Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Serpent’s Path:
Is God Is
During the second act of Aleshea Harris’ excellent debut Is God Is, vengeful sisters Racine and Anaia (Kara Young and Mallori Johnson) drive toward their end goal: murdering their biological father at the request of their dying mother, with Death Grips’ “Guillotine” playing in the background. I’m not even sure if the song is technically diegetic, but the point still stands: not only is Is God Is one of the first and only movies I can think of to include a Death Grips needle drop, but it might also be the first movie to actually match the rage and anger associated with the group.
It Was Just an Accident
It Was Just an Accident is the rare political thriller that feels both ruthlessly focused and quietly devastating, the kind of film only Jafar Panahi could make. Working inside a premise that plays like a classic suspense setup while functioning as a clear rebuke of state brutality, Panahi turns a slender 104 minutes into a study of moral vertigo. His own history shadows the movie at every turn. The director of This Is Not a Film and Taxi was imprisoned, banned from filmmaking, and censored by the Iranian regime, and that lived experience sharpens every cut, every silence, every hesitation.
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.
No Other Choice
No Other Choice finds Park Chan-wook in a sharper comedic register than usual, a black comedy that keeps tipping toward farce while tracking a middle class collapse. I like the switch of gears. I also felt the hype machine pull a little harder than the movie earns. It is lively, cleverly staged, and often very funny, yet it lands as a thoughtful middle entry for Park rather than a top tier picture beside The Handmaiden, Oldboy or Decision to Leave.
How to Make a Killing
Glad to see John Patton Ford continue a lot of the success of Emily the Criminal with How to Make a Killing, and equally glad to see Glen Powell land a leading role that at least somewhat fits his talents as charming and conniving, as opposed to the more empathetic, everyman or out-and-out heroic protagonist that hasn’t exactly suited his strengths over the last few years since his meteoric rise post-Top Gun: Maverick. The guy has movie star gravity to spare, but the roles haven’t always known what to do with it.
Cloud
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud is a taut, unnerving slow-burn thriller that reminds us just how masterfully he captures the quiet dread of modern life. Known for his foundational work in J-horror like Cure and Pulse, Kurosawa has always operated in a unique tonal register – where isolation, societal rot, and moral ambiguity simmer just beneath the surface. With Cloud, he’s returned to that sensibility in striking form, offering something that isn’t quite horror, not quite crime, but unmistakably Kurosawa: eerie, deliberate, and steeped in existential tension.
A History of Violence
Leave it to David Cronenberg to deconstruct the mythical American hero with odd wit and clinical detail. A History of Violence looks like a small-town melodrama on the surface, then peels back skin to expose identity, impulse, and the stories we tell to survive. Viggo Mortensen gives one of his sharpest performances as Tom Stall, a soft-spoken diner owner whose quick, efficient dispatching of two spree killers turns him into a local legend and blows up the quiet life he has built with Edie, played with fierce tenderness by Maria Bello.
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.
Blood Simple
Nearly every time I revisit Blood Simple, I’m struck by how confident and precise Joel and Ethan Coen were right out of the gate. Released in 1984, Blood Simple is the Coen brothers’ debut film and still stands as one of the greatest first features ever made. A neo-noir steeped in paranoia, betrayal, and bloody miscommunication, it’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be—lean, stylish, and razor-sharp.
Men
Now nearly two years removed from its initial release date, Alex Garland’s Men for A24 feels underrated. A body horror home invasion movie featuring one of Hollywood’s best actresses in Jessie Buckley, the film is a shift in tone and themes from Garland’s previous works, transitioning from stories involving anxiety we have about the advancement of technology, to the societal and gender issues that plague our society.
READ MORE: Movies Like Is God Is, Movies Like A History of Violence
