Watch something that makes you feel like you're not working hard enough. In a good way.
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
A night at the movies turns terrifying when Michael and his date are attacked by zombies. Released at the height of Thriller's success, the short film redefined the music video, broke racial barriers, and became the first inducted into the U.S. National Film Registry.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
Ambition in film is most effective when it comes through character rather than message. These films show rather than tell.
Less obvious fit, but survival-driven stories carry their own kind of drive.
Good conversation-starter for a first date night in.
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
Some films earn their effect. These do.