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Movies that feel like The Experiment (2001)

If you loved The Experiment, the closest films we have are A Wednesday! (2008), Hard Candy (2006) and The Wave (2008). All three share The Experiment's contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV and others, checked against today's data.

20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.

πŸ… 72% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.7 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Oliver Hirschbiegelcontemplativetense

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If The Experiment hit the spot, these will too

A Wednesday! poster
A Wednesday!
2008 Β· dir. Neeraj Pandey
β˜… 8.1drama Β· thriller

The same mix in both: stillness, then tension

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.

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Hard Candy poster
Hard Candy
2006 Β· dir. David Slade
πŸ… 67%β˜… 7drama Β· thriller

One thread runs through both: rape

Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl. Jeff’s a handsome, smooth fashion photographer. An Internet chat, a coffee shop meet-up, an impromptu fashion shoot back at Jeff’s place. Jeff thinks it’s his lucky night. He’s in for a surprise.

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The Wave poster
The Wave
2008 Β· dir. Dennis Gansel
πŸ… 67%β˜… 7.6drama Β· thriller

The same preoccupation in both: experiment

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.

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A Hijacking poster
A Hijacking
2012 Β· dir. Tobias Lindholm
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.1thriller Β· drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

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.

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No Way Out poster
No Way Out
1987 Β· dir. Roger Donaldson
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.1thriller Β· drama

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell, and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretary David Brice, is also romantically involved with Atwell. When the young woman turns up dead, Farrell is put in charge of the murder investigation. He begins to uncover shocking clues about the case, but when details of his encounter with Susan surface, he becomes a suspect as well.

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The Place poster
The Place
2017 Β· dir. Paolo Genovese
β˜… 7drama Β· thriller

Drama built on stillness, twice over

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.

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Tunnel poster
Tunnel
2016 Β· dir. Kim Seong-hun
πŸ… 100%β˜… 6.8thriller Β· drama

Tense thriller in both cases

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.

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To Kill a Man poster
To Kill a Man
2014 Β· dir. Alejandro FernΓ‘ndez Almendras
β˜… 6.3thriller Β· drama

Drama approached the same way

Jorge is a peaceful hard-working man who seeks a simple, quiet life for himself and his family. One day, he is mugged and humiliated by a gang of thugs led by Kalule, a delinquent from his neighborhood. This event infuriates his son as much for Jorge’s meek acceptance as for the act itself. The son, looking for retribution, ends up getting himself shot. Kalule is sent to jail and when he gets out 18 months later, begins a campaign of terror against Jorge and his family. The authorities do nothing, so Jorge decides to take matters into his own hands.

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Escape from Alcatraz poster
Escape from Alcatraz
1979 Β· dir. Don Siegel
πŸ… 97%β˜… 7.5drama Β· thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: prison

The difference: 22 years apart, and the 1970s show

San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

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The Hater poster
The Hater
2020 Β· dir. Jan Komasa
πŸ… 87%β˜… 7.1drama Β· thriller

Both working the same thriller territory

A duplicitous young man finds success in the dark world of social media smear tactics β€” but his virtual vitriol soon has violent real-life consequences.

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Zero Dark Thirty poster
Zero Dark Thirty
2012 Β· dir. Kathryn Bigelow
πŸ… 91%β˜… 7.4thriller Β· drama

Common ground: prisoner

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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We Need to Talk About Kevin poster
We Need to Talk About Kevin
2011 Β· dir. Lynne Ramsay
πŸ… 74%β˜… 7.4drama Β· thriller

Drama in the same key

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.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies β†’

The best-reviewed films that share The Experiment’s defining feeling.