I was rewatching some Xavier yesterday to keep out the dread and also because I like it. I like how many silly details there are. I like that an x-ray in S1E3 Weapons Grade Life is just the Mona Lisa's face. I really liked that a gag in S1E5 Pet Siouxicide where they treat injecting Native American blood into yourself as heroin-like has a joke where Xavier tells the injector/ee "Who taught you to do that?" and he responds with "You! Okay! I learned it from watching you!" has a double meaning of just being a dumb joke and also a thing about how Xavier appropriates from Native American cultures 24/7.
I feel like repetition is a really great thing in films for building a sense of dread and confusion and one that doesn't seem to be used too much. When I think of repetition in films, I mainly think of Perfect Blue and Jeanne Dielman. Perfect Blue's reuse of animation really gets you into Mima's headspace of not knowing what's real. Jeanne Dielman might stand out more as it's probably not intended to be a psychological thriller, but the repeated shots of practically the same exact space from nearly the same angle creates a feeling that something must be off. Is the camera in a different place? Have things been moved around? Is it exactly the same? Perfectly static? An hour into Jeanne Dielman, I was enraptured. It's so great. I also think of Straight Outta Compton. Towards the end, a character repeats himself in a way that feels like the same take was used twice in the edit. It really threw me off and it seems like it threw off other people too. I just think all out repetition can be really cool.