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Misery poster

Movies that feel likeMisery (1990)

After an accident, acclaimed novelist Paul Sheldon is rescued by a nurse who claims to be his biggest fan. Her obsession takes a dark turn when she holds him captive in her remote Colorado home and forces him to write back to life the popular literary character he killed off.

If you loved Misery, the closest films we have are Crumb (1995), Basic Instinct (1992) and Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013). All three share Misery's obsessive feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Compliance (2012).

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If Misery hit the spot, these will too

Crumb poster
Crumb
1995 · dir. Terry Zwigoff
🍅 95%★ 8documentary

Contemplative where it counts, obsessive underneath

The difference: Trades the tension of Misery for an angle of its own

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, ex-wife and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.

Basic Instinct poster
Basic Instinct
1992 · dir. Paul Verhoeven
🍅 56%★ 7.1thriller · mysteryParamount+

Common ground: psychopath

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I poster
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
2013 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 77%★ 6.9drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

The difference: 23 years apart, and the 2010s show

A man named Seligman finds a fainted wounded woman in an alley and he brings her home. She tells him that her name is Joe and that she is nymphomaniac. Joe tells her life and sexual experiences with hundreds of men since she was a young teenager while Seligman tells about his hobbies, such as fly fishing, reading about Fibonacci numbers or listening to organ music.

Eyes Wide Shut poster
Eyes Wide Shut
1999 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 77%★ 7.5drama · thriller · mysteryMax

Thriller built on tension, twice over

The difference: Sits closer to mystery than Misery does

After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.

Thelma poster
Thelma
2017 · dir. Joachim Trier
🍅 92%★ 6.9drama · mystery · thriller

Tense drama in both cases

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

A college student starts to experience extreme seizures. She soon learns that the violent episodes are a symptom of inexplicable abilities.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind poster
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977 · dir. Steven Spielberg
🍅 91%★ 7.6science fiction · dramaPeacock

Obsessive thriller, and it commits to that

After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.

The Number 23 poster
The Number 23
2007 · dir. Joel Schumacher
🍅 7%★ 6.4thriller · mystery · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: psychological thriller

Animal control officer Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.

Lust, Caution poster
Lust, Caution
2007 · dir. Ang Lee
🍅 73%★ 7.5action · drama · romance

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

During World War II, a secret agent must seduce, then assassinate an official who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill.

The Master poster
The Master
2012 · dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
🍅 85%★ 7.1drama

Obsessive thriller in both cases

Freddie, a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a new "religion" he forms after World War II.

Compliance poster
Compliance
2012 · dir. Craig Zobel
🍅 89%★ 6.4drama · thriller

One thread runs through both: psychological thriller

On a particularly busy day at a suburban Ohio fast food restaurant, manager Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer saying that an employee has stolen money from a customer.

Obsession poster
Obsession
2026 · dir. Curry Barker
🍅 93%★ 7.8horror · thrillerPeacock

A streak of unease through both

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

Strangers on a Train poster
Strangers on a Train
1951 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 98%★ 7.9crime · thriller · drama

The same preoccupation in both: psychopath

A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Misery’s defining feeling.