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Movies that feel like Martyrs (2008)

If you loved Martyrs, the closest films we have are I Saw the Devil (2010), The Woman in Black (2012) and Revenge (2017). All three share Martyrs' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

A young woman’s quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tortured her as a child leads her and her best friend, also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.

🍅 66% Rotten Tomatoes7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Pascal Laugierdreadunsettlingcontemplativetenserelentless

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If Martyrs hit the spot, these will too

I Saw the Devil poster
I Saw the Devil
2010 · dir. Kim Jee-woon
🍅 83%7.8thriller · horror

Two things both keep coming back to: revenge and mercilessness

The difference: None of the stillness Martyrs is built on

Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.

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The Woman in Black poster
The Woman in Black
2012 · dir. James Watkins
🍅 66%6.4drama · horror · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: revenge

The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, his unease growing when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black. Receiving only silence from the locals, Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true identity.

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Revenge poster
Revenge
2017 · dir. Coralie Fargeat
🍅 92%6.4action · horror · thriller

Dread-soaked and unsettling in the same breath

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

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.

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Antichrist poster
Antichrist
2009 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 53%6.5drama · horror · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: suffering

A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.

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Carrie poster
Carrie
2013 · dir. Kimberly Peirce
🍅 51%5.8drama · horror

Both land stillness and relentlessness at once

An awkward, telekinetic teenage girl is the object of relentless bullying at school and an oppressively religious mother at home.

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Shutter poster
Shutter
2004 · dir. Banjong Pisanthanakun
7horror · mystery · thriller

Tense horror in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to mystery than Martyrs does

When Jane and Tun run over a girl in a car accident, they speed away immediately from the crime scene. However, Tun, a photographer, soon discovers strange shadows in his photos, which unsettles them.

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The Skin I Live In poster
The Skin I Live In
2011 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 81%7.6drama · horror · mystery

Both lean on dread more than on drama

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.

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A Nightmare on Elm Street poster
A Nightmare on Elm Street
2010 · dir. Samuel Bayer
🍅 14%5.2horror · mystery · thriller

One thread runs through both: child abuse

Teenagers Nancy, Quentin, Kris, Jesse and Dean are all neighborhood friends who begin having the same dream of a horribly disfigured man who wears a tattered sweater and a glove made of knives. The man terrorizes them in their dreams, and the only escape is to wake up. But when, one by one, they start dying violently, the friends realize that what happens in the dream world is real, and the only way to stay alive is to stay awake.

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Lady Vengeance poster
Lady Vengeance
2005 · dir. Park Chan-wook
🍅 76%7.5drama · thriller

Contemplative thriller, and it commits to that

Released after being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 13 years, a woman begins executing her elaborate plan of retribution.

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The Orphanage poster
The Orphanage
2007 · dir. J. A. Bayona
🍅 87%7.4horror · drama · thriller

Horror built on unease, twice over

A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.

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Cape Fear poster
Cape Fear
1991 · dir. Martin Scorsese
🍅 77%7.3drama · crime · thriller

Common ground: child abuse

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer poster
I Know What You Did Last Summer
1997 · dir. Jim Gillespie
🍅 47%5.9horror · thriller · mystery

Thriller with a pulse of tension, in both cases

After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim's body into the sea. Exactly one year later, the deadly secret resurfaces as they're stalked by a hook-handed figure.

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The best-reviewed films that share Martyrs’ defining feeling.