Watch something that makes you feel like you're not working hard enough. In a good way.
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
During an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
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.
Something to watch when sleep won't cooperate.
Henry Frankenstein pieces together body parts in the hope of bringing a human-like creature to life. The mad scientist's dreams are shattered by his monstrous creation awakening with rage to a world that hates and fears him.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax accepts a job at a New York law firm. With the stakes getting higher every case, Kevin quickly learns that his boss has something far more evil planned.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
While working on a thesis about audiovisual violence, film student Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that she was a former student in her university, and that the authors of the video are not very far either.
It shows what sustained effort looks like without making it feel impossible. That sticks.
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
This one ends and you immediately think about something you've been putting off.
Some films earn their effect. These do.