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Thriller: A Cruel Picture poster

Movies that feel likeThriller: A Cruel Picture (1973)

Madeleine, rendered mute after being sexually assaulted as a youth, accepts a lift from a wealthy and sadistic pimp who soon enslaves her into his prostitution racket. Despite her limited means, Madeleine embarks on a bloody road to revenge against her captors.

If you loved Thriller: A Cruel Picture, the closest films we have are Wait Until Dark (1967), Sorcerer (1977) and Ziam (2025). All three share Thriller: A Cruel Picture's tense and dread 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 Thriller: A Cruel Picture hit the spot, these will too

Wait Until Dark poster
Wait Until Dark
1967 · dir. Terence Young
🍅 96%★ 7.7thriller · crime · horror

Both land tension and grit at once

The difference: Reviewed even better

After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way. As it turns out, the doll is actually stuffed with heroin, and a group of criminals led by the ruthless Roat has followed Hendrix back to his place to retrieve it. When Hendrix leaves for business, the crooks make their move -- and find his blind wife, Susy, alone in the apartment. Soon, a life-threatening game begins between Susy and the thugs.

Sorcerer poster
Sorcerer
1977 · dir. William Friedkin
🍅 84%★ 7.7thriller · adventure · action

The same mix in both: momentum, then dread

The difference: Less gritty, more its own thing

Four men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (which is so old that it is dripping unstable nitroglycerin) across dangerous jungle terrain.

Ziam poster
Ziam
2025 · dir. Kulp Kaljareuk
🍅 77%★ 4.9horror · thriller · actionNetflix

Unsettling action, and it commits to that

The difference: Goes its own way on the grit

In a fight for survival against a horrifying army of zombies, a former Muay Thai fighter must use skill, speed and grit to save his girlfriend.

Nightwatch poster
Nightwatch
1994 · dir. Ole Bornedal
🍅 63%★ 7.1horror · thriller

Thriller with a pulse of tension, in both cases

The difference: 21 years apart, and the 1990s show

Martin, a law student, takes up a job as a nightwatchman at a mortuary to fund his studies. But the mortuary harbours a dark secret, and he has to find the truth before he is implicated in a serial murder case.

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

Crime built on grit, twice over

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 Sadness poster
The Sadness
2021 · dir. Rob Jabbaz
🍅 88%★ 6.5horror · thrillerRent or buy

Both are built on the same subject: rape

A young couple is pushed to the limits of sanity as they attempt to be reunited amid the chaos of a pandemic outbreak. The streets erupt into violence and depravity, as those infected are driven to enact the most cruel and ghastly things imaginable.

The Girl Who Killed Her Parents poster
The Girl Who Killed Her Parents
2021 · dir. Maurício Eça
★ 5.9crime · drama · thrillerPrime Video

Both lean on stillness more than on horror

Based on one of the most shocking and gruesome murder cases in Brazil, the film presents Daniel Cravinhos's point of view of the events that led to the death of Marísia and Manfred von Richthofen, his girlfriend’s parents.

The Nameless poster
The Nameless
1999 · dir. Jaume Balagueró
🍅 20%★ 5.8thriller · mystery · horror

One thread runs through both: rape

The difference: Leans further into mystery

The mutilated body of a six year old girl is found in a water hole. The girl is identified as the missing daughter of Claudia. However, only two peices of evidence could be used to identify her; a bracelet with her name on it near the crime scene, and the fact that her right leg was three inches longer than her left. All other methods of identification were removed from her body. Five years later Claudia, now addicted to tranquilizers, receives a phone call from someone claiming to be her daughter, asking for her mother to come find her before 'they' kill her. Other mysterious clues show up, further indicating that Claudia's daughter is indeed still alive, and very much in danger. Claudia, a run-down ex-cop, and a parapsychology reporter put together the clues to discover Angela's whereabouts

Silent Night, Deadly Night poster
Silent Night, Deadly Night
1984 · dir. Charles E. Sellier Jr.
🍅 55%★ 5.8thriller · horrorPrime Video

Dread-soaked drama in both cases

After a man dressed as Santa Claus brutally murders Billy Chapman's parents, little Billy then endures the cruelty of a sadistic nun at his orphanage. Years later, when adult Billy has to fill in for an absent in-store Santa, his childhood trauma brings him to the breaking point.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom poster
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
1976 · dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
🍅 71%★ 5.8horror · drama

Both lean on unease more than on horror

Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.

Gone in 60 Seconds poster
Gone in 60 Seconds
1974 · dir. H.B. Halicki
🍅 43%★ 6.3action · crime · thriller

Action with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace and his team lead double-lives as unstoppable car thieves. When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one, a 1973 Ford Mustang, are in the bag. As Pace prepares to rip-off the fastback, codenamed "Eleanor", in Long Beach, he is unaware that his boss has tipped off the police after a business dispute.

The House That Screamed poster
The House That Screamed
1969 · dir. Chicho Ibáñez Serrador
★ 6.8horror · mystery · thrillerPrime Video

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

Southern France, 19th century. Teresa, a young girl, arrives at an isolated female boarding school that is tyrannically mastered by Mrs. Fourneau, the strict headmistress, whose protective shadow haunts Luis, her weak son.

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The best-reviewed films that share Thriller: A Cruel Picture’s defining feeling.