Movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
The best movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) are Straw Dogs (2011), Ken Park (2003) and Kill for Me (2013). If Martha Marcy May Marlene 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 ratedAmerican History X (1998)8.3/10 from 13,133 votes
- NewestRage of Stars (2026)Released 2026
Straw Dogs (2011)
A young couple moves to a quaint southern town. Soon their perfect getaway turns out to become a living hell when dark secrets and lethal passions spiral out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisKen Park (2003)
Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKill for Me (2013)
Rent’s a bitch. And that is why, six months after her best friend went missing, Amanda finally gives in to getting another roommate, Hailey. The two college students turn out to have something in common, however: abusive men. For Hailey, it’s her dad. For Amanda, it’s a stalkery ex-boyfriend. But problems can be solved and, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. In other words, Kill for Me, I kill for you.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisState of Grace (1990)
Hell's Kitchen, New York. Terry Noonan returns home after a ten-year absence. He soon reconnects with Jackie, a childhood friend and member of the Irish mob, and rekindles his love affair with Jackie's sister Kathleen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrimstone (2016)
In the menacing inferno of the old North-American West, Liz is a genuine survivor who is hunted by a vengeful preacher for a crime she didn’t commit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAddicted (2014)
A gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDead Man's Shoes (2004)
A soldier returns to his small town and exacts a deadly revenge on the thugs who tormented his disabled brother while he was away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShame (2011)
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRage of Stars (2026)
A story about a woman from the International Special Forces Unit, who has a premonition about the impending end of humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSnowtown (2011)
Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boys of St. Vincent (1994)
The true story of boys being sexually abused at their orphanage, run by a religious community in Newfoundland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHider in the House (1989)
A deranged man hides in the attic of a new house and becomes obsessed with the unsuspecting family that moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMysterious Skin (2005)
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Infernal Machine (2022)
Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRequiem for a Dream (2000)
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Punisher: One Last Kill (2026)
As Frank Castle searches for meaning beyond revenge, an unexpected force pulls him back into the fight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAmerican History X (1998)
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Cement Garden (1993)
After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a mysterious illness. Aware that she is going to have to go into hospital she opens a bank account for the children, so that they can be financially self-sufficient and will be able to avoid being taken into care by the authorities. Unfortunately she also dies and Julie and Jack (the older, teenage children) decide to hide her body in the basement so that they can have free reign of their household. Soon Tom has taken to dressing as a girl whilst Sue has become increasingly reticent, confiding only to her diary, meanwhile Jack and Julie sense an attraction developing for each other. However Julie's new beau, Derek, threatens to unearth the many dark secrets within this family as he becomes increasingly suspicious of Jack.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLaw of Desire (1987)
Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeed Poll (2004)
Two drug-addicted, incestuous, rich siblings kill a call-boy to make playing cards out of his skin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
15 Minutes (2001)
When Eastern European criminals Oleg and Emil come to New York City to pick up their share of a heist score, Oleg steals a video camera and starts filming their activities, both legal and illegal. When they learn how the American media circus can make a remorseless killer look like the victim and make them rich, they target media-savvy NYPD Homicide Detective Eddie Flemming and media-naive FDNY Fire Marshal Jordy Warsaw, the cops investigating their murder and torching of their former criminal partner, filming everything to sell to the local tabloid TV show "Top Story."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisKirepapa. (2008)
Chisato is a beautiful 35-year-old writer, who looks like 18, and the father of Riju, a cute 15-year-old boy. Chisato's hobby is to drive away all of Riju's friends because he thinks they want to corrupt his precious child, so he shows his good side to these boys while he poisons the cake he brings them with a smile; however, there is one guy, Shunsuke, who doesn't fall for the tricks. But is Shunsuke really aiming for Riju? Who is that mysterious writer Chisato loves so much? And why is Chisato convinced that Riju's friends want to take advantage of him?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jakarta (1988)
A CIA agent roams the streets of New York haunted by the death of the beautiful woman he fell in love with while on assignment in Jakarta. When he is kidnapped and drugged, the destination is Jakarta once again where he tries to unravel the mystery that is the city which broke him three years earlier.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Sensuous Assassin (1970)
Marina and her boyfriend have an argument while on a trip in France. While driving with the car among the cliffs, he starts speeding and the car falls into the sea. Marina can jump out of the car, but her boyfriend seems to be drowned. She gets to know his brother and he falls in love with her. But why does she always feel watched? What reasons are behind her strange behaviour anyway? Did she really murder her boyfriend? But is he dead anyway?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Wednesdays (2011)
Every Wednesday, 8 year old Kris accompanies 28 year old Willem to the swimming pool. They swim, go down the slide and have a lot of fun. But one Wednesday Willem confronts Kris with a frightening request...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Das letzte Stück Himmel (2007)
There are two brothers who couldn't be more different. One, Anno Wilhelm, loves life and seeks to savor it in every way; the other, Julian, would like nothing better than to die. He has already made several suicide attempts, been hospitalized and suffered breakdowns. The men, in their late 20s, both grew up without a mother and have a difficult relationship with their father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mad Dog Killer (1977)
Sadistic no-count killer Nanni Vitali and three other equally brutish hoodlums escape from prison. The foul foursome embark on a savage rape, murder, and robbery spree. Vitali even abducts and defiles frightened hapless lass Giuliana Caroli. Meanwhile, rugged police inspector Giulio Santini is determined to bag the despicable Vitali.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like Martha Marcy May Marlene and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene?
The closest matches to Martha Marcy May Marlene are Straw Dogs (2011), Ken Park (2003) and Kill for Me (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Martha Marcy May Marlene?
Start with Straw Dogs (2011), the closest match to Martha Marcy May Marlene.
What is the highest-rated movie like Martha Marcy May Marlene?
American History X (1998), rated 8.3/10 by 13,133 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Martha Marcy May Marlene?
Rage of Stars (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene?
Yes: Straw Dogs (2011), Ken Park (2003) and Kill for Me (2013).
How are movies similar to Martha Marcy May Marlene chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Martha Marcy May Marlene, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.