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Martyrs poster

Movies that feel likeMartyrs (2008)

A young woman’s quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tortured her as a child leads her and her best friend, also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.

If you loved Martyrs, the closest films we have are I Saw the Devil (2010), The Woman in Black (2012) and Revenge (2017). All three share Martyrs' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Kill List (2011).

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If Martyrs hit the spot, these will too

I Saw the Devil poster
I Saw the Devil
2010 · dir. Kim Jee-woon
🍅 83%★ 7.8thriller · horror

Two things both keep coming back to: revenge and mercilessness

The difference: Trades the stillness of Martyrs for an angle of its own

Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.

The Woman in Black poster
The Woman in Black
2012 · dir. James Watkins
🍅 66%★ 6.4drama · horror · thrillerParamount+

The same preoccupation in both: revenge

The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, his unease growing when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black. Receiving only silence from the locals, Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true identity.

Revenge poster
Revenge
2017 · dir. Coralie Fargeat
🍅 92%★ 6.4action · horror · thrillerRent or buy

Dread-soaked and unsettling in the same breath

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

Jen's romantic getaway with her wealthy married boyfriend is disrupted when his friends arrive for an impromptu hunting trip. Tension mounts at the house until the situation culminates in an unexpected way.

Cape Fear poster
Cape Fear
1991 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 77%★ 7.3drama · crime · thrillerPrime Video

Common ground: child abuse

The difference: Sits closer to crime than Martyrs does

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Kill List poster
Kill List
2011 · dir. Ben Wheatley
🍅 79%★ 6.3horror · thriller · crimeRent or buy

Both are built on the same subject: cult

Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.

The Skin I Live In poster
The Skin I Live In
2011 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 81%★ 7.6drama · horror · mystery

The same mix in both: stillness, then tension

A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.

Hannibal Rising poster
Hannibal Rising
2007 · dir. Peter Webber
🍅 16%★ 6.1crime · thriller · horrorPrime VideoPeacock

Relentless where it counts, gritty underneath

The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a medical student he hones his appetite for the kill and learnt sword skills from his Japanese girlfriend, who happened to have similar fate

I Spit on Your Grave poster
I Spit on Your Grave
2010 · dir. Steven R. Monroe
🍅 32%★ 6.2thriller · crime · horror

Dread-soaked horror in both cases

A beautiful woman from the city, Jennifer Hills, rents an isolated cabin in the country to write her latest novel. Soon, a group of local lowlifes subject her to a nightmare of degradation, rape, and violence.

Thir13en Ghosts poster
Thir13en Ghosts
2001 · dir. Steve Beck
🍅 19%★ 5.7horror · thriller

Both lean on unease more than on thriller

Arthur and his two children inherit his uncle's estate: a glass house that serves as a prison to twelve ghosts. When the family, accompanied by a nanny and an attorney, enter the house they find themselves trapped inside an evil machine 'designed by the Devil and powered by the dead' to open the Eye of Hell. Aided by a ghost hunter and his rival, a ghost rights activist out to set the ghosts free, the group must do what they can to get out of the house alive.

Ma poster
Ma
2019 · dir. Tate Taylor
🍅 55%★ 5.6horror · thrillerHuluPeacock

Drama with a pulse of tension, in both cases

Sue Ann is a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting, if younger, friends of her own.

Carrie poster
Carrie
2013 · dir. Kimberly Peirce
🍅 51%★ 5.8drama · horrorPrime Video

Contemplative horror, and it commits to that

An awkward, telekinetic teenage girl is the object of relentless bullying at school and an oppressively religious mother at home.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose poster
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
2005 · dir. Scott Derrickson
🍅 20%★ 6.7crime · drama · horror

Drama built on grit, twice over

When a young girl called Emily Rose dies, everyone puts blame on the exorcism which was performed on her by Father Moore prior to her death. The priest is arrested on suspicion of murder. The trial begins with lawyer Erin Bruner representing Moore, but it is not going to be easy, as no one wants to believe what Father Moore says is true.

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