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Thesis poster

Movies that feel likeThesis (1996)

While working on a thesis about audiovisual violence, film student Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that she was a former student in her university, and that the authors of the video are not very far either.

If you loved Thesis, the closest films we have are Nightwatch (1994), Ring (1998) and Creep (2014). All three share Thesis' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Pool (2018).

🍅 86% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Alejandro Amenábardreadunsettlingtense
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Thesis hit the spot, these will too

Nightwatch poster
Nightwatch
1994 · dir. Ole Bornedal
🍅 63%★ 7.1horror · thriller

Both land dread and unease at once

Martin, a law student, takes up a job as a nightwatchman at a mortuary to fund his studies. But the mortuary harbours a dark secret, and he has to find the truth before he is implicated in a serial murder case.

Ring poster
Ring
1998 · dir. Hideo Nakata
🍅 98%★ 7.2horror · thriller

Both lean on tension more than on horror

A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.

Creep poster
Creep
2014 · dir. Patrick Brice
🍅 91%★ 6.3horror · thrillerNetflixPrime Video

Two things both keep coming back to: psychopath and murder

Looking for work, Aaron comes across a cryptic online ad: "$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated." Low on cash and full of naiveté, he decides to go for it. He drives to a cabin in a remote mountain town where he meets Josef, his cinematic subject for the day. Josef is sincere and the project seems heartfelt, so Aaron begins to film. But as the day goes on, it becomes clear that Josef is not who he says, and his intentions are not at all pure.

Lake Mungo poster
Lake Mungo
2009 · dir. Joel Anderson
🍅 92%★ 6.2horror · thriller

Dread-soaked thriller in both cases

After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns at a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of a psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice's secret past emerges.

Funny Games poster
Funny Games
1997 · dir. Michael Haneke
🍅 73%★ 7.5drama · horror · thrillerMax

Both are built on the same subject: serial killer

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Thesis does

Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.

[REC]² poster
[REC]²
2009 · dir. Jaume Balagueró
🍅 67%★ 6.5thriller · horror

Horror built on unease, twice over

The action continues from [REC], with the medical officer and a SWAT team outfitted with video cameras are sent into the sealed off apartment to control the situation.

Silent Night, Deadly Night poster
Silent Night, Deadly Night
1984 · dir. Charles E. Sellier Jr.
🍅 55%★ 5.8thriller · horrorPrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: murder

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

After a man dressed as Santa Claus brutally murders Billy Chapman's parents, little Billy then endures the cruelty of a sadistic nun at his orphanage. Years later, when adult Billy has to fill in for an absent in-store Santa, his childhood trauma brings him to the breaking point.

What We Become poster
What We Become
2015 · dir. Bo Mikkelsen
★ 5.5horror · thriller

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

A family of four is quarantined in their home as a virulent strand of the flu spreads into town and they are forced to the extreme to escape alive.

Saw VI poster
Saw VI
2009 · dir. Kevin Greutert
🍅 39%★ 6.1horror · thriller

One thread runs through both: torture

Special Agent Strahm is dead, and Detective Hoffman has emerged as the unchallenged successor to Jigsaw's legacy. However, when the FBI draws closer to Hoffman, he is forced to set a game into motion, and Jigsaw's grand scheme is finally understood.

The Pool poster
The Pool
2018 · dir. Ping Lumpraploeng
🍅 96%★ 5.2thriller · horror

Horror with a pulse of dread, in both cases

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

Left alone to clean up a 6-meter-deep deserted pool, Day falls asleep on an inflatable raft. When he wakes, the water level has sunk so low that he can't climb out on his own. Stuck in the pool, Day screams for help, but the only thing that hears him is a creature from a nearby crocodile farm.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? poster
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
1962 · dir. Robert Aldrich
🍅 91%★ 8horror · thriller

Thriller built on unease, twice over

A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.

Death Whisperer poster
Death Whisperer
2023 · dir. Taweewat Wantha
★ 5.9horror · thrillerNetflix

Both work the same tension

When a remote village is plagued by a deadly curse, one brother must fight to save his family from a terrifying supernatural threat.

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