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We Need to Talk About Kevin poster

Movies that feel likeWe Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.

If you loved We Need to Talk About Kevin, the closest films we have are Locke (2014), The Wave (2008) and A Hijacking (2012). All three share We Need to Talk About Kevin's contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is A Wednesday! (2008).

🍅 74% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Lynne Ramsaycontemplativetense
7 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Paramount Plus Premium

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If We Need to Talk About Kevin hit the spot, these will too

Locke poster
Locke
2014 · dir. Steven Knight
🍅 91%★ 7.1drama · thriller

One thread runs through both: pregnancy

Ivan Locke has worked hard to craft a good life for himself. Tonight, that life will collapse around him. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul.

The Wave poster
The Wave
2008 · dir. Dennis Gansel
🍅 67%★ 7.6drama · thriller

Common ground: violence in schools

A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.

A Hijacking poster
A Hijacking
2012 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 96%★ 7.1thriller · drama

The same preoccupation in both: murder

Tensions are high after a Danish freighter is captured and held for ransom by Somali pirates, leading to weeks of high-stakes negotiations – and an escalating potential for explosive violence.

You Were Never Really Here poster
You Were Never Really Here
2017 · dir. Lynne Ramsay
🍅 89%★ 6.7crime · drama · thrillerPrime Video

Lynne Ramsay working the same nerve twice

The difference: Leans further into crime

A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered—leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.

Foxcatcher poster
Foxcatcher
2014 · dir. Bennett Miller
🍅 88%★ 7drama · thriller

Contemplative and tense in the same breath

The greatest Olympic Wrestling Champion brother team joins Team Foxcatcher led by multimillionaire sponsor John E. du Pont as they train for the 1988 games in Seoul - a union that leads to unlikely circumstances.

Who Am I poster
Who Am I
2014 · dir. Baran bo Odar
★ 7.4thriller

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

The difference: Less contemplative, more its own thing

Benjamin, a young German computer whiz, is invited to join a subversive hacker group that wants to be noticed on the world's stage.

Buried poster
Buried
2010 · dir. Rodrigo Cortés
🍅 87%★ 6.9thrillerPrime Video

Drama built on tension, twice over

As an American civilian truck driver working in Iraq, Paul Conroy's convoy is attacked by a group of Iraqi insurgents. Some time later, Paul awakes in a coffin with only a lighter, a cell phone, and his ever-growing anxiety. Faced with a dwindling oxygen supply and a dying battery, he must fight panic, despair, and delirium as he races against time to escape the claustrophobic death trap.

A Wednesday! poster
A Wednesday!
2008 · dir. Neeraj Pandey
★ 8.1drama · thriller

Contemplative drama in both cases

Prakash Rathod, a retired police commissioner recounts the most memorable case of his career wherein he was informed about a bomb scare in Mumbai by an ordinary commoner.

The Place poster
The Place
2017 · dir. Paolo Genovese
★ 7drama · thriller

Contemplative thriller, and it commits to that

The fates of an apparently random group of strangers who each come into contact with a mysterious figure who they believe possesses the power to grant any wish, in return for which they must carry out a task he assigns them.

Tunnel poster
Tunnel
2016 · dir. Kim Seong-hun
🍅 100%★ 6.8thriller · dramaPrime Video

Drama of the same temperament

The difference: Reviewed even better

A man is on his way home when the poorly constructed tunnel he is driving through collapses, leaving him trapped leaving himself for the unexpected whilst emergency services struggle to help.

Dark Waters poster
Dark Waters
2019 · dir. Todd Haynes
🍅 89%★ 7.6drama · thrillerRent or buy

Both play thriller straight

A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.

Zero Dark Thirty poster
Zero Dark Thirty
2012 · dir. Kathryn Bigelow
🍅 91%★ 7.4thriller · dramaNetflixParamount+

Both working the same drama territory

A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.

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The best-reviewed films that share We Need to Talk About Kevin’s defining feeling.