Number Slevin
- The Machinist
- Map of the Human Heart
- Matrix
- Memento
- Mulholland Drive
- Nowhere
- The Others
- Paranoia 1.0
- Phantasm
- Pi
- Pink Floyd The Wall
- The Prestige
- Primer
- Requiem for a Dream
- The Sixth Sense
- Sleepaway Camp
- Sleuth
- Stay
- The Thirteenth Floor
- Twin Peaks
- The Usual Suspects
- Total Recall
- Unbreakable
- Videodrome
- The Village
- Welcome to Blood City
The Matrix arguably belongs to the genre as well, though (as its two sequels make clear) its primary theme is not the nature of reality but the nature of the human-machine relationship. Elements of mindfuck are incorporated into such films as The Game and Se7en.
Mindfuck films often incorporate elements of film noir and have a tendency to become cult films. Directors whose films tend to be (or incorporate) mindfucks include David Fincher, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg.
Class Real – mindfuck movie list
[edit] Mindfucks in anime
Though a term in Japanese for mindfuck does not exist, many popular animes are considered to be mindfucks, including:
- Akira
- Boogiepop Phantom
- Cat Soup
- FLCL
- Gantz
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
- Kite
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
- Mind Game
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Paranoia Agent
- Perfect Blue
- Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Saikano
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Texhnolyze
[edit] Mindfucks in BDSM
The term mindfuck is also used in BDSM to describe scenes where the bottom may be fooled as to the nature of the activities being taken part in; for example, the bottom may have consented to taking part in a branding, and been blindfolded throughout that part of the scene, only to discover that in reality only very cold ice cubes were used (it can be hard to distinguish cold from hot), and no branding had actually occurred.
[edit] Analogy for Scientology
The term mindfuck was also frequently used in the Steve Martin film Bowfinger, to refer to the fictional "Church of Mindhead," a thinly veiled facsimile of the Church of Scientology.
