15 Finest Motion pictures Like Parasite

One of the crucial extensively acclaimed motion pictures of the previous decade was 2019’s “Parasite,” which grew to become the primary non-English language movie to win the Academy Award for Finest Image. Directed and co-written by South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, the film featured a financially struggling household getting greater than they cut price for once they infiltrate a wealthy household’s residence. Mixing darkish humor with thriller motion and themes of more and more divided social lessons, “Parasite” opened Korean cinema to bigger audiences. And for these left on the sting of their seats hoping for extra, there are many intense motion pictures, each from Korea and past, to maintain the thrills coming.

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Lengthy earlier than “Parasite,” Korea has steadily delivered a number of the finest thrillers in international leisure, each for cinema and tv. However to be clear, this listing is not solely comprised of South Korean thrillers, however they do determine prominently right here. As an alternative, these are darkish thrillers, usually with a give attention to household, and crammed with loads of twists and turns to maintain audiences on their toes. Listed here are the 15 finest motion pictures like “Parasite” that everybody ought to watch.

One of the crucial foundational motion pictures within the historical past of Korean cinema, 1960’s “The Housemaid” is a cautionary story written, produced, and directed by Kim Ki-young. The film follows a rich household headed by Kim Dong-sik (Kim Jin-kyu), who lives along with his pregnant spouse and two kids. As his spouse’s being pregnant progresses, Dong-sik hires Myung-sook (Lee Eun-shim) as a housemaid to assist round his residence. Nonetheless, Myung-sook regularly manipulates the household, particularly Dong-sik, successfully destroying it throughout her stick with the Kims.

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For 1960, it is fairly shocking what “The Housemaid” exhibits on-screen, together with the sexually twisted lengths Myung-sook inflicts on the Kims. The story shortly grows extra disturbing because it advances, which solely makes it extra of an engrossing watch. Kim Ki-young revisited this story in his 1971 remake “Lady of Fireplace,” and “The Housemaid” was remade once more in 2010, however the authentic nonetheless packs a wallop. Effectively price looking for out over 60 years since its preliminary launch, “The Housemaid” is a morality play concerning the risks of familial outsiders that is nonetheless simply as haunting at present.

Years earlier than bringing darkly humorous postmodernism to slasher motion pictures with “Scream,” filmmaker Wes Craven wrote and directed the 1991 horror comedy “The Folks Underneath the Stairs.” Skewering Los Angeles gentrifiers, the film has Idiot Williams (Brandon Adams) break into the home of merciless landlords, the Robesons, to acquire cash for his mom’s medical remedy. Inside, Idiot finds that the Robesons maintain a bunch of impoverished kidnaped kids of their basement who’ve reverted to cannibalism to remain alive. With the Robesons now looking him, Idiot searches for a option to escape their residence and expose them for the evil they really are, if he can survive the night time.

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At first look, the opening premise to “The Folks Underneath the Stairs” is sort of much like “Parasite,” however shortly pivots to a extra horrific course. A response to Reaganism and the resurgence of American political conservatism within the ’80s, the film is Craven at his most overtly satirical. And in true trend to Craven’s different work, this flick is as bloody as all get out, punctuating its pitch-black humor. Arguably the most underrated Craven movie, “The Folks Underneath the Stairs” is a gory good time.

The trendy American filmmaker maybe most readily related to and praised for his or her work within the thriller style is David Fincher, by means of hits like “Zodiac” and “Se7en.” Fincher’s 2002 film “Panic Room” is a literal locked room thriller, with single mom Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) transferring right into a Manhattan brownstone. This residence incorporates a sealed panic room, which shortly proves helpful when the home is damaged into by three males decided to steal bearer bonds left by the earlier proprietor. What follows is a cat-and-mouse sport because the burglars attempt to drive Meg and Sarah out, whereas Meg tries to acquire life-saving medicine for her daughter on the surface.

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In comparison with most of Fincher’s work, “Panic Room” is tightly targeted and claustrophobic, taking part in out virtually fully from throughout the Altman’s residence. This taut pacing and darkened setting is true within Fincher’s meticulously ready wheelhouse, sustaining a gradual sense of suspense. Grounding the entire continuing is a assured efficiency from Foster, protecting the film from leaping the scare, particularly in its extra action-heavy second half. An underrated entry in Fincher’s intensive filmography, “Panic Room” is a riveting watch from starting to finish.

Bong Joon Ho’s second characteristic movie ever was 2003’s “Recollections of Homicide,” loosely primarily based on the Hwaseong Murders within the ’80s and ’90s, South Korea’s first documented serial killer case. The film has a small city rocked by the grisly homicide of two ladies in 1986, with native police detective Park Doo-man (Music Kang-ho) investigating the case. After teaming up along with his city-based counterpart Web optimization Tae-yoon (Kim Sang-kyung), Park’s investigation begins to include extra trendy forensic strategies to establish the killer. Nonetheless, regardless of their finest efforts, they’re unable to cease the assassin, whilst they turn into extra obsessive about the case.

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Over 20 years later, “Recollections of Homicide” stays considered one of Bong Joon Ho’s best movies and the beginning of his fruitful artistic partnership with future “Parasite” star Music Kang-ho. In distinction to many crime procedurals, the central investigation on this film is messy and chaotic, not well-ordered and methodically explored. To unravel the case, morality is definitely discarded and private emotions usually get in the way in which, making its melancholy coda all of the extra bitter. Moodily realized, “Recollections of Homicide” is a haunting story providing a recent perspective on acquainted crime thriller tropes.

One other main voice within the South Korean movie trade is Park Chan-wook, who helped the nation’s cinematic oeuvre achieve worldwide recognition along with his 2003 film “Oldboy.” Loosely adapting the Japanese manga of the identical identify, the story has mild-mannered businessman Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) kidnaped by a shadowy determine. Immediately launched after 15 years of captivity, Dae-su searches for the person who utterly ruined his life. As Dae-su delves deeper into the darkish and violent legal underworld, he grows near a younger sushi chef Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung).

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“Oldboy” is the centerpiece of Park Chan-wook’s thematic trilogy targeted on the idea of vengeance, and it is considered one of the perfect revenge motion pictures of the twenty first century. Mercilessly vicious, this lurid story will maintain audiences guessing how the story will unfold proper until its closing scene, with no punches pulled in its graphic violence and twisted stakes. The film gained abroad recognition by means of a number of high-profile People, together with Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino, serving to usher Korean cinema to wider audiences. Tautly delivered, protecting the humanist core in sight amidst all of its grueling motion, “Oldboy” holds up as one of many best Korean motion pictures ever made.

The thematic companion piece to Bong Joon Ho’s earlier work “Recollections of Homicide,” 2009’s “Mom” includes one other small city homicide thriller in South Korea. The film facilities on an overprotective single mom (Kim Hye-ja), who cares for her intellectually challenged son Yoon Do-joon (Received Bin). After Do-joon is implicated within the homicide of an area younger lady, the unnamed mom goes by means of extraordinary lengths to clear her son’s identify. Although initially satisfied Do-joon is harmless, the mom regularly discovers her son’s deadly culpability might certainly be behind the killing.

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Bong Joon Ho crafts a gripping homicide thriller and searing household drama, with shades of his normal darkish humorousness, unexpectedly with “Mom.” Kim Hye-ja beautifully carries a lot of the film’s emotional content material, because the more and more determined mom decided to avoid wasting her son in any respect prices. However actually, Bong Joon Ho is crafting a narrative about how violently folks can reject the reality, even when it is offered clearly in entrance of them. One other standout movie from Korea, “Mom” is the sort of intimate crime thriller that the nation’s cinema is understood for.

Novelist Gillian Flynn teamed up with David Fincher to adapt her 2012 novel “Gone Lady” right into a gripping psychological thriller of the identical identify. The 2014 adaptation has unhappily married Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) turn into the middle of a media frenzy when his semi-famous spouse Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) abruptly disappears. That is juxtaposed with Amy’s journal detailing the historical past of their relationship earlier than uncovering what truly occurred to her. And because it turns into clear that Amy has her personal machinations in getting again at Nick, the marital strife finally takes a grotesque flip.

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From its scathing critique of the media to its sudden pivot into decidedly extra suspenseful thriller territory, Fincher and Flynn show to be a robust collaborative pairing for “Gone Lady.” The film units its gloomy environment in its first half earlier than unveiling its true stakes in its again half. Anchoring the entire thing is Rosamund Pike, delivering among the finest villainous performances cinema has seen in years. Melancholic earlier than remodeling right into a dwelling nightmare by its ending, “Gone Lady” is Fincher at his most successfully deliberate throughout the crime thriller style.

Whereas “The Handmaiden” might have an identical title to the basic Korean film “The Housemaid,” Park Chan-wook’s 2016 interval piece thriller tells a very completely different story. Loosely primarily based on the 2002 British novel “Fingersmith” by Sarah Waters, the film is about through the Japanese occupation of Korea within the early twentieth century. Con artist Depend Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo) plots to marry Girl Hideko (Kim Min-hee) for her cash after which have her dedicated to a psychiatric hospital. Nonetheless, Hideko has manipulative plans of her personal, full together with her personal secret lover and plan to flee her merciless Uncle Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong).

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A slick and trendy erotic thriller, “The Handmaiden” has gamers being performed in its fixed sport of calculating figures. The film is Park at his most intentionally sexual, although that sense of mortal peril remains to be current all through the story. And but, for all its interval piece trappings and life-or-death stakes, the film nonetheless finds loads of locations for its darkish humorousness. One other masterpiece from Park Chan-wook, “The Handmaiden” retains audiences guessing simply the place its story goes subsequent.

If there’s any modern American filmmaker that will get South Korean cinema’s tendency to combine comedy and suspense collectively so successfully it is Jordan Peele. Peele’s characteristic directorial debut, 2017’s “Get Out,” is a psychological horror following black protagonist Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) as he meets his white girlfriend’s mother and father for the primary time. Touring to her hometown in upstate New York, he finds your entire predominantly white neighborhood to be unusual. Nonetheless, as his weekend within the unsettling city continues, he uncovers the disturbing secret about what his girlfriend’s household and their neighbors are actually as much as.

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“Get Out” took the world by storm, each critically and commercially, incomes 4 Academy Award nominations, with Peele successful Finest Unique Screenplay. Peele infused his story with sharp social commentary and unsettling psychological horror, but in addition loads of improv comedy to maintain the film from changing into overly dour. All these years later, it is simple to take with no consideration how sharply written the film is and the way masterfully staged, particularly for an inaugural directorial mission. Popping out the gate swinging, “Get Out” promised nice issues from Jordan Peele, a promise he has greater than constantly delivered on.

Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos constantly makes provocative movies delving into the human situation by means of the theater of the absurd. His 2017 film “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” brings these distinct storytelling sensibilities to the realm of psychological horror, with out eschewing the deadpan comedy Lanthimos’ work is understood for. The film has coronary heart surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) confronted by a wierd younger man named Martin (Barry Keoghan), claiming that his father died throughout a process performed by Steven. Martin calls for that Steven kill a member of his household in retribution, or else unusual signs will eat all of them.

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Even earlier than Martin’s weird threats begin to come to fruition, there’s a basic feeling that one thing is amiss all through “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” Lanthimos phases his story like a foul dream that grows progressively extra nightmarish because it proceeds, culminating in its deadly ending. That is the sort of scary story that depends on existential dread and disturbing questions moderately than extra overt sources for terror. Unsettlingly mixing household drama with coldly medical detachment, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” is Lanthimos at his finest.

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda gives his personal commentary on how struggling households take care of the widening wealth divide in 2018’s “Shoplifters.” Dwelling in Tokyo, the Shibata household repeatedly resorts to shoplifting to get by, coordinating rigorously between themselves to keep away from consideration. A neighborhood woman, Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), is introduced into the Shibata family once they discover she is being abused by her mother and father. The Shibata’s adopted son, Shota (Kairi Jo), turns into more and more conflicted about his mother and father’ actions and the instance they’re setting for Yuri.

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Like “Parasite,” “Shoplifters” paints a portrait of a household on the monetary brink, however no much less loving and supportive of one another. Hirokazu Kore-eda is much less targeted on the humor of the household’s state of affairs, however moderately the humanist heat exuding from the Shibata household. Although the Shibatas’ actions turn into extra questionable because the film proceeds, their affection for one another remains to be seen. A stirring have a look at an unconventional household offering a singular have a look at life in Tokyo, “Shoplifters” is richly realized and superbly instructed.

Rising from an eight-year hiatus from filmmaking, South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong returned with the 2018 psychological thriller “Burning.” The film begins with aspiring author Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) reconnecting along with his childhood buddy Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo) in Seoul. After a trip in Kenya, Hae-mi returns with a mysterious rich man named Ben (Steven Yeun). The trio spend time collectively at Jong-su’s household farm within the nation, when it turns into clear that Ben is concealing disturbing habits.

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All the primary characters in “Burning” are sad and unsettling in their very own means, making an eventual confrontation one thing of a bloody certainty. To pardon the pun, the film is one thing of a simmering gradual burn, unveiling its true scope of its thriller in the direction of its ultimate act. One of many issues that makes this movie so efficient is it would not spell out its apparent solutions, letting audiences join the dots for themselves. Chilling and masterfully paced, “Burning” is a robust reminder why Lee Chang-dong is considered one of Korea’s finest filmmakers at present.

After popping out the gate with one of the imaginative horror motion pictures in years, filmmaker Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort was the 2019 residence invasion flick “Us.” The film follows protagonist Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) on a beachside trip together with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and two younger kids. This scenic journey is violently interrupted by sinister doppelgangers of every of the household, led by Adelaide’s double, Pink. Because the Wilson household tries to evade and defeat their duplicates, often known as the Tethered, it turns into clear that this harrowing confrontation shouldn’t be an remoted incident.

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In comparison with the extra existential and thematic scares in “Get Out,” Peele crafts a way more conventionally terrifying film in “Us.” The social commentary parts are nonetheless there, however that is Peele at his most bodily brutal, with the Tethered the creepiest antagonists he is launched but. Nyong’o provides a commanding twin efficiency as Adelaide and Pink, ushering in all the film’s surprising plot twists. One other triumph from Peele, cementing his place as America’s present premier horror filmmaker, “Us” has the profitable director actually take his gloves off.

The survivalist deconstruction of society’s elite is the topic of Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s 2022 film “Triangle of Disappointment.” The film follows movie star couple Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean) attend a luxurious cruise for social media clout. Issues go awry when the celebration’s yacht is hit by a extreme storm and a pirate raid, with the survivors stranded on a seemingly distant island. Left to their very own gadgets, the presumed hierarchy throughout the group disintegrates as they wrestle to outlive.

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“Triangle of Disappointment” is a sharply formed satire and considered one of Östlund’s tasks that’s the most accessible to observe. The film brings collectively a stellar ensemble solid, particularly Dolly de Leon because the ship’s cleansing lady Abigail. Whereas the social commentary could seem a bit on-the-nose, watching how this vapid celebration implodes on itself is a real deal with. Darkly hilarious, proper by means of its abrupt ending, “Triangle of Disappointment” is one other spot-on indictment of the laughably overprivileged.

Park Chan-wook is true in his artistic factor every time he leans into neo-noir and his 2022 prompt basic “Resolution to Go away” is distinguished proof of this. The film follows Busan police detective Jang Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) investigating the suspicious demise of an area retired immigration officer. The prime suspect in foul play is the lifeless man’s a lot youthful widow Music Web optimization-rae (Tang Wei), an emigrant from China. Regardless of the clear crimson flags, Hae-jun not solely believes Web optimization-rae’s claims of innocence, however finds himself obsessively intrigued by her, despite his personal marriage.

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Meditative, melancholy, and darkly humorous unexpectedly, “Resolution to Go away” is a romantic thriller that is hauntingly realized by Park Chan-wook. Jang Hae-jun, usually a methodical skilled, utterly loses himself in his curiosity for Web optimization-rae, whilst physique rely rises and his private life deteriorates. That makes the film the cinematic equal of watching a buddy fall right into a horrible relationship, drawn in deeper even because the warning indicators turn into extra apparent. Completely tragic, however with sufficient murdery thriller thrill and bittersweet laughs alongside the way in which, “Resolution to Go away” is one other Park Chan-wook masterclass in neo-noir.