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Suggestions please: Mystery movies which leave you guessing...

posted 6 years ago by 123all4me (186)
8 replies | jump to latest

...what was really going on? What has happened? In other words, movies which don't give you any "clear cut solutions" -
I watched "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975) some time ago and it left me baffled and making wild guesses what was all "behind it"!
One movie which leaves many questions unanswered is "Contact" (1997), I could watch it 3 times in sequence and still there are so many secrets left unsolved.
"Burnt Offerings" (classic from 1976, with one of my favourites among -then- younger actors, Lee Montgomery) has many unexplained aspects; after having watched it several times, I think I have a clue what was going on, BUT I may have been completely wrong; in other words there's much room for interpretations...
And I remember a movie (possibly made in Australia?) where a truck driver "hunts" another motorist over a long distance, and we never get the slightest hint WHY the (beep) he does that! Just can't remember the title - anyway, most of you moviebuffs must already have guessed which movie I mean :-)
Hmmm... it seems the Australians have a "faible" for such movies, for here's just another one from "Down Under": In "Walkabout" (1971), there is NO explanation given WHY the father suddenly becomes mad and tries to - ooops, I don't want to make a spoiler (and again, 99% of you know, of course, what I mean...)
Any other movies with similar plot elements, please?
(in case anyone cares about my question - it might be useful to put spoiler warnings into the subject lines of your posts ;-)
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)

[–] keybored (2660) 6 years ago

John Carpenter’s The Thing is my favourite ambiguous ending
Swiss Army Man
Inland Empire
Eraserhead
The Lobster
Dogtooth
Martyrs (not for the faint-hearted)
The Holy Mountain
El Topo

[–] SomeCodhopper (76) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] keybored (2660) 6 years ago

Could be this one - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1241330/

[–] 123all4me (186) 6 years ago

Hello keybored,
thanks for your quick reply - but, no, this one is by far too "new" :-)
SomeCodhopper found the right one, see above.
As to your movie list - it's long ago that I watched The Thing, I already forgot if there were some survivors or not...
El Topo is a good example, thank you! When I finished this one I thought, well, this is it? What am I to make of this ending?
I know The Holy Mountain only from a b**tl*g which I had several years ago... and as far as I remember I didn't like it; just not my kind of movie...
I must admit that I don't know anything about the other movies which you mentioned (I need to collect some info at IMDB, I think).
About 80 % of the movies in my collection were made before the year 2000, I guess. And I think I have only 5-10 movies which were made after 2009 ;-)
Still, many thanks for your friendly posting :-)
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)

[–] 123all4me (186) 6 years ago

Hello SomeCodhopper,
thank you! This is the one :-)
Really a frightening scenario... everytime I watched this movie I asked myself WHAT was the killer's motivation. There's no explanation given... This is not to say that it's a "botched movie" - the movie leaves the viewer in exactly the uneasy feeling which he wanted to create ("Oh wow, next time when I'm on the road it could be ME who gets targeted by such a lunatic... Maybe next time I should better take the bus...")
Kind regards
Andreas (123all4me)

[–] Billiam (4) 6 years ago

"Resolution"

"The Wind Will Carry Us"

[–] atd8vii (592) 6 years ago

On the topic of Australian flicks "Long Weekend" from 1978 is another one that is kind of spooky and has a not so clear cut ending.

[–] 123all4me (186) 6 years ago

Hello,
that's a good one (I remember it has been on TV here, loooong ago...)
You are the first one who cared about any of my postings for almost 2 months - thank you very much ;-) ...feel free to browse my other questions & comments and maybe you can afford the time to answer to (*) some of these, too...!
Kind regards
Andreas / 123all4me
(*) Just can't figure out what might be the correct preposition here... Is "to" correct, or would it rather have to be "upon"? Just guessing :-)