With so many options on so many streaming services, it can feel impossible to land on something to watch during a cozy night in. If you’ve ever scrolled so long that you’ve given up, we get that. So, we’ve rounded up a list of five movies to watch while high so you can put the remote down, sit back and relax.
1. Pete’s Dragon (1977)
Disney has made some weird movies over the years but they’re all pretty endearing in their own ways. Pete’s Dragon fits the bill on that front. This movie is both live-action and traditionally animated, a technique Disney used off and on from the 1940s.
The star of the show is an orphan call Pete (naturally) who has escaped from his abusive foster family, the Gogans. Pete befriends Elliot, a green dragon with invisibility powers, and the pair set out together to find a new home. Two songs from the musical score were nominated for Academy Awards. Yes, we know it’s a kids’ movie and, yes, we know it sounds totally bizarre, but light up and give it a shot. You won’t be sorry. Oh, and yes, that is Kenickie from Grease.
2. Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Maybe you’re thinking, “1987? This is going to be trash.” Or maybe you’re making excuses like, “I haven’t seen the first Evil Dead—how is this going to make sense?” Just trust us. Get baked, sit back and appreciate a film that can still bring the gasps and laughs 35 years later.
It’s a seminal cult cabin-in-the-woods horror film filled with gory makeup, camera tricks, puppets and even some stop-motion animation. Plus, it comes from writer and director Sam Raimi, whose most recent project was the Marvel blockbuster Dr. Strange: Madness of the Multiverse (which, once you see Evil Dead 2, will be packed with new Easter eggs for you to find!).
3. The King of Kong: Fist Full of Quarters (2007)
Netflix has put out so many documentaries and docu-series over the last few years that have had us all yelling at screens and rolling our eyes so hard we’ve strained facial muscles (cough, The Tinder Swindler, cough, cough). This movie will fascinate and infuriate you in the same way, but it’s totally worth a watch—especially stoned. Learn more about it on Rotten Tomatoes.
Follow Steve Wiebe, an unemployed dad from Redmond, Washington, in his 2006 quest to break the Donkey Kong high score (agreed to be the hardest arcade game of all time). The previous high score was set in 1981 by Billy Mitchell, who is a villain on par with anyone in Tiger King. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you might even break some furniture in frustration.
4. This Movie Is Broken (2010)
It’s a romantic comedy and a concert flick rolled into one. Here’s the gist: Two life-long friends, Bruno and Caroline, finally hook up the day before she leaves for Paris. Bruno is convinced he can persuade Caroline to be his girlfriend before she takes off if he can just give her a night she’ll never forget. Cute.
But this movie is also a love letter to legendary jam band Broken Social Scene and to Toronto in the summer 2009 (when there was a city-wide garbage strike!). Watch it to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Broken Social Scene’s critically acclaimed album, You Forgot It in People—the music alone is enough to make this a great stoner watch. It will also remind you of the pre-COVID joy of going to concerts and singing along with your favorite bands. Actually, maybe hide your credit card because you might end up with random concert tickets otherwise.
5. Cats (2019)
Okay, hear us out: Cats is arguably one of the most successful Broadway shows of all time, running for nearly 20 years in New York and London. It’s weird and wonderful and totally nonsensical at times, but it’s an experience to be remembered.
And yet somehow, the movie version is considered one of the worst films of all time. So why are we telling you to watch it? Because the ensemble cast—Taylor Swift, Judi Dench, Rebel Wilson, Idris Elba, the list goes on—in full-on feline costume is mind-bogglingly entertaining, and because character names like Shimbleshanks and Rumpleteazer are that much funnier when you’re buzzed.
