Is reality unstable or unhinged?
Browse movies, tv shows, books and more where reality is unstable or unhinged.
Media that blurs the distinction between reality and dream or altered states is incredibly triggering for those of us with dissociative disorders. If we as the viewer do not know when we are seeing a dream state, psychotic state, altered state, or stable reality, it can trigger our own dissociative states (which we will likely not recover from after the film / show is over).
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Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
164
No
4
14
Capybara_Love
There is sort of two different realitys
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
54
No
5
9
kawara
A character has frequent bouts of auditory and visual hallucinations and the timeline of the film jumps around. It is difficult to watch at times.
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
51
No
0
2
dippyegg
A main part of the plot is that the main character begins to not be able to tell what’s real.
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
18
No
0
5
Whole uiverses are shown to eradicated
TV Show • 2011 Report
Yes
17
No
4
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
15
No
0
8
just_here_for_the_cake
Most of the action is part of a play, and we are constantly jumping back and forth between the play reality and actual reality.
Video Game • 2017 Report
Yes
15
No
0
1
While the game starts off fairly normal, (SPOILERS) once you reach sayori's suicide the game starts (intentionally) glitching out, which is carried over into Acts 2 and 3. Monika mentioned in those acts that the game’s code is broken, so it could be seen as the girls’ reality becoming unstable.
TV Show • 2008 Report
Yes
13
No
0
0
suricata_passer
S4
E4
Walter has several visions of his son, Peter, over the course of the episode
Movie • 2000 Report
Yes
13
No
0
1
Sort of????
Movie • 1998 Report
Yes
13
No
0
2
Very much so
Movie • 2019 Report
Yes
13
No
1
1
KamiSteele
Drug use, with varying levels of consent, happens throughout. The screen mildly distorts and sways while the characters are under the influence of drugs. There are also various hallucinations, such as Dani seeing grass grow out of her body, a bad trip where she hears a group laughing at her upon which she enters an outhouse only to see her sister in the mirror, Dani spotting her deceased parents in a crowd, her sister's corpse appearing in the trees in the background, plants moving and 'breathing', and Dani having a 'conversation' in Swedish despite not being fluent (it's actually gibberish). Additionally, Dani appears to dissociate in some scenes which is implied through the editing. The infamous Attestupa scene has muffled audio and slowed visuals, and an early scene depicts a time skip through Dani walking out of the room of her apartment and into the plane's bathroom. It's confirmed by the director that Dani tends to dissociate. Dani also has a nightmare sequence where she sees the others driving away without her, and when she opens her mouth to scream smoke comes out. This is followed by shots of the Attestupa, as well as her family's corpses at the cliffs where it took place. In short, this movie may be a trigger if you have a history of traumatic drug experiences and/or depersonalization/derealization.
Movie • 2022 Report
Yes
12
No
1
2
pedanther
In addition to the points already noted, at one point the movie creates a deliberate confusion about which events are 'actually' happening and which are fictional within the story (part of a movie some of the characters are watching).
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
12
No
0
4
ChuckNice74
A character enters the astral realm wherein up is down/down is up, ghosts are moving around.
Movie • 1997 Report
Yes
12
No
0
3
DeenGray
The line between fiction and reality gets blurred repeatedly
Movie • 2018 Report
Yes
11
No
0
4
Kaitie
Throughout the whole film the area they enter and their minds become unstable
Movie • 2022 Report
Yes
11
No
0
1
TheCassandraComplex
Kinda? The main character perceives things no one else can perceive.
TV Show • 2013 Report
Yes
11
No
0
0
Pantalones
There are multiple times where it is unclear if Will is having hallucinations, events are actually happening, or a combination of the two occurs. Will, as well as other characters, doubts his sanity throughout the show.
Movie • 1999 Report
Yes
11
No
0
4
In the end it's pretty clear to the viewer which parts happened and which didn't but the narrator's view of reality is very unstable.
Movie • 2018 Report
Yes
11
No
1
TV Show • 2014 Report
Yes
10
No
1
1
forufourfour
S4
E4
Some scenes show events from the past and present occurring simultaneously - it's used as a storytelling technique and there are no actual changes to reality or timelines.
Movie • 2010 Report
Yes
10
No
0
2
Pantalones
That's the point of the whole film. For the characters and the audience, lines blur between what is a dream and what is reality.
Video Game Report
Yes
10
No
0
4
tial
The entire final chapter is just this happening nonstop. At one point, the dead characters suddenly reappear alive with zero explanation and none of the other survivors question it, seemingly not even realising they died at all, and speak to them as normal. Numerous onscreen glitching effects. Characters walk to a location and end up somewhere completely different that makes no geographical sense to where they walked to. The entire landscape is upside down with characters walking on the ceiling at one point with no one even brining mention to it. There’s a couple points where characters “glitch out” and start speaking incoherent or non-sensical sentences.
Video Game • 2020 Report
Yes
10
No
0
3
JayR
The game is partially set in the "dream world", a place that follows dream logic such as talking animals, breathing in space and under water, and other dream-like storytelling. The "real world" includes hallucinations from Sunny's point of view, such as characters from the dream world that disappear when interacted with, or hallucinations tied to past trauma. It is often hard to tell what is real and what is fake.
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
10
No
0
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
10
No
0
TV Show • 2016 Report
Yes
10
No
0
TV Show • 2005 Report
Yes
9
No
2
3
andyping24
S2
E2
The protagonist wakes up in an alternate reality and can't decide if it's real. Sensations from reality like dead bodies randomly appear and cause jumpscares. The characters in the other reality admit they aren't real. The protagonist kills himself hoping his death won't be real and it will bring him back to reality. The audience doesn't know which is reality during the episode or whether suicide will just kill the protagonist.
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
9
No
6
3
mad_melody
Technically? It's very mild to me though, as my easily triggered depersonalization-derealization was NOT triggered by this movie. Here's some potential issues: (1) Multiple references to Gamora not remembering the Guardians, due to her being from the past (retrieved during Avengers: Endgame). Alt timelines etc. aren't discussed, aside from Gamora insisting she's "not her" (i.e., the deceased Gamora from the recent past). (2) Many flashbacks to Rocket's traumatic past. However, it's always very clear what is/isn't a flashback, as present-day Rocket is comatose. (3) Some animals have their "evolution accelerated" into humanoids with a device on screen, but it's more like instant mutation. (4) A planet is destroyed, but that's not "unstable reality."
TV Show Report
Yes
9
No
1
2
UnagioLucio
S1
E1
Not in general, but Jinx in particular is shown hallucinating and seeing or hearing people she knows who aren't there.
Movie • 2023 Report
Yes
9
No
0