Best movies like They Have Escaped
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like They Have Escaped? Contribute your familiarity to help others toward tv series and films you've viewed before that may also consume them. Help enlarge the circle of people referring videos between each other. We welcome your engagement!
Plot Summary:
Two troubled youths break out of their halfway house and make their way to one's home.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Finland, Netherlands
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, serious, realistic, sexy, tense, gloomy, road movie
Best tv shows and movies like They Have Escaped (2014):
Similar in 75%
Pluto (2012)
Plot Summary:
is a story about elite high school seniors, the top 1%, who are prepared to go to extremes to get into prestigious universities. A student who has ranked number one at an esteemed school dies in a remote mountain. Finding out why and the ultimate impact of his death make up the bulk of this thriller’s elaborate narrative, whose shocking conclusion could lead us to comment, “We’ve seen a devil.” Despite a structure that freely weaves together past and present, and a cast of appealing actors including Lee David, Gung Jun and Kim Kkot-bi, the most remarkable thing about the film is the theme itself. It touches on and raises the critical issue of the demands of Korea’s education system, which are becoming more extreme and competitive by the day.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 670
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: South Korea
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, twisted, bleak, non-linear
Similar in 82%
The Stratosphere Girl (2004)
Plot Summary:
In this imaginative independent drama, Angela (Chloé Winkel) is a French art student living in Germany who loves to draw comics and creates elaborate tales drawn in a soft and romantic style. One night, Angela meets Yamamoto (Jon Yang), a club DJ from Japan, who invites her to come to Tokyo with him. Infatuated with Yamamoto, Angela impulsively agrees, and is soon sharing an apartment with a handful of Western expatriates who work at a nightclub where Japanese businessmen drink, sing karaoke, and date the "hostesses" for a fee.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Germany, Switzerland, UK, Italy, Netherlands
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, atmospheric, mind bending, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Driver's Seat (1974)
Plot Summary:
A woman flies to Rome on a reckless quest, not for love but for death.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 934
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Italy, West Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: avant garde, psychological, tense, mind bending, offbeat, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surreal, cult film
Similar in 90%
The Future (2013)
Plot Summary:
When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr. Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Chile, Germany, Spain
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, touching, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 76%
Story of Jen (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man commits suicide leaving a disturbing note. His wife and his daughter try to cope with it when the step-brother of the deceased visits them.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 153
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, psychological, suspense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 86%
Cold Water (1994)
Plot Summary:
An outer suburb of Paris, 1972. Gilles and Christine, both sixteen, are classmates and lovers who have become frustrated with the aloofness of their families and the general monotony of their lives. When the pair are caught shoplifting, Christine's father ships her off to a home for emotionally disturbed children, temporarily putting space between her and Gilles. Luckily for them, though, she escapes and the couple contemplate running away together.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, serious, emotional, thought provoking, art house, independent film, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 78%
170 Hz (2011)
Plot Summary:
Nick and Evy are in love. Knowing that Nick is deaf, Evy’s parents do not consent to their relationship. They run away and move into an abandoned submarine, hidden from judgmental eyes. Their runaway love brings them new opportunities and new hardships.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 664
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, atmospheric, realistic, stylized
Similar in 79%
Ave (2011)
Plot Summary:
While hitchhiking from Sofia to Ruse, Kamen meets Avé, a 17-year-old runaway girl. With each ride they hitch, Avé invents new identities for them, and her compulsive lies get Kamen deeper and deeper into trouble. Reluctantly drawn into this adventure, Kamen begins to fall in love with the fleeting Avé.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Bulgaria
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: road movie, captivating, serious, realistic, psychological, independent film, sincere, touching, offbeat
Similar in 83%
Forbidden Fruit (2009)
Plot Summary:
Two 18-year old girls from a christian fundamentalist community flee to a city for a summer job.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland, Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, sincere, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Freaking Beautiful World (1997)
Plot Summary:
Ippe and Papu are two teenagers spending the summer, when they get into trouble with their drug-dealer. They are forced to act as drug-mules. Along the way they meet a new girl, Mia.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 855
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, slang
Similar in 88%
Mall Girls (2009)
Plot Summary:
Shopping malls - today's place of creating desires. Best jewelry, clothes, shoes. Unaffordable by young girls, but they "work" to get themselves sponsors for new items.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, tense, captivating, sexual, sexy
Similar in 77%
Falling Like This (2001)
Plot Summary:
Falling Like This showcases compelling performances by two young actors, Brian Vaughan and Megan Wilson. Writer/Director Dani Minnick has crafted a compassionate examination of the ragged edge of suburban life as characterized by Boyd, a charming, vulnerable and inveterate juvenile delinquent whose love nearly derails the life of a middle-class teenage girl. The understated themes of adolescent rebellion, adult responsibility and the redemptive power of love are woven elegantly into this dream-like film.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 451
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, sexual, sexy, cinema verite
Similar in 83%
The Bag of Flour (2012)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, this beautifully-shot epic traces the life of Sarah, from her early years in a Catholic orphanage in 1970s Belgium, through her rebellious, poverty-stricken teens in a village in the Atlas mountains of Morocco.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 191
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, Morocco
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 78%
Breathing (2011)
Plot Summary:
A 19-year-old is coming out of prison and trying to build a new life but he can't deal with his guilt.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Boot Camp (2008)
Plot Summary:
A group of troubled teens are sent to a rehabilitation program housed in a remote camp on the island of Fiji. What their parents believe is a state-of-the-art deluxe institution in a beautiful natural environment turns out to be a prison-like boot camp where they are abused and brainwashed.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, tense, realistic, independent film, erotic, psychological, psychological thriller, romantic, psychotronic
Similar in 80%
Skin of Man, Heart of Beast (1999)
Plot Summary:
After fifteen years of absence, a man returns to his family. Five-year-old Aurelie watches the stranger arrive and develops an immediate affinity with him. Her older sister, however, is very suspicious of the intruder and certain that misfortune will follow. The adults see nothing, but struggle with all their might when tragedy strikes. Naturally, the two girls bear the brunt of the impact. The film is an homage to the distant and primitive world of childhood, which shapes each of us.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, fairy tale
Similar in 83%
Class Trip (1998)
Plot Summary:
A schoolboy Nicholas always worries about something. When he goes on a school skiing trip, all his visions and nightmares take him over.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: controversial, psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy, fairy tale, crying, hood
Similar in 90%
Afterschool (2008)
Plot Summary:
A prep-school student (Ezra Miller) accidentally films the drug-related deaths of two classmates, then is asked to put together a memorial video.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: disturbing, serious, bleak, independent film, suspense, cerebral, philosophical, mumblecore, controversial, teen
Similar in 78%
The Visitor (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young boy lives with his mother on a farm surrounded by deep forest in the remote wilds of the Finnish countryside. From time to time, the boy visits his father - a man of great violence - in prison. Locked in the stable is an unruly horse, the boy´s only other companion. Their simple life is disrupted when a stranger appears, with a note from the father and a bullet in his side. Reluctantly, mother and son offer the stranger refuge.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 618
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland, Estonia, Germany, UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspense, tense, realistic, gloomy, ambiguous ending, independent film, silent, student film
Similar in 85%
The Devil in the Skin (2011)
Plot Summary:
Coming-of-Age drama telling the story of the strong bond between Xavier and his little brother Jacques and their struggle to remain together despite all odds.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
My Brother Tom (2001)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl, Jessica, befriends a teenage boy called Tom, who is bullied by a local gang. She is abused by Jack, who is both her neighbour and school teacher, and Tom is sexually abused by his father. Together they bond in the woods, creating a private reality that no-one else can enter.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 983
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, rough, emotional, captivating, disturbing, tense, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Lena (2011)
Plot Summary:
Lena is a lonely, plump adolescent girl. Much to her surprise she gets a relationship with the popular but unreliable Daan. Lena moves in with Daan and his strange father Tom and is willing to do a lot for his love. More than a lot.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 584
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, ambiguous ending
Similar in 76%
Buddha Mountain (2010)
Plot Summary:
Ding Bo (Chen Po Lin) and his friends Nan Feng (Fan Bingbing) and Fei Zao aka Fatso (Fei Long) are a trio of 20-something outsiders who have no intention of sitting exams and getting into universities. When they need a new home, they answer an ad placed by lonely, retired Chinese opera singer Chang Yue Qin (Sylvia Chang), who is mourning the death of her son, and move into her sprawling Chengdu apartment. Right off the bat, the four clash over lifestyle and values, with the bratty trio seeing fit to steal from her and invade her privacy. However, slowly but surely a bond among them develops and everyone eventually learns something from the next.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 921
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sexy, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Run Sister Run! (2010)
Plot Summary:
Emilia is a teenager and a good girl, who never forgets her homework or her little sister, Elsa. Siiri is just one year older than Emilia but not at all like her. When Emilia and Siiri become friends, Emilia's life changes. Siiri encourages her to take a leap, shake the rules and leave princess dreams behind. These two will have fun together, but not only good times.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, semi serious, captivating, sincere, touching, humorous, entertaining
Similar in 87%
Big Girls Don't Cry (2002)
Plot Summary:
Kati and Steffi have been best friends since they were six. Now they're both 17 and enjoying the ups and downs of becoming adults together. While Kati's parents are religious and conservative, but argue constantly, Steffi comes from what appears to be a harmonious and liberal family. But the girls discover how quickly their attractive world can fall apart when, at a hip nightclub, they happen to see Steffi's father in the arms of another woman. Steffi is shocked, her trust in her small perfect world shaken to the core. She can only think of one thing: revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: disturbing, touching, serious, realistic, sad, bleak
Similar in 89%
I'm Gonna Explode (2008)
Plot Summary:
Tale of a young couple who throw caution to the wind and set out in search of their true fate. Román is the son of a contemptible, right-leaning congressman. Recently enrolled in a new high school, the rebellious teen clumsily attempts to hang himself on-stage at the big talent show. Maru is the sole member of the audience to applaud, earning both students a day of detention. After bonding during the course of their punishment, Román and Maru grab daddy's gun, steal a Volkswagen, and hit the road bound for nowhere.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 808
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, road movie
Similar in 75%
Valley (2014)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of three sensitive teens who are forced to deal with violence at home, violence at school. It is a story of friendship, of love and hate, where the adolescents world is revealed as cruel and beautiful, a world where the desire to die or kill and the will to live are very confused but finally define the fate of the three heroes.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 64
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 81%
The Shanghai Spell (2002)
Plot Summary:
A fourteen year old lad discovers his first love at the point of his pencil whilst drawing the portrait of a sickly but coquettish fifteen year old girl. In the neighbourhood an old freedom-fighter pits himself against bad types, a pretty cinema-ticket girl takes to the streets at night and a young anarchist dedicates himself to telling tall stories. Far away, in Shanghai, a hero of the Republic meets a beautiful femme fatal with oriental eyes. Reality and fiction become fused in an embrace.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 549
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Spain, France, UK
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, captivating, neo noir, realistic, fairy tale, period drama
Similar in 79%
Winter's Bone (2010)
Plot Summary:
17 year-old Ree Dolly sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin's code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 148000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: depressing, atmospheric, harsh, bleak, disturbing, tense, gloomy, serious, neo noir, independent film
Similar in 90%
White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)
Plot Summary:
Kat Connors is 17 years old when her perfect homemaker mother, Eve, disappears. Having lived for so long in an emotionally repressed household, she barely registers her mother's absence and certainly doesn't blame her doormat of a father, Brock, for the loss. But as time passes, Kat begins to come to grips with how deeply Eve's disappearance has affected her. Returning home on a break from college, she finds herself confronted with the truth about her mother's departure, and her own denial about the events surrounding it.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sexy, suspenseful, surreal, stylized, independent film, cynical, humorous, semi serious, grindhouse, teen