unsettling backdrop

Movies with unsettling vibe

Overview

A mute man with a violent past is forced to take on the teeming underworld of a near-future Berlin as he searches for his missing girlfriend.

Themes

Deception and manipulation, Loyalty under pressure, Surveillance and coercion, Protecting a child, Underground economy, Forged identity

Available on

Netflix
Netflix Standard with Ads
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

Police officer Asger Holm, demoted to desk work as an alarm dispatcher, answers a call from a panicked woman who claims to have been kidnapped. Confined to the police station and with the phone as his only tool, Asger races against time to get help and find her.

Themes

Emergency pressure dynamics, Phone call improvisation, Police station confinement, Cellular phone trace urgency, Kidnapped victim vulnerability, Alarm dispatch coordination

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
fuboTV
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Annihilation

3. Annihilation

Science Fiction Horror Bio-Genetic Sci-Fi Cosmic Horror
6.8
20181h 55min

Overview

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.

Themes

Isolation and paranoia, Dna distortion and transformation, Boundary breach and mutation, Ecological mutation and hybridity, Ambiguity and indeterminacy, Obsession and self-destruction

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Ghost Stories

4. Ghost Stories

Horror Drama Supernatural Horror Psychological Drama
6.4
20181h 38min

Overview

Professor Philip Goodman devotes his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural shenanigans. His skepticism soon gets put to the test when he receives news of three chilling and inexplicable cases -- disturbing visions in an abandoned asylum, a car accident deep in the woods and the spirit of an unborn child. Even scarier -- each of the macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to the professor's own life.

Themes

Grief and guilt, Skepticism vs belief, Unreliable perception, Hauntings in ordinary spaces, Abandonment and care, Obsession and paranoia

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Insidious: The Last Key

5. Insidious: The Last Key

Horror Thriller Supernatural Horror Investigation Suspense
5.7
20181h 43min

Overview

Parapsychologist Elise Rainier and her team travel to Five Keys, NM, to investigate a man’s claim of a haunting. Terror soon strikes when Rainier realizes that the house he lives in was her family’s old home.

Themes

Power and control, Abuse and resilience, Family bonds under stress, Fear as catalyst, Secrecy and harm, Professional pressure

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Crime Drama Detective Mystery Crime Tragic Drama
8.1
20171h 55min

Overview

After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

Themes

Small town pressure, Billboard protest ethics, Police brutality tensions, Arson as retaliation, Molotov cocktail risk

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Google Play Movies
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Overview

As days vanish and his brother returns from a 19-day abduction a different man, Jin-seok races to prove his own memories before his family erases them. Each new lie, each impossible detail, pushes him closer to the locked room’s past—and to a truth that will destroy whoever reaches it too late.

Themes

Memory manipulation, Family secrecy, Dissociative amnesia, Revenge through crime, Deception and unreliable memory

Available on

Netflix
Netflix Standard with Ads
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

The Motive

8. The Motive

Drama Psychological Drama
6.5
20171h 44min

Overview

Álvaro, a man obsessed with the idea of writing what he brands as “high literature,” manipulates the lives and feelings of the people around him to write about the consequences caused by his devious acts.

Themes

Obsession with high literature, Reality as material, Manipulation of others, Consequences of fiction, Ethical ambiguity in craft, Boundary violation

Available on

Netflix
Netflix Standard with Ads
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

Jigsaw

9. Jigsaw

Horror Mystery Gore Horror Investigation Mystery
5.7
20171h 31min

Overview

Law enforcement finds itself chasing the ghost of a man dead for over a decade, embroiled in a diabolical new game that's only just begun.

Themes

Abduction and captivity, Torture and gore as trials, Deadly mind games, Recurring deadly schemes, Survival through sacrifice, Police pursuit

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
Peacock Premium
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

10. The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Drama Thriller Mystery Mind Game Thriller Unreliable Perspective Mystery
7.0
20172h 1min

Overview

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.

Themes

Coercive manipulation, Deception and trust, Power under pressure, Family under siege, Ethics of professional authority, Moral duty vs violence

Available on

Amazon Video
Apple TV
HBO Max
Data provided by JustWatch.Availability may vary by region.