surreal imagery

Surreal imagery refers to dreamlike, bizarre, or fantastically distorted visual elements—whether in art, film, literature, or imagination.

The term derives from surrealism, the artistic movement that sought to bypass rational thought and tap the unconscious.

Surreal imagery juxtaposes the familiar with the impossible: melting clocks, floating objects, impossible architecture.

The film was full of surreal imagery—a man walking through walls, fish swimming through the sky.