Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like The Bride!:
Joker: Folie à Deux
Regardless of how you feel about Joker, Todd Phillips‘ blockbuster film was a striking reinvention of the superhero genre when it debuted in 2019. It was received with a level of reverence rarely granted to superhero films, winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and becoming a major contender during awards season. What set Joker apart was its grounded, almost claustrophobic atmosphere, which felt far removed from the usual bombastic superhero fare. It was a character study, not a franchise entry, and it didn’t suggest a larger universe or an inevitable sequel. This sense of finality and self-containment made it feel like a singular, daring vision—one that didn’t need anything more, which is what makes Joker: Folie à Deux such an odd and ill-conceived idea.
Trap
There is some fun to be had with M. Night Shyamalan‘s Trap, but it’s hard to tell how intentionally awkward and cheeky much of the script is. Josh Hartnett is the quirky glue that kinda holds it together, but the plot unfolds in a clunky fashion and morphs into something completely different in the third act. A middling Shyamalan movie.
Keeper
Keeper finds Oz Perkins splitting the difference between the chilly occult dread of Longlegs and the goofy pulp of his Stephen King riff The Monkey. The result is a winking slow burn that slips, scene by scene, into gawky madness. It is more confident than The Monkey, less severe than Longlegs, and most alive when it trusts atmosphere over exposition.
Infinity Pool
There are some real highlights in Brandon Cronenberg‘s newest art house horror movie, mainly the chemistry between Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth. But Infinity Pool struggles to build into anything beyond a set of shocking horror images and audacious scenes.
Influencers
Influencers threads a tricky needle: it pokes at the attention economy with a knowing grin while mostly dodging the smugness that sinks a lot of social satire. Director Kurtis David Harder returns to the world of Influencer and finds an agile way to keep the story going after that first film’s seemingly final grace note. The sequel opens the aperture without losing the clean, nasty pleasures of watching a shapeshifter navigate vapid luxury ecosystems and weaponize them against their owners.
Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein hews closely to Mary Shelley, for better and for worse. It is a long running passion project, and it makes sense that he resists drastic changes to a story that already matches his gothic sensibility. After the more adventurous reworkings of Nightmare Alley, Pinocchio, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon lineage in The Shape of Water, this feels cautious. The craft is elegant, the discoveries are limited.
Blade
Wesley Snipes turned Blade into a swaggering icon in 1998, and the best parts of Blade still feel cooler than most modern comic book spectacles. From the blood-rave opener to the warehouse brawls, the choreography snaps, the leather-and-sunglasses styling is laser specific, and Snipes sells every sword swing and snarl. The movie’s R rating gives Stephen Norrington room to lean into splatter and attitude, which is exactly why Blade became a word-of-mouth hit and a box-office success for Marvel in the pre-X-Men, pre-MCU era.
The People’s Joker
Considering the controversy that circled The People’s Joker for months (and years), I’m glad to report that the movie succeeded well beyond my own expectations, and that its indie aspects and cheerful, whimsical nature blend for a stylistic romp with real heart. Vera Drew leads the way on all fronts with remarkable precision and fun.
The Lost Daughter
Few debut movies have the level of care and precision that Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Lost Daughter has. An intimate film about fragile bonds between mother and daughter, The Lost Daughter relies on powerful performances from Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley – all of whom exceed with flying colors.
Lisa Frankenstein
I wasn’t really a fan of Lisa Frankenstein, and I checked out on the movie rather early on. Diablo Cody doesn’t write scripts that entertain me all too much, and this is such a hollow experience once you get past the neon wallpaper and cartoonish window dressing. Kathryn Newton stars as a hopeless romantic falling for Cole Sprouse’s corpse.
READ MORE: The Bride! (2026)
