When psychedelic drugs first began making major inroads into American society in the 1960s, it seemed like they had the potential to alter the course of history, simply by introducing those who partake to a radical shift in perspective.
In 1966, Harvard psychologist-turned-drug guru Timothy Leary famously coined the phrase, “Tune in, turn on, drop out” and managed to capture the countercultural zeitgeist of the era in just six words.
Luminaries who’ve claimed to owe their success, at least in part, to the eye-opening effects of acid range from late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who called taking LSD “one of the most important things in my life,” to none other than the Mistress of the Dark herself, Cassandra Peterson.
In her memoir Yours Cruelly, Elvira, she muses that without her youthful acid trips, she might have taken a very different path in life.
In recent years, some of the societal stigma of psychedelics has fallen away, and the scientific and psychological communities are reappraising the drug’s potential for treating a host of mental illnesses, from schizophrenia to depression.
But when used recreationally—or, even worse, maliciously—these powerful substances still have the capacity to create that most heinous of pharmaceutical experiences: A bad trip.
Of course, in the right hands, bad trips can make for some great horror.
Whether it’s LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, or a completely fictional drug, horror movies offer no shortage of ways to melt fragile minds. Here are some of the best bad trips committed to film.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
This aggressively groovy Russ Meyer tale of an all-girl band that moves to LA to make it big was written by the late movie critic Roger Ebert, who seemed to have a great time filling the screen with scene after scene of Fellini-esque parties populated by outrageously clothed hedonists who spout iconic lines like, “This is my happening, and it freaks me out!”
Much like the ‘60s themselves, it’s all sexy, druggy fun — until it isn’t: The movie culminates with an acid party at a seaside mansion that rapidly devolves into a Manson Family-esque murder scene.
Blue Sunshine (1977)
Also set in LA, this surreal, disturbing movie is about a series of seemingly random murders with one surprising link.
All of the bald perpetrators dropped the same type of acid—the titular Blue Sunshine—back in college. Years later, they’re turned into homicidal maniacs in the worst kind of drug flashback imaginable.
Altered States (1980)
Directed by Ken Russell, who was notorious for incorporating psychedelic imagery into many of his movies (including controversial religious horror The Devils and flamboyantly bizarre Bram Stoker adaptation The Lair of the White Worm), this film follows a researcher who makes himself the subject of an experiment in which he ingests various mind-altering substances while floating in a sensory deprivation tank.
Will he uncover the sacred origins of humanity, or lose touch with reality altogether?
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
Before George A. Romero popularized the shuffling undead hordes we’ve come to know and love, zombies were essentially living victims of mind control created through a combination of voodoo ritual and psychotropic substances.
Wes Craven returns the zombie subgenre to its roots with this tale of a university researcher (Bill Pullman) who finds himself in over his head—quite literally—while studying Vodou practices in Haiti.
A Field in England (2013)
Filmed in black-and-white and set during the English Civil War, this intriguing period piece follows a disparate group of deserters who inadvertently consume psychedelic mushrooms they discover while foraging for food in a field.
Terror, paranoia, and murder ensue, proving that accidental trips in an active war zone are never a good idea.
Mandy (2018)
This movie has it all: Romance, action, horror, revenge, Nicolas Cage at his absolute cagiest, and oh, so many substances.
When Cage’s beloved wife Mandy is murdered by an acid-dropping biker cult, he downs an entire bottle of vodka, consumes every drug he comes across, and sets out to murder each and every one of the cult members in the bloodiest, trippiest, most violent ways imaginable.
Beautiful, brutal, and oddly sweet.
Climax (2018)
A group of dancers is holed up in an abandoned school on a snowy winter’s night to rehearse when suddenly it becomes clear that the punch they’re drinking has been spiked—and by something much stronger than mere booze.
Director provocateur Gaspar Noé (Irréversible, Enter the Void) follows the dancers as they freak out and unravel over the course of the night, using a series of ultra-long takes and entirely improvised dialogue.
Midsommar (2019)
Director Ari Aster loves to film a traumatic experience, and what could be more traumatic than taking hallucinogenic mushrooms in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language with a boyfriend who you don’t exactly trust shortly after the sudden deaths of your entire family from your sister’s self-inflicted carbon monoxide poisoning? Whew.
And that’s just the start of the Scandinavian suffering inflicted on poor Florence Pugh’s Dani once she sets foot in the bucolic splendor of rural Sweden.
Featured Still From “Mandy” via RLJE Films
