Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Apex:
Predator: Badlands
Predator: Badlands is a baffling turn for Dan Trachtenberg after the clean thrills of Prey and the surprise bite of the animated Predator: Killer of Killers. Coming off those entries in his Predator reboot, I expected craft, tension, and clever constraint. What arrives is scale without spectacle, a loud, CG smeared detour that forgets why this series works.
The Revenant
The Revenant might be as close as I’ll ever get to fully enjoying an Alejandro González Iñárritu film. While his work often leans into self-indulgence—whether through the meta posturing of Birdman or the grating self-reflection of Bardo—this film largely sidesteps that pitfall. Instead, The Revenant strips things down to a primal survival story, focusing on raw spectacle rather than existential musings about art and life.
Wolf Man
Wolf Man is another uneven entry in Universal Pictures’ long-running struggle to make their classic monster IP feel vital again. Leigh Whannell may be one of the more exciting genre filmmakers working today, but this misaligned project is more whimper than howl.
Halloween
John Carpenter’s Halloween is one of those films that is so baked into horror DNA that it can be hard to look at it with fresh eyes, but even almost 50 years later it still works like gangbusters. You can trace nearly every slasher you love back to what Carpenter did here. The masked, wordless killer in Michael Myers. The suburban setting that looks safe until it is not. The calmly unraveling psychiatrist in Donald Pleasence’s Dr. Loomis. The smart, alert, deeply sympathetic final girl in Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode. All of that starts here, and very few of the imitators matched its patience, its clarity, or its eerie sense of watching something evil drift slowly toward you from across the street.
Speak No Evil
While I appreciate many of James Watkins’ directorial choices and the strong performances from James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi, Scoot McNairy, and Mackenzie Davis—who all have great chemistry—I can’t shake the feeling that Speak No Evil missed an opportunity. It could have delivered a real shock to the studio horror system but instead falls into the same familiar patterns. The film ends up being a watered-down, more subdued version of the original, which felt fresh and unsettling just a few years ago. It’s not a complete failure, but it misses the mark.
Ballerina
Considering the rocky production history behind it, Ballerina emerges as a competent entry in the John Wick universe—though one that never quite matches the highs of the mainline films. At its center, Ana de Armas delivers a strong performance as Eve, bringing physicality and grit to a role that demands both, while the action—particularly in the second half—benefits greatly from the influence of Chad Stahelski, who stepped in alongside Keanu Reeves to help reshape much of the film after original director Len Wiseman’s version assumingly faltered.
The Northman
If The Northman isn’t Robert Eggers’ best movie, it’s at least his boldest. It’s finetuned and pinpoint beyond what you’d expect from an already exacting director, and the stunning ensemble cast is entirely dedicated to their profound roles – all led by Alexander Skarsgård and Anya Taylor-Joy.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller finds so much new ground to cover with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga that perfectly justifies its own existence. While Fury Road was interested in such a contained story propelled by larger-than-life action sequences and big rig warfare spawning from a game of cat and mouse, Furiosa fills in the gaps of a world much larger than what is expected. Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth stun in a prequel well worth the wait.
A Working Man
Jason Statham continues his relentless streak of mid-tier action vehicles with A Working Man, a film that feels as workmanlike as its title suggests. Following his roles in Meg 2: The Trench and The Beekeeper, Statham trades giant sea monsters and bee-themed vengeance for a more grounded but also more generic revenge setup. He plays Levon Cade, an ex-Royal Marine Commando turned construction foreman in Chicago, in a film that’s essentially a stripped-down Taken clone without much flavor or personality to distinguish itself.
Rebel Ridge
Jeremy Saulnier is continuing to show that there aren’t many filmmakers capable of making movies like he is. Rebel Ridge occasionally establishes him as an auteur capable of extreme visceral sequences and building up tension that will make you squirm in your seat, but I’m not as sold on his attempt to tie these themes to this story. A good movie made by a director capable of making great movies.
READ MORE: Apex (2026), Movies Like Predator: Badlands, Movies Like Wolf Man
