Credit: Netflix

This weekend, we have got you a special list of movies which are totally not meant for relaxing. These Netflix films are made to grab your attention and make your brain do some exercise. Lucky for you, Netflix has a great collection of twisted thrillers and horror films right now, and we don’t want you to miss out on them because, as usual, Netflix cleans its catalogue every now and then.

If you pay attention, every single one of these films has that one thing in common, and that’s their slightly off and strange energy. Everything seems normal in the beginning… until it doesn’t. A character says something weird, or something is making you uncomfortable. And you’re sitting there trying to keep up, thinking you’ve got it figured out, and then… it changes again.

And honestly, that’s what makes this list so fun to watch, because these movies might not be the biggest blockbusters on Netflix, but they certainly know how to keep their audience engaged.

So yeah, if you are in the mood for something that’s a little intense or a little confusing, then you are in exactly the right place. These five movies? Yeah… they’re about to mess with your head a little, and you’re probably going to enjoy every second of it.

The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend

Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2014)

Let’s start with Blue Ruin, and this film won’t waste a second in throwing you into Dwight’s life, which is already hanging by a thread. The man is living out of his car, surviving on scraps, keeping his head down like he is trying to disappear from the world completely. And then one day, a piece of news hits him: the man who killed his parents is about to walk free. That’s it! Thus begins our story, where David just decides he’s going to do something about it.

But the moment he actually goes through with it? Yeah, everything starts slipping right out of his hands. You see, he is a flawed protagonist, and this is not a perfect story, so he is bound to mess up. You’ll get chills when you watch him leave traces behind and clearly have no idea how to handle what comes next. One bad decision turns into another, and before you know he is not just dealing with revenge anymore. He is dealing with people who are coming after him, and they are not going to stop. Now you know that this film is really all about the performance, and Macon Blair has done an excellent job playing this guy who panics and hesitates and regrets all the moves he makes and still goes with them.

Forgotten (Jang Hang-jun, 2017)

Next up, we have Forgotten, and this one starts off like any other film. Very normally. You have got Jin-seok moving into a new house with his family, trying to settle into a fresh start, and everything looks fine… until his brother gets kidnapped right in front of him. Just like that. And then, after a few days, his brother comes back.

But here’s where it gets strange. Something seems off. The way he talks, the way he behaves, the things he remembers, everything is different. Jin-seok can feel it; you can feel it, but no one around him seems to question it. And the more he tries to figure it out, the more the story starts becoming something else entirely. Every answer just opens up another question, and at some point you stop trying to guess and just go with it. So if tension and twists keep you going, Netflix has Forgotten to offer.

Oculus (Mike Flanagan, 2017)

Oculus takes you to the life of Kaylie, who is convinced that an old mirror destroyed her family years ago. Sounds wild and absurd, right? But she is not guessing it. In fact, she has spent years tracking it down with cameras, alarms, timers… the whole setup, just to prove that this thing is not normal. Her brother Tim, on the other hand, just got out of a mental institution and wants nothing to do with any of this. For him, what happened in their childhood was trauma, not something supernatural.

But the moment they bring that mirror back into their lives, things start getting torturous really fast. Memories start getting blurry to the point you can’t tell what’s real and what’s not. One second, everything makes sense; the next second, it’s completely gone. You’re watching them trying to hold everything together while everything around them breaks apart… and honestly, it’s hard to look away.

Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2014)

Now Enemy is a whole new roller coaster ride, so watch at your own risk. Here, you follow Adam, a college professor who lives a very routine life. No drama, just his mundane routine, until one day he spots someone in a movie who looks exactly like him. Not similar, but exact. Same face, same voice, same everything. Can you imagine if that happened to you? How would you feel?

Well, coming back to the movie, this curiosity turns into obsession very quickly. Adam tracks the man down, who turns out to be an actor named Anthony, and when they finally meet, it’s just… off. Neither of them knows how to react to what they are seeing. And instead of getting answers, the situation only gets more complicated. We have Jake Gyllenhaal carrying both roles and, as usual, doing a commendable job. He switches between Adam and Anthony with these small changes in tone and attitude that make them feel like two different people.

The Endless (Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, 2018)

And then to end the list, we have The Endless. Here, we have two brothers, Justin and Aaron, living a regular life until they receive a strange video from a cult they escaped years ago. Yeah… already sounds like something you shouldn’t go back to, doesn’t it? But curiosity gets the better of them, and they decide to visit, just for closure.

The moment they arrive, things don’t feel dangerous. If anything, people seem more welcoming. But then, small things start happening, like loops and repeated moments, and you realise this place is not following normal rules. And when time gets messed up, you stop messing around, but of course, these brothers don’t, and that’s how it becomes “endless”. If you want a film to mess with your brain and sense of time a little, The Endless is a soild watch.