Year: 1999
Runtime: 111 min
Language: English
Budget: $24M
A group of friends in Scotland experience the spectrum of life, from expulsion from their football team to bizarre encounters in local pubs. The story follows Boab as he struggles with personal turmoil, Nice Guy Johnny through a disastrous marriage, and Coco during a profoundly altered state induced by an acid trip. The film offers a darkly comedic and unsettling portrayal of their intertwined lives.
Get a spoiler-free look at The Acid House (1999) with a clear plot overview that covers the setting, main characters, and story premise—without revealing key twists or the ending. Perfect for deciding if this film is your next watch.
In the gritty, rain‑slick streets of modern Scotland, a tight‑knit group of friends drifts through a world where everyday banality collides with the absurd. The film unfolds in a series of interwoven vignettes that blend dark comedy with an unsettling surrealism, painting a portrait of lives that feel both ordinary and oddly out‑of‑place. Pubs serve as informal stages, alleys echo with whispered discontent, and the ordinary routine of work, sport, and family becomes a canvas for the bizarre.
Boab is a self‑described slacker whose day has already gone downhill before it truly begins. Recently ejected from his family home, benched by his football team and left jobless, he wanders the city’s underbelly in a haze of frustration. A chance encounter with a brash stranger who claims divine authority sets the tone for his uneasy journey, hinting at a transformation that forces him to confront the world from a radically altered perspective.
Johnny is the quiet, well‑meaning member of the trio, caught in a marriage that feels more like a trap than a partnership. His wife, a part‑time prostitute, and an intrusive new neighbour weave a web of manipulation that leaves him caring for their infant daughter while grappling with his own sense of agency. The domestic sphere becomes a pressure cooker of expectation and exploitation, revealing how gentle resolve can be strained to its breaking point.
Coco lives for the night‑time pulse of raves, chasing euphoria on the dance floor. One fateful evening, a potent dose of acid shatters the boundary between his heightened senses and reality itself, ushering him into a bewildering state where identity and perception intertwine. The experience hints at a surreal shift that blurs the line between his consciousness and an entirely different existence, underscoring the film’s fascination with altered states and the unpredictable consequences that follow.
Last Updated: August 10, 2025 at 12:52
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Stories where gritty reality is twisted by psychedelic or supernatural forces.If you liked the bizarre, gritty transformations in The Acid House, explore these movies. This thread gathers films where ordinary lives in urban settings are invaded by surreal horror, dark fantasy, and caustic humor, creating a uniquely unsettling experience.
Narratives often follow a downward spiral, where a character's mundane problems escalate into surreal punishments or cosmic intrusions. The structure can be episodic or linear, but the core is a jarring collision between harsh reality and absurd fantasy.
These films are grouped by their shared mood of existential dread and their use of bizarre, often body-focused, imagery to explore themes of identity, punishment, and societal decay within a gritty urban context.
Interwoven tales of personal failure, moral collapse, and unresolved despair.For viewers who appreciated the three grim stories in The Acid House, this thread features similar anthology movies. Discover films with multiple, tonally-linked narratives that explore relationship decay, substance abuse, and identity crises with a heavy, mixed emotional conclusion.
Stories unfold as separate vignettes, sometimes loosely connected by setting or theme, each detailing a character's slow or sudden descent into turmoil. The overall structure is complex, requiring viewers to piece together a unified, pessimistic view of the world.
They share a complex, multi-stranded structure, a dark tone, and a heavy emotional weight focused on human weakness. The pacing is often variable between stories, leading to a mixed, generally bleak, ending feel.
Don't stop at just watching — explore The Acid House in full detail. From the complete plot summary and scene-by-scene timeline to character breakdowns, thematic analysis, and a deep dive into the ending — every page helps you truly understand what The Acid House is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.
Read a complete plot summary of The Acid House, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.
Track the full timeline of The Acid House with every major event arranged chronologically. Perfect for decoding non-linear storytelling, flashbacks, or parallel narratives with a clear scene-by-scene breakdown.
Discover the characters, locations, and core themes that shape The Acid House. Get insights into symbolic elements, setting significance, and deeper narrative meaning — ideal for thematic analysis and movie breakdowns.
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