Movies like Elle (2016)
The best movies like Elle (2016) are Katalin Varga (2009), Madeleine Collins (2021) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). If Elle hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Handmaiden (2016)8.2/10 from 4,586 votes
- NewestEileen (2023)Released 2023
- In FrenchMadeleine Collins (2021)Also in French
Katalin Varga (2009)
In the beautiful, otherworldly Carpathian Mountains a woman is traveling with a small boy in a horse and cart, looking to punish those who once abused her. For years, Katalin has been keeping a terrible secret. Hitchhiking with two men, she was brutally raped in the woods. Although she has kept silent about what happened, she has not forgotten, and her son Órban serves as a living reminder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadeleine Collins (2021)
Judith leads a double life between Switzerland and France. On the one hand Abdel, with whom she is raising a little girl, on the other Melvil with whom she has two older boys. Little by little, this fragile balance, made up of lies, secrets and back and forth, cracks dangerously. Trapped, Judith chooses to head forward, at the risk of losing everything.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNocturnal Animals (2016)
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Skin I Live In (2011)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRevenge (2017)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisM.F.A. (2017)
After the accidental death of her rapist, an art student becomes an unlikely vigilante, set out to avenge college girls whose rapists were not charged.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPromising Young Woman (2020)
A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Swan (2010)
A committed dancer struggles to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake."
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Handmaiden (2016)
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sook-hee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Piano Teacher (2001)
Erika Kohut, a sexually repressed piano teacher living with her domineering mother, meets a young man who starts romantically pursuing her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015)
Anna Fritz is a beautiful and famous actress. Suddenly her body is found in a hotel and the news of her death goes around the planet. The young, shy caretaker Pau works at the hospital where they carried the body of Anna Fritz. He and his friends decide to take pictures of the body of Anna Fritz. They decide they could make love to her and nobody would know. They are in front of Anna Fritz ... and can do with it what they want.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAllure (2018)
Plagued by the abuse of her past and the turmoil of failed intimate encounters, Laura struggles to find a lover and a sense of normalcy. Her beacon of hope comes in sixteen year-old Eva, a talented pianist disillusioned by the life her mother imposes upon her. An unlikely relationship is formed between the two and Eva becomes an obsession to Laura. In light of Eva's unhappiness, Laura convinces her to runaway to her house and they soon find themselves caught within an intense entanglement. Manipulation, denial and codependency fuel what ultimately becomes a fractured dynamic that can only sustain itself for so long.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisIn the House (2012)
A sixteen-year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher. Faced with this gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, but the boy’s intrusion will unleash a series of uncontrollable events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a male journalist and a young female hacker. In the opening of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged publisher for the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Nevertheless, he is hired by Henrik Vanger in order to solve a cold case, the disappearance of Vanger's niece
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLa Cérémonie (1995)
Sophie, a quiet and shy maid working for an upper-class French family, finds a friend in the energetic and uncompromising postmaster Jeanne, who encourages her to stand up against her bourgeois employers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPersonal Shopper (2016)
Maureen, mid-20s, is a personal shopper for a media celebrity. The job pays for her stay in Paris, a city she refuses to leave until she makes contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisEileen (2023)
During a bitter 1964 Massachusetts winter, young secretary Eileen becomes enchanted by Rebecca, the glamorous new counselor at the prison where she works. Their budding friendship takes a twisted turn when Rebecca reveals a dark secret — throwing Eileen onto a sinister path.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisGone Girl (2014)
With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBurning (2018)
Deliveryman Jong-su is out on a job when he runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he'd mind looking after her cat while she's away on a trip to Africa. On her return, she introduces to Jong-su an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. One day Ben tells Jong-su about his most unusual hobby.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSee the Sea (1997)
Sasha, a young British woman, is living with her baby daughter at Ile d'Yeu, a peaceful beach community. A stranger appears. Her name is Tatiana, she's passing through, and pitches her tent in Sasha's yard. The two women build an odd rapport, and tension builds as events unfold.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children. Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin, a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor's life in gradually unsettling ways.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEyes Wide Shut (1999)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSentinelle (2021)
Transferred home after a traumatizing combat mission, a highly trained French soldier uses her lethal skills to hunt down the man who hurt her sister.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSex Doll (2016)
High-priced London call girl Virginie goes about her work as a prostitute with a cool detachment, trading sex with wealthy businessmen for money, but never getting emotionally involved. That all changes when she meets Rupert, an enigmatic stranger with unclear intentions. Risking everything, Virginie plunges into a dangerous affair that puts her between a ruthless madam who forbids romantic attachment and a dark, sexy man who could be her saviour or her downfall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Page Turner (2006)
Mélanie Prouvost, a ten-year-old butcher's daughter, is a gifted pianist. That is why she and her parents decide that she sit for the Conservatory entrance exam. Although Mélanie is very likely to be admitted, she unfortunately gets distracted by the president of the jury's offhand attitude and she fails. Ten years later, Mélanie becomes her page turner, waiting patiently for her revenge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaché (2005)
As the host of a literary TV show, Georges begins receiving anonymously filmed videos of his family alongside cryptic, disturbing drawings, but as the tapes become increasingly intimate, they reveal a stalker who has known him for a very long time.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMulholland Drive (2001)
Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Origin of Evil (2022)
In a luxurious seaside villa, a modest young woman finds herself in the company of a strange family: an unknown and wealthy father, his extravagant wife, his daughter, an ambitious woman, a rebellious teenager, and their creepy maid.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSweat (2020)
Three days in the life of fitness motivator Sylwia Zając, whose presence on social media has made her a celebrity. Although she has hundreds of thousands of followers, is surrounded by loyal employees and admired by acquaintances, she is looking for true intimacy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSanctuary (2023)
Confined to a claustrophobic hotel room, the heir to a hotel empire and the dominatrix who has primed him for success become locked in a battle of wits and wills as he tries to end his relationship with her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Elle?
The closest matches to Elle are Katalin Varga (2009), Madeleine Collins (2021) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Elle?
People who watched Elle most often go on to Katalin Varga (2009), Madeleine Collins (2021) and Nocturnal Animals (2016).
What is the highest-rated movie like Elle?
The Handmaiden (2016), rated 8.2/10 by 4,586 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Elle?
Eileen (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Elle?
Yes: Madeleine Collins (2021), Revenge (2017) and The Piano Teacher (2001).
How are movies similar to Elle chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Elle, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.