Underrated Movies Where It's Best Going In Blind

What You Need To Know [Non-Spoilers]: Dark City is a 1998 neo-noir science fiction film starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jennifer Connelly. It is directed by Alex Proyas and is centered around John Murdoch (Sewell), a man who awakens in a hotel room with a dead woman, but he has no idea who he is and how he got there. He must go on a quest of literal self-discovery as he seeks to learn his true identity while unraveling the mystery of the Strangers who have taken a keen interest in him.

Why Viewers Should Go In Blind [Spoilers]: Dark City is an analysis of the self, as it seeks to determine whether or not a person can be considered good or evil based on their memories. The plot unfolds as it reveals a mystery involving the Strangers and a doctor (Sutherland) who aids them in their quest to find the truth of humanity and the nature of individuality. The Strangers are aliens who possess a hive mind and hope to implant their memories into a human capable of accepting them. They believe John is the culmination of their experiment's efforts. The biggest reveal comes when the titular dark city is revealed to be a spacecraft surrounded by a force field. Any hints of the Strangers' true nature or that of the city would spoil this whole film. When you go in blind to watch Dark City,  you get to experience the same things the main character does. The audience accompanies John on his quest to find himself, and any prior knowledge would ruin that for the viewer.

What You Need To Know [Non-Spoilers]: Memento is a 2000 neo-noir mystery thriller starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. It is written and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film follows Leonard (Pearce) as he works to track down the man who assaulted and killed his wife.

Why Viewers Should Go In Blind [Spoilers]: If you approach Memento thinking it's a mystery about a man looking for his wife's killer, you're only partially correct because the film isn't linear at all. Leonard suffers from an incredibly rare form of anterograde amnesia, which significantly diminishes his short-term memory and the ability to form new memories. Because of this, he must use a system of Polaroids and tattoos to keep track of the information he cannot recall. This is presented uniquely, as the story is told in two sequences: one in black-and-white that is told chronologically, and the other in color, showing sequences in reverse. They finally meet at the film's end, forming a cohesive yet nonlinear story. It's a brilliant feat of cinematography that few besides Nolan could ever hope to achieve. The last thing you would want to do before watching it is hear anything about the plot or the story mechanics, as that would ruin everything the film attempts to do.

What You Need To Know [Non-Spoilers]: Moon is a 2009 science fiction film starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey. The film is the directorial debut of Duncan Jones, and it centers around Sam Bell (Rockwell) as he works as the only person mining helium-3 on the moon. Because the work is largely automated, Sam's three-year contract has him all by himself with nothing but his robot companion, GERTY (Spacey), to keep him company.

Why Viewers Should Go In Blind [Spoilers]: When Sam crashes his lunar rover into a helium harvester, he falls unconscious. He awakens with no memory of the accident, but before long, he finds another Sam inside a harvester who turns out to be the first Sam, and the newly awakened one is a clone. Moon is a fascinating study of the morality and ethics of big businesses and cloning because the big reveal is that Sam is a clone. Not only is he a clone, but he only lives for three years before he's replaced by another Sam who has the same implanted memories and no idea he's a clone. Learning this fact before seeing the movie ruins the big reveal. While you can still watch Moon after learning Sam's true nature, you lose out on the revelation, which is a big part of what makes this movie special.

What You Need To Know [Non-Spoilers]: The Game is a 1997 thriller starring Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, and Deborah Kara Unger. It is directed by David Fincher and centers around Nicholas van Orton (Douglas), a wealthy investment banker who receives a mysterious gift from his brother Conrad (Penn).

Why Viewers Should Go In Blind [Spoilers]: In many ways, The Game is exactly what it portends to be: a game. When Nicholas accepts the strange gift from his brother, he begins a journey that systematically dismantles his life. This leads him to hell and back again as he learns he can't trust anyone and his money is depleted, leaving him with nothing. In the end, he mistakenly shoots Conrad and leaps to his demise… only, he doesn't. He lands on a large cushion and is greeted by Conrad, who, along with everyone else, reveals that the whole thing was, in fact, a game all along. The goal was to help Nicholas become a better person, and in many ways, it works. While The Game turns out to be precisely that, it's best to go in blind because, like Nicholas, the viewer forgets that aspect of the film as they go on the same adventure as the protagonist; not knowing who he can trust or if he'll recover right up to the point everything is revealed. If you know that going in, it spoils all of the action and the thrilling nature of the movie.

What You Need To Know [Non-Spoilers]: The Cabin in the Woods is a 2011 horror comedy starring Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchinson, Jesse Williams, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford. The Cabin in the Woods is directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut. The film centers around a group of college friends who vacation in a remote cabin in the woods, but they're not prepared for the horrors that await them in their picturesque destination.

Why Viewers Should Go In Blind [Spoilers]: Most people watching this movie blind probably think they're seeing a standard-issue horror movie involving a bunch of promiscuous college kids, and they'd be right. Of course, the big reveal is that the cabin is the instrument by which an unnamed group of people manipulates events by inflicting all manner of horror movie monsters on their unsuspecting victims. It's not all fun and games because the whole thing is an intricate ritual meant to save humanity from a group of subterranean gods known as the Ancient Ones. If you know this going in, the movie isn't entirely ruined, but you miss out on the whole point of the operation, which isn't revealed all at once. You have to work your way through the film alongside the protagonists to understand what's going on, and that would cheapen the experience.

What You Need To Know [Non-Spoilers]: Shutter Island is a 2010 neo-noir psychological horror film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, and Michelle Williams. It is directed by Martin Scorsese and is centered around Deputy US Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels (DiCaprio) as he investigates the escape of a killer at Ashecliffe Hospital, a remote asylum.

Why Viewers Should Go In Blind [Spoilers]: The film is centered around Teddy, who arrives with his new partner on the island to determine what happened to a woman who was committed after killing her three children. As his investigation intensifies, he begins to experience headaches and tremors, which begin to stress him to the point of becoming paranoid. He later learns that the hospital is lobotomizing patients to turn them into psychotic beings capable of carrying out all manner of atrocities. When he finally confronts the lead psychiatrist, Dr. Cawley, he's informed that he is, in fact, a patient - the most dangerous patient at the facility. He murdered his wife after she took the lives of their three children and was taken to the hospital for treatment. Ultimately, Teddy, whose real name is Andrew Laeddis, is overwhelmed by a flood of memories and faints, only to awaken in the hospital as himself. The end of the film is somewhat ambiguous, depending on who you ask. Andrew is taken for a lobotomy after showing signs of regression, but this can be interpreted in two ways: He really did regress, or he chose to be lobotomized so he wouldn't have to live with the truth of what happened to him and what he did. Regardless of the viewer's takeaway, going in blind is the best way to handle Shutter Island since it plays out as a mystery/thriller that leaves the audience guessing throughout the entire film.