10 Worst Thriller Movies That Tried to Be Lynchian

David Lynch is a director known for powerful imagery, surrealism, and dreamlike sequences in his thrilling films. With films like Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive and his foray into TV with the cult classic Twin Peaks, he has made a name for himself as a pivotal American director. It is no wonder that he is an inspiration to many filmmakers who try to copy Lynch’s style with Lynchian thrillers. It should be even less of a surprise that many of those Lynchian attempts fail.

The attempts at Lynchian thrillers can be applauded, but many of them fail disastrously for a variety of reasons. The following films tried to be Lynchian and fails either at the box office or with the basic script or execution or all of the above. Here are films that attempted to be Lynchian and failed.

10 ‘Only God Forgives’ (2013)

By Nicolas Winding Refn

This 2013 film by director Nicolas Winding Refn stars Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas as a followup to his film Drive. Only God Forgives has clear Lynchian plot twists while also being explicitly dedicated to surrealist South American director Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film takes place in Thailand where a drug trafficker played by Gosling is sent on a mission by his mother (Thomas) to avenge his older brother’s death after the older brother was killed for beating an underage sex worker to death. The plot doesn’t exactly go down smoothly – and neither did the execution.

The film had a notoriously confusing response at the Cannes Film Festival. It was booed by the audience at Cannes while also receiving a standing ovation. Some critics gave it one star, while others gave it five stars. A notable review comes from Bill Gibron in PopMatters where he wrote, “David Lynch must be laughing. If he had created something like Only God Forgives, substituting his own quirky casting for the rather staid choices made by actual director Nicolas Winding Refn, he would have walked away from Cannes 2013 with yet another Palm d’Or…”

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9 ‘Gothika’ (2003)

Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz

Gothika is a classic thriller in which Halle Berry plays a therapist who gets into a car accident after swerving off the road to avoid hitting a young woman. When she wakes up to find herself an inmate at an asylum where she learns her husband has been brutally murdered, and she is the main suspect. She is haunted by visions of the woman she swerved not to hit as she attempts to escape and put together what happened to her husband.

Gothika only has a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. While it received many negative reviews, Roger Ebert did review it rather positively. He admitted that the plot was “preposterous”, but that he enjoyed Berry’s vulnerable performance and accepted the film on its own terms. Halle Berry even won the MTV Movie Award for Best Actress in Gothika, validating Ebert’s review.

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8 ‘Dark Crimes’ (2018)

Directed Alexandros Avranas

Jim Carrey had a moment in his career when he was tackling thrillers and hard-hitting dramas. Unfortunately, not all of them panned out. Dark Crimes stars Jim Carrey as a detective who is suspicious of an author whose novel has a lot of similarities to an unsolved murder. The film was highly anticipated as it was based on a popular article in The New Yorker, and it had a fantastic team behind it. So what went wrong?

The film has a 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Most reviewers noted that the film was too dreary to enjoy. The bleak thriller was gloomy from start to finish, essentially depressing audiences rather than keeping them on the edge of their seats for the film’s twists and turns. That being said, some critics praised Carrey’s performance as the only watchable factor in the film. Carrey is an undeniably good actor, even in a film that requires him to deliver the polar opposite of his comedic performances.

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7 ‘Boxing Helena’ (1993)

Directed by Jennifer Lynch

It can be too easy to say that a Lynchian thriller directed by another Lynch tried to be Lynchian, but the shocking twists and turns in Jennifer Lynch’s Boxing Helena fall in line with those in her father’s movies. Boxing Helena is a body horror nightmare starring Sherilynn Fenn as the object of desire for an obsessive man played by Julian Sands. She belittles him, so Sands’ character decides to make her rely on him by chopping off her limbs. Shocking, but the film gets stranger from there.

Unfortunately, Boxing Helena was maligned prior to its release. Due to the legendary behind-the-scenes drama that leaked before the film was even in production, expectations for the film were very low. While critics and the public were very harsh to Boxing Helena, the final act of the film remains controversial.

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6 ‘Number 23’ (2007)

Directed Joel Schumacher

Jim Carrey’s method acting was explored to a terrifying degree in the thriller The Number 23 which showcased the comedic actor’s intense side. Joel Schumacher directed this dark film in which a man becomes obsessed with a numerology book exploring the meaning of the number 23. He sees coincidences in the book to his life and unraveling those coincidences unravels his life. This was the pair’s third time working together, but it was different from their Batman films – and differently received.

The film was a financial hit at the box office, but it received negative reviews from critics, who generally called the film confusing. Critics panned the film, and it is not warmly remembered by modern audiences. Carrey remains proud of the film. He said, “I was able to explore the darker edges of my personality, which really was a blast and something different for me.”

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5 ‘Lost River’

Directed by Ryan Gosling

2014’s Lost River saw acclaimed actor Ryan Gosling’s debut as a director. This fantastical thriller is very clearly Lynchian with a seedy plot and surrealist fantasy elements. The film takes place in a deserted city filled with crime where a mother struggles to raise her sons. One of her sons discovers a road that leads him to a secret town underwater. Gosling wrote and directed the film.

It is a visually gorgeous movie, but it reviews remain divided. That being said, the negative reviews are extremely harsh. The Sunday Times called the film “a lurid mash-up of Lynch, Refn, and Edward Hopper. In a bad way” and The Telegraph brutally stated that Gosling “confuses ‘making film’ with assembling Tumblr of David Lynch and Mario Bava gifs.” While that review is scathing, the film did find positive reviews abroad. Over time, film critics appreciated it as an homage to Lynch and Refn.

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4 ‘You Should Have Left’ (2020)

Directed by David Koepp

The plot of You Should Have Left follows a couple who take their daughter on a trip to rural Wales for a vacation, but several scary things start taking place, and it appears that the house’s dark past is coming to haunt them. The house is tormenting the new inhabitants for their past sins. This psychological horror film stars Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried as the couple and was written and directed by David Koepp, based on a novella by the same name. While there was a great deal of interest in the film before its release, it received mixed reviews and poor VOD sales.

The film struggled with its 2020 release due to COVID-19, but critics were not in love with the film, which ultimately centered on the house itself punishing anyone who walks inside. Some critics felt that it ripped off the book House of Leaves as well as Lynch’s dark quirkiness.

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3 ‘Basic Instinct 2’ (2006)

Directed by Michael Caton-Jones

Basic Instinct is one of the most famous and exciting erotic thrillers ever made. Basic Instinct 2 had a lot to live up with, especially considering the sequel was made over a decade after the original. Like the original, Basic Instinct 2 brings back Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), who sees a psychiatrist after drugs are found in her car. The psychiatrist (David Morrissey) suspects that she’s dangerous, especially when discovering her novels detail graphic murders. True to Basic Instinct form, he investigates her while also having a sexual relationship with her.

Sex, mystery, murder, and evocative actresses have all the markings of a Lynchian thriller, but Basic Instinct 2 misses the mark. It was a box office failure and was nominated for several Razzies, but the actors were proud of their work. David Morrissey said, “I thought it was a great script. I know it didn’t turn out to be the greatest film in the world, but I’ve never regretted any job I’ve gone into.”

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2 ‘I Know Who Killed Me’ (2007)

Directed by Chris Siverton

2000s Lindsay Lohan saw the squeaky clean Disney actor showing off her edgy side and taking adult roles, like her role in the 2007 thriller I Know Who Killed Me. Lindsay plays a woman who was kidnapped. She returns, but she claims to be someone else. This film has multiple plot twists and requires Lohan to play two distinct characters that are both a far cry from her iconic Mean Girls performance.

While traditional reviewers hated the film, horror critics raved about the visual style of the movie. Both Fangoria and Bloody Disgusting praised the movie as stylish and suggested that Lohan’s tabloid antics may have overshadowed people’s reception of the film at that time. Ty Burr of The Boston Globe even compared the movie to De Palm and Lynch. It has since become a cult classic as a so-bad-it’s-good midnight movie.

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1 The Neon Demon (2016)

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

The 2016 thriller The Neon Demon stars Elle Fanning as a model in Los Angeles whose beauty causes a stir in the fashion elite. This breathtaking film reveals more sinister motives beneath the surface of the modeling world, leading to disgusting twists and images that border on body horror.

The Neon Demon is another film by director Nicolas Winding Refn with such divided opinions that it was booed at the Cannes Film Festival while also receiving a standing ovation. The extremely stylish movie has been accused of being more style than substance. Variety’s Owen Glieberman likened it to Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me while also calling it a gross-out surrealist horror. It is clear that Lynch is an influence on Refn, but Refn also has a controversially glossy style all his own.

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