History Main / SurrealHorror

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain Louis Wain]] is a good example of mental deterioration affecting one's art in this way. Near the end of his life, he suffered from what is believed to be severe schizophrenia, so his comical drawings of [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Wain_cat_--_representative.jpg cats]] in [[FunnyAnimal human situations]] transformed into increasingly abstract pictures that hardly [[http://i.imgur.com/rQjP3pk.png resembled cats at all]].

-->'''Baldi:''' Great! You're doing fantastic! Problem three! ''[[HellIsThatNoise *loud static noise*]]'' plus ''[[BlackSpeech *loud static noise*]]'' times ''*loud static noise*'' equals... ''[[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption player inevitably gives a wrong answer]]]'' I GET ANGRIER FOR EVERY PROBLEM YOU GET WRONG.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' is the deranged tale of a little boy whose [[AbusiveParents brutally abusive]] mother intends to sacrifice him to God, filled with BodyHorror, BigCreepyCrawlies, disturbingly Freudian imagery, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] ToiletHumor.

** ''Eggman Origins'', after going through the hidden process of making it available, turns out to be a game where the player's custom Sonic character feeds an egg/bird-like Eggman worms in an empty white void. Eventually, a tower rises with Eggman in the middle, and he seemingly [[spoiler:turns the character into the original Sonic. This is noted as the player having "One ascension."]]

%%* "[[https://www.youtube.com/c/BenWheele/ Ben Wheele]]" is a lesser known example of this, but their videos are on par with, if not surpassing those of David Firth and Cyriak. He is most known for Henry Eats and Bump Classique.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
* The ''WebAnimation/AlfredsPlayhouse'' videos have quite a bit of this with SurrealHumor, including singing about Alfred's sexual abuse and his escape from it into fantasy to the tune of the ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'' theme song, Dictator Alfred is friends with cheerful imagined versions of Hitler and Stalin, and Alfred cross-dresses from time to time.
* ''WebAnimation/HololiveERROR'', mostly the animated manga. The story of Shino Misora and Aogami as a whole is filled to the brim with [[OminousVisualGlitch Ominous Visual Glitches]], characters inexplicably acting ''out''-of-character or going all "WelcomeToCorneria", and plain confusion on both the characters' and viewers' ends as to just ''[[MindScrew what the hell is going on]]''. [[spoiler:''Especially'' after the twist in Chapter 15, showing that the NewTransferStudent we've been following in the present day segments ''is'' Shino... even though the apparent ghost of Shino had been the antagonist for most of the series until then.]]
* A lot of animations (including ''WebAnimation/JimmyNeutronHappyFamilyHappyHour'') made by WebVideo/{{Seinfeldspitstain}} are all this, especially alongside SurrealHumor. As an example, ''Happy Family Happy Hour'' contains a scene where [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius Hugh and Jimmy Neutron]] watch TV with the former holding a shotgun to the latter's chest, before being decapitated by a pizza delivery.

* ''Webcomic/Astray3'' is plenty surreal from the first strip, but the oven-head monster is even worse than the carnivorous umbrellas. At least the [[BeastMan killer whale guy]] seems friendly...
* In ''Webcomic/LittleRobotBigScaryWorld'', some of the dream sequences were done in jarring art styles, often with flashing lights and scary noises to add to the experience.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Maybe half the dimensions Josie ends up visiting in "I Looked into the Abyss", including one that was half Franchise/CthulhuMythos and half ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland''.
* Many Website/SCPFoundation pieces use this; the objects are often extremely strange (some are even surreal ''without'' being particularly horrific) and the way the clinical, detached nature of each article gives you a feeling that, even though you have some information, [[NothingIsScarier you have no way of knowing]] exactly what these things are all about. A few specific examples include [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1782 SCP-1782]], [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1425 SCP-1425]], [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2030 SCP-2030]], and [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/bees Bees]].
** The artist behind [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-4158 SCP-4158]]'s image, [[Blog/{{Slimyswampghost}} Trevor "@slimyswampghost" Henderson]] has a reputation of creating FoundFootage artwork not that out of place from the SCP Foundation's world.

* ''Literature/TheInterfaceSeries'' runs wild on this, starting with accounts of bizarre [[WombLevel organic tunnels]] called "flesh interfaces" appearing all over the world, a terrible being called [[EldritchAbomination the Mother with Horse Eyes]], and time travel, among many equally weird things. This one is particularly notorious not only for its content but for its dissemination, rather than posting the stories in one place at one time, the author cut out tiny snippets and [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou posted them in comments all over Reddit]], sometimes on pages that had [[ParanoiaFuel nothing to do with the series or creepypasta in general.]]
* Website/{{Bogleech}} heavily favors examples of this to more conventional horror, the [[Literature/NightmareBeings accounts of people's real-life nightmares]] are prime examples.
* WebAnimation/{{ENA}} uses this and SurrealHumor interchangeably but leans more towards horror as the series goes on.

* ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'', especially the videos made by [[TheDragon totheark]]. A ''lot'' of [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slendy stories]], actually, especially once SanitySlippage sets in. After all, it's a freaking terrifying [[MemeticMutation meme]]/artificial UrbanLegend where the primary figure is... [[HumanoidAbomination a tall guy in a suit with no face]].
%%* Many of the videos made by "[[https://www.youtube.com/user/nana825763 nana825763]]" in Website/YouTube. Especially his videos "username666", "another youtube", "pokopokopikotan", "none", "cooking idol" and "embryo" just to mention some of them. He likes to make scary videos with Japanese terror legends and other related things.
* ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' depicts this and SurrealHumor. because each episode has a trio of puppet characters (Red Guy Yellow Guy and Duck Guy) being teached by talking objects causing them to enjoy themselves by using their imaginations... until their imaginations turn the episodes nightmarishly surreal. In the end, everything goes back to normal and nothing happens.
* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=870OhSp4ai0 Top 11 Nostalgic Mindfucks]]" discusses some of these moments (in addition to some less scary ones, like {{Toontown}} from ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' and the TitleSequence to ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse''). In a meta-example, the video itself can be pretty freaky as well.

%%* Three words, ''WebVideo/ShayeSaintJohn''.
* WebVideo/{{Hbomberguy}}'s video ''Serious Lore Analysis 3'' -- an analysis of ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', its animated series, and ''Film/TheRoom2003'' -- has Hbomb getting hunted by a masked man trying to stop Hbomb from creating lore analysis videos.
%%* Since you watched the ''WebVideo/{{Dad}}'' ARG webseries you still noticed about the hint the lore and event the creepy plotlines and storytelling.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'' is known for this, in particular the episodes "Dream Machine" (with Jailbot's dream of being the Warden's human(oid) son resulting in creepy animation part, and the part where the Warden dreams of his crotch morphing into Jared's head and face, while his dream version of Alice quickly rots into an angered zombie that shouts "I need my BEAUTY SLEEP!") and "Don't Be A Negaton" (the hallucination scene at the end, especially with the rotting dog and D.L. Diamond's actual face without his wig or makeup is exposed as sore-infested and decaying). Creator/AdultSwim shows in general could probably qualify.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' delves into this on occasion, in particular "Hermit Ren" and the Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy episodes. Lots of DerangedAnimation too.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' tends towards this sort of style to keep its DefangedHorrors scary: on top of the creator's overall outlook (claiming heavy influence by [[TropeCodifier Salvador Dali]]), the show often uses MediumBlending for when a villain ''really'' needs to stand out, like, say, the Spirit of the Harvest Moon, King Ramses, or that [[JumpScare cute]] [[NightmareFace violin girl]].

* The paraphernalia wagon sequence from ''WesternAnimation/HalloweenIsGrinchNight''. It's very easily comparable to ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'', being basically the protagonist walking through a series of strange, nightmarish visuals.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' drifts into this sometimes:
** The episode "No One Can Hear You" features Finn [[AbandonedHospitalAwakening waking up alone in a hospital]], finding the Candy Kingdom abandoned except for a delirious and concussed Jake, who has convinced himself everyone is off preparing for a surprise party. Then Finn finds out everyone was abducted by a bipedal deer with '''human hands'''.
** Marceline's father turns out to be a demon lord who rules over "the Nightosphere" which, as seen in "Return to the Nightosphere" and "Daddy's Little Monster", is more or less a cute, animated version of Bosch's hell.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has [[EldritchAbomination Bill Cipher]], living embodiment of all that is both [[LaughablyEvil hilariously]] deranged... and [[KnightOfCerebus just plain deranged, when his interests are against yours.]]
* Of all places, this shows up to surprisingly chilling effect in ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' in "[[Recap/ThomasAndFriendsS5E25RustyAndTheBoulder Rusty and the Boulder]]". It concerns a new quarry that's being dug in the mountains of Sodor, but the mountain they dig into happens to have a gigantic, [[SinisterGeometry unnaturally spherical]] boulder sitting on the cliff face high above, [[NothingIsScarier threatening to fall down at any moment]]. To make matters worse, the boulder is [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane heavily implied]] to be ''sentient'', with Rusty feeling like he's BeingWatched whenever he's near it, and when rock fragments start falling onto the railway below, he observes "The boulder is telling us to go away." When it inevitably falls off the cliff onto the rail line, it seems to [[ImplacableMan actively pursue]] the engines in ways that should not be physically possible and completely defy the laws of physics (moving [[LightningBruiser absurdly fast]], not losing any speed when going uphill, and even appearing ''[[OffscreenTeleportation behind]]'' Rusty and his driver at one point) before eventually destroying a shed and almost several of the engines. Oh, and it has a [[UncannyValley weirdly realistic]] ''[[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/ttte/images/2/21/Boulder.png/revision/latest?cb=20171004105020 face]]'' that we see twice, once when it's staring at Rusty on the clifftop and at the end when the Fat Controller moves it to another mountain very far away like he's trying to ''exorcise a demon.''
-->'''Fat Controller:''' ''([[OOCIsSeriousBusiness disturbed]])'' [[DugTooDeep We should have left this part of the island alone.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** The show parodies ''Series/TwinPeaks'' in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)]]". Chief Wiggum falls asleep on the job and finds himself in a strange building (which looks just like the Black Lodge), where Lisa makes odd, cryptic references ("THIS... SUIT... BURNS... BETTER") in a stilted voice and reality changes at a moment's notice. The trouble is that Wiggum is [[TooDumbToLive too stupid]] to figure out what the heck is happening, and Dream Lisa is eventually forced to drop the mysterious act and outright tell him her message ("LOOK AT BURNS'S SUIT! Yeesh!"). When the Chief awakens, he happily talks about the "weird backwards-talking dream" he just had, prompting concern from the other cops.
** Creator/DonHertzfeldt directed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78gYyTrG7Y this]] CouchGag for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E1ClownInTheDumps Clown in the Dumps]]". Yes, it's a satire of a FranchiseZombie. Doesn't make it any less surreal/disturbing (it looks like something StarfishAliens could make when trying to imitate ''The Simpsons''; it even mentions viewers' flippers. And whoever made it [[EvilOverlord is ruled by a self-styled "dark lord"]] who seems to want to remark that all animals can scream and that "amusement is control").
* Some of the [[SeasonalRot post-movie]] episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' qualify, possibly unintentionally. The most obvious case is the Season 7 episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E7 Squidward in Clarinetland]]": it ''starts'' with two nausea-inducing scenes of Krabs completely breaking out in hives, and [=SpongeBob=] getting the flesh of his right arm eaten off by a cloud of insect-like creatures... [[FromBadToWorse and then Squidward enters the safe]]. The [[CosmicPlaything poor guy]] first navigates a labyrinth of filing cabinets that [[BiggerOnTheInside could not possibly fit in there]], while following [=SpongeBob=], whose laugh is unusually creepy in this episode. Then he opens a door, and winds up in a field that is empty except for the giant clarinets growing out of the ground and a buried, talking eagle head, which eats him. In its stomach, we see that the eagle has multiple esophagi despite only having one beak. Then Squidward gets flushed out of the eagle's stomach, somehow winding up inside a pinball machine which turns out to be a giant [=SpongeBob=], with a giant Patrick there to torment him as well. Even the Encyclopedia [=SpongeBobia=] admits that "this episode scares children." [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids They would hardly be the only ones.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheShiveringTruth'' is essentially just a series of short nightmares directly transcribed into a television format, and in the creepiest possible stop-motion animation, with all the horrifying strangeness that implies. It's done by the same people who did ''Series/TheHeartSheHoller'' and ''WesternAnimation/XavierRenegadeAngel'', so if you've seen any of those shows, you [[DerangedAnimation know what you're getting into.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' episode "Plaza Alone" leans into this during its climax. After wandering the mysteriously empty plaza all day, KO, Rad, and Enid accidentally get locked in the bodega's break room. They then suddenly begin to hallucinate. Rad turns into a hot dog, Enid fails to stop KO from eating Rad and then explodes, KO turns into a horse, and they all panic about both their actual situation and their bizarre hallucinations.

* Creator/MikhailBulgakov 's ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita''. Satan arrives to Moscow with his minions, and surreal things begin to happen.
* ''Literature/TheKingInYellow'', an anthology of short stories all based around a common idea: There is a play so decadent that it acts as a BrownNote linked to a HumanoidAbomination implied to be the AnthropomorphicPersonification of decadence; we don't know how that can even be possible. And the play is also linked to a cursed symbol which summons an undead creature; that creature's nature/origins are completely unexplained. We don't even know if the CrapsaccharineWorld depicted in "The Repairer of Reputations" is real or not; the tales featuring the play are interconnected, but that's the only one which explicitly depicts such a world, and it has an UnreliableNarrator. Everything is weird and nothing is certain; only decadence and doom are (except for the sort-of lucky pair in ''The Mask''. Maybe). Naturally, this book was a huge influence on Creator/HPLovecraft.

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'': A book that is a labyrinth of {{Framing Device}}s, set in a house featuring a hostile labyrinth built from AlienGeometries that [[NothingIsScarier may or may not contain a minotaur]], featuring stories that [[MetaFiction fold back in on themselves]] or may all just be a tangle of metaphors.
* This is the reason some people find ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' to be nightmarish rather than amusing.

%%* Again Creator/AlfredKubin with his ''The Other Side''.
* Creator/ThomasLigotti, who has drawn on a lifetime of intricate and disturbing nightmares for much of his writing.

* ''Literature/TheThirdPoliceman'' is a nightmarishly surreal novel by Irish author Flann O Brien (think James Stephens meets ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' while being dictated to by Creator/SalvadorDali) and after reading you'll probably never look at a bicycle in the same way again.
* The alien needle monsters in ''Literature/EdenGreen'' take strange, absurd shapes, and the title character nicknames them things like 'herbivore' and 'giraffe'.
* Lots of Creator/NeilGaiman's works use this. For instance, ''Literature/AmericanGods'' has a scene in which a prostitute swallows a man through her vagina, and "Literature/TheProblemOfSusan" shows us a deranged version of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' in which Aslan rapes the White Witch and gruesomely devours the Pevensie children. Hell, even his children books revel in this. ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' is about a girl who crawls through a tunnel into another world full of puppets who want to stitch buttons onto her eyes, and ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'' has a scene in which two children enter a mausoleum inhabited by a naked, tattooed Celtic warrior [[spoiler:(who, thankfully, isn't real)]] and an enormous, undead, snakelike monster.
* Even the original ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]'' series introduced this at one point, when the characters sail through a fog of nightmares in ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader''. Since RealDreamsAreWeirder, some of these nightmares are pretty surreal -- for example, Eustace's nightmare involves giant scissors, [[NoodleImplements and we can only guess what that entails]].[[note]]Though it became HilariousInHindsight after ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' featured a more comedic NightmareSequence with giant scissors, this time representing the threat of a GroinAttack.[[/note]]

%%* The ''Circe'' section in ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'' is full of this.
* The Torque in China Mieville's ''Literature/BasLagCycle''. A cancerous force of mutation that is hard to describe in its effects. It blights the landscape turning them into constantly shifting and wrong geometries, it has startling effects on living things (one of the most prominent examples in the series is a train full of people, merged with the train car they were in turned into one enormous amoeba like mass which seems impervious to damage, or the researcher who slowly notices that small circular holes of herself are disappearing). Even the MadScientist main character of the first book views Torque as an uncontrollable and terrifying force.

* Most of the stories and novels of Creator/FranzKafka qualify as this trope.
* ''Literature/Catch22'' starts out as a silly, absurdist parody... until about halfway through, where it starts veering into this trope by [[{{Deconstruction}} showing how horrifying it would really be]] to live in a world where things like loyalty oaths or turning a profit by selling eggs to yourself are treated as totally sensible and rational; many of the characters show absolutely no reaction to the utterly bizarre and horrific events occurring around them, culminating in [[spoiler:Aarfy getting off [[KarmaHoudini totally scotfree]] after raping and murdering a woman. Why? Because nobody with the power to punish him cared enough to do so.]]

* ''{{Literature/Unhallowed}}'', a surreal horror WebSerialNovel about three sisters dealing with dark family secrets and witchcraft in a small New England town. Is this the story of a girl spiraling into madness? Or did a young witch really break the universe by invoking mystical forces? Influences include Creator/{{HP Lovecraft}} and Creator/{{David Lynch}}. It's not about the goat.
%%* Some other works by ''Creator/DonHertzfeldt'', while driven by SurrealHumor, can be sometimes this.

* Various scenes from ''Series/TwinPeaks'' (again by Creator/DavidLynch), including the dream at the end of episode 2, the Black Lodge scenes in the finale, and every scene with Killer BOB. ''The Return'' also has plenty of this, [[WhamEpisode Episode 8]] of the Revival is almost an entire episode of nothing but weird nightmare imagery.
* The Danish TV series ''The Kingdom'' (''Series/{{Riget}}''), which is set in a hospital and involves such things as the birth of a fully-grown man with ''way'' too long legs, and a doctor having the cancerous liver of another man transplanted into his own body ForScience and as a trophy.
%%** The Creator/StephenKing-led American version, ''Series/KingdomHospital'', has elements of this as well.
* The British series ''Series/SapphireAndSteel'', while nominally SF, is also deeply unsettling in the fashion of a good ghost story -- little or nothing is explained in any detail, which tends to enhance the dream-logic feel of the show.
* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'': Did he escape? Who captured him? What the hell is going on? Who is #1? Why do they care? Who are these people? [[spoiler: [[ParanoiaFuel WHY DOES THAT DOOR OPEN THE SAME WAY AS THE ONES IN THE VILLAGE?!]]]]
%%* ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'' has some comically absurd horrors, like Skipper the Eyechild.
* ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'' is basically what would happen if Creator/DavidLynch hosted a daytime talk show. Most of the time, the [[SurrealHumor surreal bits are humorous]], but when they aren't, they're usually this. Especially if you're one of the guests.

* ''Series/TimAndEricsBedtimeStories'' abandons the SurrealHumor of previous Creator/TimAndEric creations for this, featuring a world where toes are removed by scissors as often as tonsils are taken out.
* The infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion Max Headroom incident]] is a good example of this. On 22 November 1987, an unidentified prankster hijacked Chicago airwaves [[note]]first during the WGN-TV news, and then during WTTW's airing of classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Horror of Fang Rock"[[/note]] and broadcast eerie footage of a guy in a Series/MaxHeadroom mask spouting gibberish (and briefly, at the end, being spanked by someone in a FrenchMaid costume). Website/{{Cracked}} has a good [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18381_the-5-creepiest-unexplained-broadcasts.html summary]].
* ''Film/ThisHouseHasPeopleInIt'' is a short film from Alan Resnick that never explains itself. Nothing seems to make sense? Why is that girl sinking into the ground? Nobody knows! Why does this simple house need a surveillance system? Nobody knows! What the hell is Tom's deal? Nobody knows! Why is [[spoiler:everyone sinking into the ground now]]? NOBODY KNOWS!
* ''Series/Legion2017'' runs off of this, given that it's the story of a man with both deadly mutant abilities ''and'' severe mental illness. It's the kind of show where the BigBad can give the protagonist a chilling BreakingSpeech comparing love to a disease spread by ants and then bust out into a spectacular Film/JamesBond-style dance solo set to a raucous cover of Music/NinaSimone's "Feelin' Good". And it actually gets even weirder as the series progresses. Bonus points for most of the scenes with the Devil With the Yellow Eyes successfully conveying the "slow-moving, inescapable, irrational horror" feel of an ''actual'' nightmare.

* The House in ''Series/BeyondTheWalls'' has its merry way with the laws of physics in every conceivable way. The zombie-like creatures inhabiting it don't help either: you can't communicate with them, they vastly differ in intelligence and hostility and sometimes seem to [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking wear boar heads for fun]].

* Music/NeutralMilkHotel's lyrics fall here pretty often. Especially "A Baby for Pree" and "Two-Headed Boy".
%%* A lot of Music/TomWaits' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9mhsW5aWJM stuff.]]

* Music/TheResidents. An avant-garde music group formed in the 1960's who have managed to stay anonymous throughout their whole career. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcI5rNR5TGM Here's a taste.]] Besides the music itself, the music videos, ''video game'' and other creative output all serve to emphasize this.

* Many modern TechnicalDeathMetal bands that focus around using dissonance, disorientating time signatures and bizarre vocal styles to create an extremely dark and dreamy atmosphere fall into this. Examples include Music/{{Pyrrhon}}, {{Music/Portal}}, Artificial Brain, and Music/{{Ulcerate}}. This style can be traced back to Music/{{Gorguts}}' album ''Obscura'' and the Finnish band Demilich; arguably the two most unsettling examples.
* Music/ThePixies were influenced by movies like Film/{{Eraserhead}} and Film/UnChienAndalou. ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pixies&oldid=624024907#Influences Source]])
* The later works of Music/ScottWalker are the stuff of nightmares, especially the album ''The Drift''.
* Antihoney, a [[AnonymousBand mysterious]] Japanese musical project, features a unique dreamlike soundscape. Their songs are free, available to download on their [[http://antihoney.com/ official site]]. The music is already pretty weird on its own (some songs even completely reversed on release), the ethereal vocals only emphasizes the creepiness. It was brought to fame (among fans) largely by the sinister imagery created in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd5jpVLJGWg fan made music videos]] by Youtube animator [[https://www.youtube.com/user/nana825763/videos nana825763]] (best known for the famous Youtube video Username 666), and they fit suprisingly well with the music. It's [[NightmareFuel very]], [[MindScrew very trippy]].
* Music/TheMarsVolta slips into this at times, with their odd WordSaladLyrics and odd, MindScrew music.
* Music/{{Queen}}'s [[https://youtu.be/Od6hY_50Dh0 video]] for "[[SanitySlippageSong I'm Going Slightly Mad]]" -- well, what do you expect for a song with RealitySubtext about dementia brought on by the terminal stages of Music/FreddieMercury's AIDS?
* Likewise, Music/DavidBowie's [[https://youtu.be/CMThz7eQ6K0 video]] for the song "Ashes to Ashes" on his album ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps''. Again, the song itself has some dark RealitySubtext, this time about Bowie's drug addiction -- though as with the aforementioned Queen song, the video is just a mishmash of freaky images. Even darker are Bowie's videos for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw Blackstar]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JqH1M4Ya8 Lazarus]]", both released right before he died.
* Much like the TechnicalDeathMetal example above, many of the stranger bands in BlackMetal are prone to doing this, often through use of UncommonTime, bizarre vocals, dissonant guitar tunings, and unconventional song structures. Music/DeathspellOmega and Music/BlutAusNord are the poster boys for this style. Some of the other bands who practice it include Oranssi Pazuzu, Jute Gyte, Spectral Lore, and arguably Music/{{Liturgy}}.
* Much of the work of Richard D. James, better known as Music/AphexTwin, falls into this category. Whether it's the often robotic vocal effects, discordant melodies, or bizarre and often frightening lyrics, we guarantee that you won't be sleeping for days. Oh, and the music videos.
* The music video of [=LeaF=]'s ''[=MopeMope=]'' is [[DisguisedHorrorStory infamous]] for its frequent ArtShift from adorable kids-themed animation to a creepy seizure-inducing DerangedAnimation with {{botanical abomination}}s with [[UncannyValley human arms for petals and realistic human lips, etc.]]

* ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' can venture into this on occasion, especially whenever the VictimOfTheWeek finds themselves dealing with The Other Circus. Including the protagonists, at the end of season 3. You know things are bad when the violin music in the intro is replaced by circus noise.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Try leafing through the descriptions of Chaos mutations sometime. And good luck catching a peaceful night's rest if you do. Oh, and Chaos imagery and architecture also counts. Explicitly described is the alphabet of Chaos as "sanity blasting sigils".
* ''TabletopGame/{{Normality}}'' embodies this trope, as it lacks a dice mechanic and largely consists of furious ranting at a world gone wrong.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'', players may have to run through a session or two of this if they [[spoiler: die and come back harrowed]] or [[spoiler: travel through the Hunting Grounds]].

* In ''TabletopGame/DontRestYourHead'', the player characters are people with abnormal insomnia that gain strange powers (which work with dream logic) and are driven to a place called Mad City, a city that is a total mess full with AnachronismStew and {{Bizarrchitecture}} where all the missing things and people from our world go. Also, the city is ruled by [[HumanoidAbomination strange beings]] that prey on humans and have dream logic powers as the protagonists.
* ''TabletopGame/InvisibleSun'' has players as magic-users called vislae who have discovered the Actuality, a dream-like dimension of magic and imagination. With its fantastical nature, the imagery can quickly go from semi-normal to nightmarish when spells are used, leaving characters covered in screaming mouths, having eyeballs for fingertips, or any other kind of twisted deformations that they can use to hurt others... or as an advantage for themselves. The horror comes especially when the story involves a horrific war of magic that happened in the past and caused many vislae to flee the Actuality in the first place.

%%

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out.
%% Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

%%* The works of Creator/JunjiIto, full stop. ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'' and ''Manga/{{Gyo}}'' are what happens when he crosses it with BodyHorror.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample

* Pretty much every manga by Umezu Kazuo, notably ''Manga/DriftingClassroom'', in which an entire elementary school is transported to a nightmarish AfterTheEnd world, and ''Manga/{{Fourteen}}'', in which a humanoid chicken (named George) is leading Nature's revenge against the industrialized humanity.

%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loetcOWYfvA The Midnight Parasites]], a 1972 Japanese animated short based on the paintings of Creator/HieronymusBosch with a weird psychedelic rock soundtrack.
%%* The series version of ''Manga/VampirePrincessMiyu'' has several episodes that easily fall into the surreal horror category, but as for the last story arc, two words: [[spoiler: Chicken. Heads.]] And it is terrifying.

%%* Creator/HieronymusBosch; the demons he painted might have founded BodyHorror and even this very trope.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample

%%* The Creator/ZdzislawBeksinski "Fantastic Period" between the '60s and '80s. He said he wanted his work to look like photographs of dreams, not necessarily anything horrific.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
%%* Creator/HRGiger. He created [[Film/{{Alien}} the Xenomorphs]], after all.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample

%%* Creator/AlfredKubin (pre-Great War).%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain Louis Wain]] is a good example of mental deterioration affecting one's art in this way. Near the end of his life, he suffered from what is believed to be severe schizophrenia, so his comical drawings of [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Wain_cat_--_representative.jpg cats]] in [[FunnyAnimal human situations]] transformed into increasingly abstract pictures that hardly [[http://i.imgur.com/rQjP3pk.png resembled cats at all]].

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': The Corinthian has shades of this, where this trope meets the more reasonable horror trope of the SerialKiller. Guy who strips teenage boys to their underwear, ties them up, then cuts out their eyes to eat them? Freaky but not too out of place in a realistic setting. Immortal ''literal'' nightmare who's been doing this for about forty years running for his own amusement? Freakier. (And, of course, he has MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily in his eye sockets in lieu of eyes. Yet he can still see. And he can eat things with them, like people's fingers if they try to take his shades. And if he eats someone's eyes that way, he can see things they've seen.)

* ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' and its spin-offs. Throw Goth, SurrealHumor, BlackComedy and Surreal Horror in a blender and you get this... and the inside of Creator/JhonenVasquez's brain.
* Much of Creator/GrantMorrison's run on ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol''. Notably, the Scissormen, his first story-arc. Weird, red-suited [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos slenderman]]-lookalikes. Oh, but they have scissors for hands, and speak in nonsense phrases, and [[spoiler:"cut" people out of reality and into a city in another dimension.]] Grant Morrison [[QuirkyWork does some weird stuff]], long story short.
* Also from Grant Morrison, ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'' is their magnum opus but also their most complex and surreal work. It features our universe being born [[spoiler: after two higher dimensions overlapped]], [[EldritchAbomination Alien demons]] that want to turn the Earth into a death camp, an assassin from Hell that always has a sketchy, blurry face but covers it by wearing the flayed skin of his victims because he believes himself to be Xipe Totec, a living planet forcing a kid into becoming humanity's saviour by making him absorb all suffering on Earth, alien pornographers, a demon that enslaved our language and, in the end, [[spoiler: humanity collectively achieves Nirvana and dissolves into a literal sea of endless possibilities.]]
%%* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'''s first villain was the American Scream, and the blend of Surreal Horror with PrimalFear recurred throughout the series.

%%* ''FanFic/ThirtyHs'' and its spinoffs have some semblance of this trope, particularly the "Rape Ape" chapter, if you don't regard them as SurrealHumor.
%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/cassieiswatching CassieIsWatching]] (an infamous ''WebVideo/{{lonelygirl15}}'' [[FanFic fan created]] AlternateRealityGame.)

%%* ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' at least borders on this trope, featuring a lot of psychedelic and colourful imagery.
* The Forest of Still Life in ''WesternAnimation/WeAreTheStrange''. Toys and strange machines are scattered haphazardly all around, and then, we're introduced to a rather unnerving stopmotion CreepyChild with a doll's head.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coonskin}}'' is a really trippy blaxploitation satire from [[Creator/RalphBakshi the man]] who brought you ''WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat'' and ''WesternAnimation/HeavyTraffic''. Highlights include demons ripping out a man's eyeballs, among other things. Truly worth checking out.
* ''WesternAnimation/ItsSuchABeautifulDay'' combines Surreal Horror with SurrealHumor. Justified because the protagonist Bill is mentally (and perhaps terminally) ill, and has to deal with how his depressing (yet ridiculous) life may eventually end with premature death.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' features the infamous "[[https://youtu.be/jcZUPDMXzJ8 Pink Elephants on Parade]]" number. After Dumbo gets UnsuspectinglySoused, we get treated to a DisneyAcidSequence featuring PinkElephants with BlackEyesOfEvil.
* Creator/{{Disney}} would later follow up the creepiness of "Pink Elephants on Parade" with a similarly bizarre NightmareSequence in ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh''. Behold, "[[https://youtu.be/axPPL1FO5mU Heffalumps and Woozles]]".
* ''WesternAnimation/AChristmasCarol2009'' is full of this. The motion-capture and general animation style can make ''every'' character look creepy, but the Ghost of Christmas Past gets it the worst, especially when its face rapidly cycles between people Scrooge knows. Segments and additions that weren't in the novel, such as Scrooge being shrunk and chased by his own funeral hearse, as well as flying into the sky on Christmas Past's cap like a rocket, are also very weird.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheWolfHouse'' is a StopMotion film which is made to look as though it was [[TheOner filmed entirely in one take]], and the visuals constantly shift and change shape. The film itself is meant to be in-universe propaganda made by a manipulative cult leader, and despite its dreamlike atmosphere it shows some very unsettling images.
%%* ''WesternAnimation/WhereTheDeadGoToDie'' is pretty much nothing but this. Oh boy, is it '''[[QuirkyWork ever]]''' this.

* ''Film/AlteredStates'' centers on the protagonist attempting a MentalTimeTravel by using sensory depravation tanks and a hallucinating drug he discovered from a Mexican tribe... instead it results in wild MushroomSamba sequences that get progressively more BodyHorror-ridden.
* ''Film/BloodMachines'' runs almost entirely on this. Who are the HumanAliens Vascan, Lago and Tracy encounter? Their employer wants the Mima, but we never find out ''why''. What exactly is the entity that emerged from the Mima? Why did it travel to the DerelictGraveyard? It's clearly an important site to the HumanAliens, but ''why''? What destroyed so many ships in that area? Was it the HumanAliens? A similar entity? '''''What the hell is the ending?!'''''
* ''Film/TheCell'': Although it mostly limits its JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind of a SerialKiller visuals to elaborate CostumePorn worn by {{Humanoid Abomination}}s, a surreal horror stand-out is the scene of the horse getting vertically sliced up by thin slabs of glass and the separate parts [[AndIMustScream remaining alive]] between them.
* ''Film/UnChienAndalou''. Watch out for [[EyeScream razors]]. It also contains elements of SurrealHumour, which makes the atmosphere even more unsettling.
%%* The content of the video tape in ''Literature/TheRing'' is clearly a homage to ''Film/UnChienAndalou''.
* ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'': One of the main reasons this pioneering work is so creepy. The plot itself generally makes sense, but the set designs, costumes, and overall mood are ''very'' dreamlike and strange, even for a silent movie.
* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' is an [[HorrorComedy interplay]] between SurrealHumor and this, given its unique take on ghosts and the afterlife. Stuff like attempting to leave the house you're haunting taking you to [[Main/DangerouslyGarishEnvironment Saturn]], where its bizarre yet creepy looking Sandworms [[SuperPersistentPredator instantly go after you]], Adam and Barbara [[BodyHorror deforming their own heads]] for Juno's approval and Betelgeuse [[AnimateInanimateObject animating]] some eerie modern art sculptures to assault the Deetzes during the climax feels as if Creator/TimBurton took the drawings of a 5 year old child's nightmares and faithfully adapted them for the screen.

* ''Film/CarnivalOfSouls'' is another classic example, following a young woman's disturbingly surreal visions of being stalked by a terrifying ghoul, and did the [[spoiler: DyingDream plot decades before ''Film/JacobsLadder'' below]].
* ''Film/JacobsLadder'', which also [[spoiler:turns out to be the protagonist's DyingDream]], slams back and forth between terrifying weirdness and mundane drama with the abruptness of getting hit over the back of the head with a brick. Also, that damn DemonicHeadShake...
* ''Film/{{Monkeybone}}'' has several moments of this, particularly the DeliberateMonochrome nightmare scenes (Julie dreaming of Stu getting his life support cut off, causing him to ''deflate'' into a rubbery hollow husk, or when Stu revisits his old nightmare of being a root headed for a MeatgrinderSurgery by a doctor with an EldritchAbomination sticking out of his forehead) or when Herb is exposed to the Oneirix (which is a literal NightmareFuel chemical solution) and hallucinates his clothes coming to life and attacking him.
%%* ''Film/TheMachinist'' has many grotesquely surreal MindScrew scenes, particularly the amusement park ride and all of the scenes with Ivan.
%%* ''Film/TetsuoTheIronMan'' is this combined with BodyHorror, particularly of the bio-mechanical sort.
* ''Film/BerberianSoundStudio'' is a slightly meta take on the genre, but certainly shows shades of this when Creator/TobyJones' sound engineer [[SanitySlippage slowly starts losing his mind]] as the boundaries between the main plot and the ShowWithinAShow are increasingly blurred. The final act is incomprehensibly terrifying.
* ''Film/{{Begotten}}'', a [[SilenceIsGolden silent]], high-contrast [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black-and-white]] [[LeFilmArtistique experimental]] film that opens with {{God}} disembowelling Himself. It just gets weirder from there. The sequel, ''Din of Celestial Birds'', is just as weird.

%%* Creator/DavidCronenberg has been known to create works featuring very disturbing visuals, particularly with ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' and ''Film/EXistenZ''.
* The ending to the film ''Film/{{Society}}''. An incredibly bizarre exercise in BodyHorror as the protagonist stumbles across [[spoiler: [[FanDisservice the most disgusting orgy]]]] in cinema history. With legendary splatter-movie guru Screaming Mad George doing the effects, what else would you expect?
* ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness'' is pretty much a surreal CosmicHorrorStory, being full of {{Mind Screw}}s, {{Cosmic Retcon}}s, and BreakingTheFourthWall sequences. But the tip of the iceberg is the ending: [[spoiler:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou It turns out the movie you're watching is the one which is driving people insane and turning them into monsters]]]].
* ''Film/TheLighthouse'' contains surrealistic elements, insofar as it's often unclear which of the disturbing and grotesque events are actually taking place as opposed to being nightmares or hallucinations of the main characters.
* ''Film/DontLookNow'' has several scenes where the main character has recurring visions of his deceased daughter and of his own death and funeral as he wanders lost in abandoned plazas, courtyards, and palaces in Venice (which themselves are distorted and dreamlike due to the near-absence of other people).

* ''Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist'' is already a [[{{Gorn}} horribly gruesome movie]] before you bring in the weirder touches like a group of possibly demonic children tormenting Judas, shots of the rotting corpse of a donkey with an [[TheUnsmile eerie grin]] on its face, and one of the weirdest depictions of {{Satan}} in cinema - as a bald, androgynous woman with an eerily deep voice, who is occasionally shown carrying a disturbingly ancient-looking baby.

* Finnish director A J Annila's ''Film/{{Sauna}}''. Its main antagonist is the titular piece of [[SinisterGeometry Sinister Architecture]] that feels far more sentient and malevolent than an immobile building rightfully should.
* Most of the '80s output from Creator/LucioFulci qualifies, with the copious {{Gorn}} mixed with bizarre dream-like happenings that really make very little sense. ''Film/TheBeyond'' is the one which likely takes the cake in the MindScrew department, [[spoiler:ending with the last two protagonists stuck in a kind of ontological maybe-symbolic [[SceneryGorn post-apocalytic hellscape]] that is either AnotherDimension they're now trapped in or [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt what our world just turned into in the space of a few minutes]]]].

* The surrealistic elements of Michael and Mark Polish film ''Northfork'' are more absurd than horrifying, but some of his creations, from the porcelain hands and strange glasses of "Happy" to the Dali-esque horse on crutch-like stilts are certainly unsettling.
%%* ''Film/{{Pi}}''. The ''Eraserhead''-esque black and white atmospheric directing style certainly helps.
* ''Film/DonnieDarko'' is about a troubled teenager who has regular meetings with a six-foot tall anthropomorphic bunny rabbit who can see the future, and just gets weirder from there. Like, when a translucent wormhole comes out of his chest, or when a movie screen ''implodes''.
* Creator/DarioArgento's ''Film/Suspiria1977'' is somewhat like ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'' in that the unsettling tone of the film owes much to its characters going about their business in some [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} pretty bizarre interiors]]... apparently without ever [[http://i.imgur.com/f2X9P.jpg noticing]] [[http://i.imgur.com/7VZPA.png anything]] [[http://i.imgur.com/mwwi5.jpg unusual]]. ''Suspiria'''s actual plot details are a little weirder, though.
%%* All the films of Creator/JanSvankmajer (''Film/{{Alice|1988}}'', ''Film/LittleOtik'' and ''Sileni'', among others) may classify in this trope, due to heavy use of MediumBlending live-action with DerangedAnimation.
* In ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', the whole portion inside the factory is surreal and often creepy, but the ultimate example is the infamous DisneyAcidSequence during the [[https://youtu.be/XB401RfGMlM boat ride]]. [[EnforcedMethodActing Even the cast had no idea Gene Wilder would be singing!]] It's so creepy that many modern showings leave it out, and Creator/DisneyChannel put a {{content warning|s}} before their showings of the film (the only time they've used a content warning for anything below a PG-13 rating) mainly on the strength of this scene being included in its near-entirety.
%%* ''Film/BlackSwan''. It was inspired by PsychologicalHorror ''Anime/PerfectBlue'', so no surprise there.
* The 1981 porno ''Nightdreams'' was an attempt to make porn that worked as legitimate art. Along the way, something went horribly wrong, and the final product was a bizarre, nightmarish, sick movie that is very disturbing and [[FanDisservice not the slightest bit arousing.]] Totally worth checking out.
%%* ''Film/EventHorizon'' went in that direction, since it is about the thin line between [[spoiler:our world and a dimension made entirely out of ChaoticEvil]].
* ''Film/TheShining''. In the book, a lot of the hotel's history is explained to us. In the movie, we see the ghosts and visions as the characters do -- with little to no context or explanation as to what the hell is going on.
* ''Film/DeathBedTheBedThatEats'' is a strange arthouse-horror-sexploitation movie about a demon possessed bed that eats people by melting them with a pee-like substance. It gets way weirder, nonsensical, and trippier from there. And there's a guy who lives behind a {{painting|s}} that constantly talks to the bed with no response.
%%* ''Film/{{Repulsion}}'' enters this territory once Carol's [[spoiler:rape dreams]] start.

* ''Film/{{Cube}}'', for taking place in a bizarre yet definitely dangerous setting of the, well, cube.
* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk9nQG1J7Xs The Woman Who Powders Herself]]'', an insane black and white short from the '70s that features lots of animation effects and disfigurements.
* ''Film/{{Possession}}''. A husband searches for his missing wife with her lover. They find out she's shacked up with a second lover, who turns out to be [[EldritchAbomination not a human]]. It all goes downhill from there.
%%* The works of Shozin Fukui, such as ''964 Pinocchio'' (1991) and ''Rubber's Lover'' (1996) depict surreal horror in a manner similar to ''Film/TetsuoTheIronMan''.
%%* ''Subconscious Cruelty'' is this with very disturbingly [[FanDisservice erotic]] and [[{{Gorn}} bloody]] scenes.
%%* Creator/TerryGilliam's ''Film/{{Tideland}}'', while disapproved by critics, was a surreal horror fairytale.
* ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'' utilises a heavy amount of this, hopping disjointedly from one bizarre and creepy scenario to another. Let's see, there's Find the Fish, [[OrganTheft Live Organ Transplants]], [[NauseaFuel Mister Creosote]]...and it all culminates in a meeting with TheGrimReaper himself. Worth noting that the segment with Mister Creosote is the only scene in any movie that's scared Creator/QuentinTarantino.

%%* ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow'' is a [[GenreThrowback deliberate throwback]] to the [[Creator/StanleyKubrick Kubrick-esque]] "cold sci-fi" films of the 70s, so there's no surprise that it lands here, thanks to bizarre visuals and tons of MindScrew.
%%* ''Film/{{Gozu}}'' by Creator/TakashiMiike was a very surreal nightmare on film, a sort of Asian ''[=Eraserhead=]''.
%%* ''Film/LaBelleCaptive''.
* In the film ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich'', being the original Creator/JohnMalkovich and not knowing when a hole in an office building could allow you to be controlled by someone else; then there's the time he tries to go through it [[MindScrew himself]].

* ''Film/DreamScenario'' depicts the surreal nature of nightmares, with an emphasis on SceneryDissonance. Like Sophie's DreamIntro of helplessly floating up to the sky and calling to her dad, [[DissonantSerenity who keeps raking leaves absently]], or Andy's nightmare of walking through a sunny forest wearing a smoking and eating strange mushrooms before finding himself on a meadow among a group of well-dressed men standing still and having to run from a blood-soaked HumanoidAbomination coming to get him.
* Creator/MamoruOshii dips into it on occasion with his live-action films. In particular, ''Talking Head'' is about as close to a Creator/DavidLynch film as you can get without the man himself directing.
%%* ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' has an increasingly surreal and downright disturbing atmosphere throughout its duration.
* ''Film/Mother2017'' fits this trope like a glove, made by grandmaster of psychological-thriller surrealism Creator/DarrenAronofsky, featuring a [[MinimalistCast tiny cast of nameless characters]], a ''[[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory heavily]]'' allegorical plot featuring tons of sexual and violent unpleasantness, climaxing in literal [[spoiler: [[IAmAHumanitarian baby eating.]] ]]
%%* Much of the works of Creator/HenrikMoller.
* The 1983 short film ''Film/PossiblyInMichigan'' won some notoriety on Website/{{Reddit}} and Platform/TikTok for its use of this trope. Its [=YouTube=] summary ("Two women are chased through a shopping mall by a cannibal") isn't necessarily ''inaccurate'', but it only gives you the faintest idea of the movie's true scare potential. You see, the victims are a pair of AmbiguouslyHuman women with eerie lilting voices who burst into rhyme at random moments, the cannibal is a mysterious tuxedoed stalker with a distorted rubber face who somehow no one can see, the shopping mall is an almost-empty building that hosts wild dance parties for people in animal masks, and the chase is punctuated by random bursts of StockFootage. ''That's'' Surreal Horror.
%%* The ''Film/{{Phantasm}}'' series goes back and forth on this - the latter films were always at least rather ''weird,'' but the 1979 original truly fits this trope best.

* The amateurish B-movie ''The Item'' by Dan Clark goes into surreal horror territory when the [[BreakThemByTalking mind-breaking, talking]] worm creature shows up.
* ''Film/{{Holidays}}'': ''Father's Day'' has some strong elements of this. A woman is led by a tape her father left to her into a very strange place where she thinks she'll meet him again, [[spoiler:while instead encountering... ''something'' bad]].
* ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'' starts out as a straightforward journey through the jungle, and then numerous unexplained and/or bizarre events begin happening with the characters displaying little to no reaction. By the end, the audience ends up feeling in the same state of madness as the characters.

* The Witches' labyrinths in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. Most of which look like getting attacked by a cross between a Creator/SalvadorDali painting and the opening theme song to ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'' is set in a grainy, monochrome world mixed with forested and industrial terrain. There are dead bodies in the early part of the game and almost everyone and everything are there to kill you. And when they do, the deaths are quite gruesome. There is one part where you have to use the husk of a giant spider as a makeshift bridge across a pit of spikes. And that is ''not'' the end of it.

%%* Creator/KenRussell's ''Film/AlteredStates'', ''Film/TheMusicLovers'' and ''Film/{{Gothic}}''.

* ''Film/DreamScenario'' depicts the surreal nature of nightmares, with an emphasis on SceneryDissonance. Like Sophie's DreamIntro of helplessly floating up to the sky and calling to her dad, [[DissonantSerenity who keeps raking leaves absently]], or Andy's nightmare of walking through a sunny forest wearing a smoking and eating strange mushrooms before finding himself on a meadow among a group of well-dressed men standing still and having to run from a bloodied HumanoidAbomination coming to get him.

* ''Film/Mandy2018'' is the rare place where this trope crosses over with the revenge thriller genre. The premise - An 80s period piece with Creator/NicolasCage taking vengeance on evil cultists - is fairly straightforward, but its bizarre, hypersaturated visuals and intensely ominous atmosphere (in addition to the cult's [[AmbiguouslyHuman possibly demonic biker henchmen]]) make it ''much'' weirder than that plot description makes it sound, and it's ultimately unclear how much of what we're seeing [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane is actually taking place]] and how much of it is the protagonist [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness losing his mind.]] It's directed by the same guy who did ''Film/BeyondTheBlackRainbow'', so no surprises there.

* ''Film/TheMask1961'', billed as the first Canadian horror film (no relation to [[Film/TheMask the 1997 movie]] with Creator/JimCarrey), is mostly a pretty standard, even slow-moving scary movie about a haunted Aztec death mask that drives anyone who wears it to madness. The thing that makes the movie truly memorable, however, is that every time the DoomedProtagonist puts on the mask (three times, in total), we're treated to an elaborate and genuinely strange NightmareSequence in [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie 3D]].