Tired of seeing the same titles on every list of must-watch stoner flicks? Well you’re in luck, because there is a bold new generation of movies to watch when you are ripped to max, and below we round up five of the very best. Ranging from acid-fueled horror romps to utterly indescribable journeys into the human mind, all of these films are a ton of fun to watch while stoned.
Mandy
This ultra-unusual film directed by Panos Cosmatos really has it all. An LSD fueled cult, trippy animated segments, and an utterly amazing score, all topped off my one of Nic Cage’s most off-the-wall performances ever. It all adds up to a movie that can truly be a life-altering experience when watched under the influence. The fact that in just over the least year this film has become a bona fide cult classic only adds to the heap of reasons to watch this wild flick while stoned.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Before you write this off as some dated, boring old film, please hear me out. The critic Lloyd Steel once described this film “as if Audrey Beardsley had staged a vaudeville style orgy in an asylum” and he was not far off. To even describe this wildly singular movie written by Roger Ebert would be to detract from the sheer insanity of it, but suffice it to say the hallucinatory visuals alone — never mind the surreal plot — make this a definite must-see while high.
Spring Breakers
Some people love the neon-soaked dreamscape that is Harmony Korine’s 2012 Spring Breakers and some people decidedly hate it, but one thing is for certain: It makes a pretty compelling film to watch while smoking a fatty. While drug use is woven into this film, it is not a stoner comedy despite starring James Franco of Pineapple Express fame. Rather, Korine blends waking dreams and all-too-intense reality to create a film truly unlike any other.
Midsommar
I swear this list isn’t only about hallucinogen-loving cults, but if you are interested in a film that is incredibly beautiful, impossibly frightening, wildly trippy, and actually quite funny as well, you might want to give this 2019 gem a watch. While certainly not as scary as a standard horror, this film by Hereditary auteur Ari Aster makes up for any dearth in frights with its literal banquet of stunning visuals and truly must-see scene of love-making.
House (Hausu)
To even loosely describe the contents of this eye-popping masterwork of weirdness by director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, would stretch the boundaries of plausibility, but suffice it to say this film follows a group of schoolgirls visiting one of their aunts. Any great stoner movie should make you question the very nature of reality itself, and House does just that through an incomparable mix of art-house level elegance and pure unadulterated insanity, ranging from floating decapitated heads to a magical painting of a cat and much, much more.
