10 Movies That Are Like Fever Dreams, Ranked

Before going into what makes a movie one that feels like a fever dream, it’s naturally necessary to try and define just what a fever dream is. What might ordinarily be a tense or visceral dream when you’re well can become a fever dream if you have it while you’re unwell, with that sickness contributing to such dreams occupying a space between “dream” and “nightmare.”

So, if a film feels a little like something one might dream while sick, then it can be classified for present purposes as a fever dream movie. Some of these are nightmarish, but not all are horror films, perhaps highlighting dark comedy, unease, or tension more than they do outright scares, at least in some of the following examples. All are pretty unsettling in their own strange ways; even the ones that can be entertaining or sometimes even funny.

10

‘Inherent Vice’ (2014)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

There’s a sense of madness found within every Thomas Pynchon novel, with only his most “normal” having received a film adaptation: Inherent Vice, which Paul Thomas Anderson bravely tackled in 2014. Honestly, he did a pretty good job here of capturing the manic intensity of Pynchon’s writing and making it more or less translate to the medium of film.

Neither version of Inherent Vice is particularly easy to follow, sure, but the humor is largely at the forefront of things and the main character is constantly under the influence of one or more substances, meaning the haziness of it all is more than intentional. And that intentionality is one thing, but it’s the clear “played for laughs” nature of this story that helps make it kind of digestible. You’ll be confused, yes, but, like, in a funny way, man.

9

‘Requiem for a Dream’ (2000)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

In contrast to the generally comedic Inherent Vice, Requiem for a Dream has the feel of a fever dream but in an aggressively unpleasant way. It’s a hard-hitting drama that sometimes breaks from reality, though always in ways that are intense or nightmarish instead of anything fantastical in a fun way. It effectively puts the viewers in the heads of several troubled characters, and refuses to release anyone watching until the movie’s over.

Requiem for a Dream is all about the hardships of drug addiction, tackling the topic in a way that might feel grounded at first, but takes a turn into the nightmarish at a certain point. It’s not exactly nuanced by any means, but the feelings it evokes are troubling enough that it could well be a brutally efficient deterrent in any event.

8

‘Brazil’ (1985)

Directed by Terry Gilliam

If you think the present’s bad, Brazil is the sort of movie that pats you on the back with false reassurance, whispering sinisterly into your ear all the while: “It could always be worse.” And hey, Brazil has a point. The world of this film is a frenzied one at best, and an absolute living nightmare at worst. It leans more toward the former in the first half, and indulges in the latter more as things enter the back half.

Bureaucratic nonsense runs out of control throughout Brazil, making life a particularly unbearable one for a weak-willed yet hapless protagonist who finds the line between reality and fantasy continually collapsing. There are so many wild directions the film goes in, and it’s undoubtedly exhausting at a point, but by design. Brazil is also darkly funny at times, but emphasizes the “darkly” part more than the “funny” part at a point, in all honesty.

7

‘On the Silver Globe’ (1988)

Directed by Andrzej Żuławski

On the Silver Globe is a fairly riveting watch, so long as you’re okay with things being out there and pretty disturbing at times. Maybe “hypnotic” is the best word to use to describe how this feels, with an already surreal sci-fi story only becoming more fractured, unusual, and bizarre thanks to the fact that the film was never entirely completed, existing to this day in a fractured sort of state.

What remains is undeniably compelling, though, and the fact it’s hampered in this way does add to the fever dream qualities found in On the Silver Globe all the more (well, you could argue that, at least). It’s a movie that succeeds in feeling distinctly alien and otherworldly, which it has to, considering how much of it takes place on a planet that’s most certainly not Earth.

6

‘Holy Motors’ (2012)

Directed by Leos Carax

It’s exceedingly difficult to describe just what happens in Holy Motors, and yes, that’s a running theme when it comes to movies that feel like fever dreams. Holy Motors is kind of episodic, given it follows one character who’s made to perform a series of very strange tasks, with each of them requiring him to take on some kind of different identity.

It’s a series of bizarre scenes, one after the other, but the experience is equal parts intoxicating and overwhelming. It’s not a horror film, and might only just qualify as “fantasy,” but it could well all depend on how you interpret – or fail to interpret – it. Holy Motors is aggressively arthouse in execution, yet in a way that’s oddly easy to sink into. Words fail most descriptions of this one, and there’s nothing wrong with that, really.

5

‘All That Jazz’ (1979)

Directed by Bob Fosse

A film that helps prove you don’t have to dip into science fiction, fantasy, or horror to create the sensation of a fever dream, All That Jazz tells a story that, in one way, is brutally honest and grounded. It’s a film directed by Bob Fosse that’s more or less about Bob Fosse, with the central character having aspects of Fosse’s life and anxieties (womanizing, substance use, being a workaholic, medical conditions, etc.).

But this increasingly overworked and close-to-death individual also escapes into a world of fantasy and memories at certain points, doing so all the more as the film approaches its grim yet powerful conclusion. It’s that final act that feels particularly visceral, unsettling, and feverish, but the experience it proves is mind-blowing and stomach-churning in the most incredible of ways.

4

‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Few movies make war feel like a continual fever dream quite as effectively as Apocalypse Now does. Plenty of other war movies show combat to be terrifying, sure (and thereby kind of nightmarish), but Apocalypse Now wants to take that approach slightly differently. It’s sometimes in-your-face, but there are also long stretches that are tense in a more quiet fashion, which is arguably more unnerving.

In short, it’s a unique war movie; saying as much feels like a massive understatement. If you want a bleak double feature of feverish movies that have titles beginning with “A” that were both released in 1979, you might well want to pair Apocalypse Now with the aforementioned All That Jazz. You’ll need a lie down afterward, though. Hopefully, when you do lie down, those dreams you have will be sweet… hmm.

3

‘Paprika’ (2006)

Directed by Satoshi Kon

Well, it would be weird if a movie like Paprika didn’t feel like a dream at least some of the time, considering it’s a movie about infiltrating dreams. Specifically, in the world of Paprika, someone designed a machine that lets therapists see into the dreams of their patients, but when that device goes missing, chaos ensues, and reality itself even seems threatened.

You kind of have to go along with it and accept you won’t understand everything going on, but you don’t need to with Paprika. Whatever you do get from it will be more than enough, especially because the sheer experience of throwing yourself into such a wild film is immensely rewarding. It’s absolutely one of the greatest anime films, not just of the 2000s, but arguably of all time.

2

‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001)

Directed by David Lynch

David Lynch explored dreams frequently throughout his body of work, so it’s not too surprising that some of his darker films take on feelings comparable to fever dreams or nightmares. Mulholland Drive might be the best example of a Lynch movie also feeling feverish, given it doesn’t unfold into total nightmare territory until closer to the end… well, the odd unsettling moment early on aside.

Much of Mulholland Drive is an idyllic fantasy, and then some of it’s either a cruel reality, or perhaps a sort of reality that itself becomes a nightmare. It can be interpreted in different ways, and it might well depend on the sort of person you are, or how often you can find the time to rewatch it. There is something very intoxicating and emotionally intense about it, though, so once it’s in your mind, it’s unlikely to ever leave there entirely.

1

‘Pink Floyd: The Wall’ (1982)

Directed by Alan Parker

It was already pretty easy to call Pink Floyd a cinematic band before the release of Pink Floyd: The Wall, given how immersive the group’s music tended to be (and releasing concept albums didn’t hurt this feeling, either). The Wall had perhaps the most narrative of any Pink Floyd album, though, with a “feature-length” runtime as well, in a sense, thanks to it being a double album.

This made it worthy of getting a film adaptation of sorts, with Pink Floyd: The Wall taking all the music from the album and giving it accompanying visuals, all done to heighten the emotions of the album’s story and make it more digestible. The result is nightmarish, feverish, bizarre… all those appropriate adjectives that have already been said earlier on, when talking about all those other movies. But of all the movies outlined, Pink Floyd: The Wall is perhaps the most intense. It’s almost too much, but if that’s the kind of sensation they wanted to evoke, then mission (more than) accomplished.

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